The gaming craze – kids everywhere with a hand-held gaming device or in their own family room playing Xbox 360 for hours on end – needs a bit of tampering, suggests a study conducted on 3,000 elementary and middle school children in Japan.
Researchers assessed pathological gaming, weekly amount of game play, impulsiveness, social competence, depression, social phobia, anxiety and depression.
Children and teens who played more video games showed lower social competence and greater impulsivity – they also were at risk for becoming pathological gamers which increases the chance of mental health problems.
Clearly, parents need to enforce limits on the amount of gaming they allow their children to do. How about once a week on Saturday?