TMCnet
04-02-07
Video Game Addiction Serious Among Youth, Suggests Harris Poll
By Spencer D. Chin
TMCnet Web Editor
All the concerns sounded by parents and educators sound about kids glued in
front of PC and TV screens playing video games appear justified, according to
the results of an online poll conducted byHarris Interactive
The poll, surveying 1,178 U.S. children and teenagers ages 8 to 18, found that
8.5 percent can be classified as pathological or clinically addicted to playing
video games. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of youth say that they have felt addicted
to video games, with about one-third of males (31%) and a little more than one in
ten females (13%) feeling addicted.
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Forty-four percent of youth also report that their friends are addicted to games.
With nearly 8 in 10 American youth (81%) playing video games at least one time
per month, including 94 percent of all boys playing, video game addiction is a
real concern, the poll concluded.
Video game playing time differs by age as well as gender. According to the poll,
the average 8- to 12 year-old now plays 13 hours of video games per week, while
the average 13- to 18 year old plays 14 hours of video games weekly. There are
large differences between boys and girls. Eight to 12 year-old and teen boys
average 16 hours and 18 hours per week, respectively. Eight to 12 year-old girls
average 10 hours per week and teen girls average 8 hours per week.
The study concluded the 8- to 18-year-olds who spend more time playing video
games are more likely to perform more poorly in school, get into physical fights
and/or be physically heavier.
Dr. Douglas Gentile, Director of the Media Research Lab at Iowa State
University and the director of research for the National Institute on Media
and the Family, said in a statement, "It is important that people realize that
playing a lot is not the same thing as pathological play. For something to be an
addiction, it has to mean more than you do it a lot. It has to mean that you do it in
such a way that it damages your life. This is why we based our definition on how
pathological gambling is diagnosed in the DSM-IV. Almost one out of every ten
youth gamers show enough symptoms of damage to their school, family, and
psychological functioning to merit serious concern."
According to Dr. Suzanne Martin, Youth and Education Researcher at Harris
Interactive, "The prevalence of video gaming in youth culture in combination with
this level of pathological video gaming is great cause for concern and highlights
the need for further research in this arena."
Gamers who were surveyed and classified as pathological were receiving lower
grades in schools than their peers, were more likely to have video game systems
in their bedrooms (65%), were spending much more time playing games each
week (averaging 24.5 hours per week), and were also more likely to have been
diagnosed with an attention deficit problem.