How the quantity and quality of electronic gaming relates to adolescents’ academic engagement and psychosocial adjustment.

Abstract

Electronic gaming contexts are now a dominant entertainment medium for young people in the developed and developing world (Lenhart et al., 2008), yet little is known about how distinct doses of gaming exposure may influence adolescents. This research focused on the effects of quantity of play, the amount of time devoted to gaming on a typical day, and quality of play, the kinds of games regularly played, as predictors on teachers’ evaluations of young peoples’ academic engagement and psychosocial functioning. Results derived from a school-based sample of 217 young people indicated that, compared with those who did not play, adolescents who engaged in low levels of gaming, <1 hr a day, evidenced lower levels of hyperactivity and conduct issues whereas the opposite was found for those who gamed for >3 hr a day. Further, the teachers of young people who tended toward playing mainly single-player games reported that these students showed lower levels of hyperactivity and conduct problems, fewer peer and emotional difficulties, as well as higher levels of active academic engagement. Teachers of young people who played cooperative and competitive online games rated these students as more emotionally stable and had better relationships with classmates, a pattern of results that remained in evidence controlling for variance linked to participant sex. Results are discussed in light of a developing and increasingly nuanced literature focused on determining the ways and the extent to which electronic gaming may influence young people.

Learning to blast a way into crime, or just good clean fun? Examining aggressive play with toy weapons and its relation with crime

“…We also suggest that policymakers, scholars and child advocates exert great caution in asserting conclusive links between war theme toys and behavioural problems, as evidence does not support such contentions. The apparent absence of association between playing with war toys and later real aggression is in line with recent data questioning the long‐term harmfulness of similarly themed television (Schwartz & Beaver, ), movies (Markey et al, ) or video games (Przybylski & Mishkin, ). Attraction to some aggressive themes in play and media may be developmentally normal (Olson, ), and restricting such play may have more detrimental impact than positive.…”

Doprinosi li dnevno vrijeme korištenja medija predviđanju obrazovnih aspiracija učenika na završetku osnovne škole

“…Uz vrstu igara, žanr, samostalno igranje ili igranje s drugima, dnevno vrijeme provedeno u igranju pokazalo se značajnim moderatorom učinka igranja videoigara, s kratkim dnevnim igranjem vezanim uz pozitivne, a dugim uz negativne učinke po psihološku prilagodbu mladih (vidjeti Przybylski, 2014). Utvrđena je i povezanost predugog dnevnog igranja sa slabijom akademskom uključenošću (Przybylski i Mishkin, 2016). Pozitivni učinci igranja videoigara na kognitivne sposobnosti utvr-đeni su u područjima prostorne orijentacije, pamćenja, ali i motoričke koordinacije (Bilić, Gjurkić i Kirinić, 2010;Rebetez i Betrancourt, 2007).…”

Lifestyle Habits Predict Academic Performance in High School Students: The Adolescent Student Academic Performance Longitudinal Study (ASAP)

“…However, results of recent studies suggest that the influence of screen time on academic performance and on cognitive control vary depending on the type of screen used [6]. For example, video games could lead to the improvement of academic engagement [21] and of certain cognitive functions such as visual processing skills [22], while television viewing seems to be associated with a decrease in cognitive control, more specifically in attentional capacities [20]. Moreover, the time of the week during which screen activities are performed seems to affect the relationship between screen time and academic performance differently [18,23,24].…”