Relationships between video-gaming habits, parental monitoring and school performance

Abstract

Children spend an average of 1.3 hours per day on video game and problematic video gaming prevalence is set between 2% and 8%. High levels of intensity and frequency of video gaming are associated with lower school achievement. Home is the most preferred place to play. Therefore parental monitoring is crucial. Objective: To analyse gaming patterns and to identify significant relationships between parental monitoring and academic performance. Method: Participants: 610 students of Secondary Education mean age 13.84 years (SD=1.27; range 12-16). Ad hoc scales were developed to analyse gaming frequency and intensity, school performance and parental monitoring. Results: Children, whose parents control gaming time and show interest in the contents continuously, play significantly fewer days, fewer hours and with adjusted contents to their age. Those with discontinuous parental control ("sometimes"), show a higher gaming frequency and intensity, and the proportion of unadjusted content, and do not differ from those without parental control. In addition, a greater number of hours of play are related to lower academic achievement. Discussion/ conclusions: This work helps in defining gambling problem behaviour. Results indicate that parental control is effective, on condition that it must be continuous and consistent.

Online risks at adolescence. Design and validation of a Parental Mediation Scale for Information and Communication Technologies (Riesgos en línea para los adolescentes. Diseño y validación de una escala de mediación parental para las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación — TIC)

“…Parental mediation is more used in early ages (López de Ayala y Ponte, 2016), and greater monitoring is related to a better school setting (Lloret-Irles et al, 2013;Martínez et al, 2014). However, our country shows the lowest levels of parental monitoring in Europe (Garmendia et al, 2013;Livingstone & Ólafsson, 2011). To our knowledge, despite some attempts (Garmendia et al, 2013), there are no validated instruments that evaluate this construct in Spain and that could contribute to conceptualizing and measuring the construct of parental mediation, thus serving for a homogenization and comparison of results.…”

“…La mediación parental se aplica más a edades más tempranas (López de Ayala y Ponte, 2016), mientras que niveles más altos de monitorización se relacionan con un mejor entorno escolar (Lloret-Irles et al, 2013;Martínez et al, 2014). Sin embargo, España tiene los niveles más bajos de monitorización en Europa (Garmendia et al, 2013;Livingstone & Ólafsson, 2011). Por lo que sabemos, salvo ciertos esfuerzos en este sentido (Garmendia et al, 2013), no existen instrumentos validados para evaluar este constructo en España, pese a que estos contribuirían a conceptualizar y medir el constructo de la mediación parental y, por tanto, facilitarían la homogeneización y comparación de los resultados.…”

“…Parental mediation is more used in early ages (López de Ayala y Ponte, 2016), and greater monitoring is related to a better school setting (Lloret-Irles et al, 2013; Martínez et al, 2014). However, our country shows the lowest levels of parental monitoring in Europe (Garmendia et al, 2013; Livingstone & Ólafsson, 2011).…”

“…La mediación parental se aplica más a edades más tempranas (López de Ayala y Ponte, 2016), mientras que niveles más altos de monitorización se relacionan con un mejor entorno escolar (Lloret-Irles et al, 2013; Martínez et al, 2014). Sin embargo, España tiene los niveles más bajos de monitorización en Europa (Garmendia et al, 2013; Livingstone & Ólafsson, 2011).…”

Keep Playing or Restart? Questions about the Evaluation of Video Game Addiction from a Systematic Review in the Context of COVID-19

“…Despite this, the term video game addiction is widely used in the scientific literature due to increased use of video games and concern about problematic use and its consequences. Studies examining video games as a medium capable in itself of causing behavioral changes (active medium) [3] have documented various negative effects such as poorer academic performance [4,5], hyperactivity [6,7], deterioration of social behavior [8], and increased aggression [9]. The COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020 changed how we live and relate to each other during and after lockdown/confinement.…”