According to the new study, young boys who receive their first video game system don't progress as quickly in school as boys who don't have such gaming devices. That means, parents who worry about their kids addicted to video games might be right.
The study was published last week in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
The average reading and writing scores of the young gamers don't go down, but they don't improve either as study found.
The study found that the young gamers averaged about 40 minutes per day on the PlayStation II system, likely cutting into study time and social activities. Children without the system in their homes still averaged only 9 minutes per day of video gaming, at the homes of friends usually.
As Robert Weis of Denison University in Ohio, co-author of the study considers, while the conclusion that owning a video game increases the time kids spend on such game might seem obvious, it was important to scientifically prove that conventional wisdom was correct.
Families with boys between the ages of 6 and 9 were attracted to the survey via newspaper ads in central Ohio. The families did not own video-game systems, and the parents were told their sons were participating in an “ongoing study of boys' academic and behavioral development”.
Parents of the 64 selected boys were promised a PlayStation II gaming system in exchange for their participation, plus three E rated games. But half the families were given the video gaming system immediately and half were promised it after four months.
Thus, the study found that the boys who obtained the video-game system immediately spent more time playing video games (39.3 minutes versus 9.3 minutes) and less time (18.2 minutes versus 31.6 minutes) in after-school academic activities.
Besides, the new gamers had lower reading and writing scores after four months, and their teachers reported more learning problems. The biggest gap was seen in writing.
Weis has a firm belief the study concludes parents should limit the amount of time their children play video games.