
Last week we described how playing video games improves kids performance in school, but now according to a new study of nearly 1,200 children aged eight to 18 in the U.S says that playing video games can damage a kids social abilities.
Kids can become addicted to video games as adults are to gambling
The study by ISU Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile found nearly one in 10 of the gamers (8.5 percent) to be pathological players according to standards established for pathological gambling.
“What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing — in this case, playing video games — is damaging to their functioning,” Gentile said. “It’s not simply doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in multiple ways.”
The gamers (who said they played video games at least 24 hours per week) were classified as “pathological” if they exhibited at least six of 11 symptoms: salience (the activity dominates the person’s life), euphoria or relief (the activity provides a “high” or the relief of unpleasant feelings), tolerance (over time, a greater amount of activity is needed to achieve the same “high”), withdrawal symptoms (the person experiences unpleasant physical effects or negative emotions when unable to engage in the activity), conflict (the activity leads to clashes with other people, work, obligations, or oneself), and relapse and reinstatement (the person continues the activity despite attempts to abstain from it).
Now this is not yet a call to all action for parents as some experts don’t agree that ‘video game addiction’ exists, but let’s keep our fingers crossed. More to come…

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