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Is time spent playing video games associated with mental health, cognitive and social skills in young children?
Open accessAbstract
Background Video games are one of the favourite leisure activities of children; the influence on child health is usually perceived to be negative. The present study assessed the association between the amount of time spent playing video games and children mental health as well as cognitive and social skills. Methods Data were drawn from the School Children Mental Health Europe project conducted in six European Union countries (youth ages 6-11, n = 3195). Child mental health was assessed by parents and teachers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and by children themselves with the Dominic Interactive. Child video game usage was reported by the parents. Teachers evaluated academic functioning. Multivariable logistic regressions were used. Results 20 % of the children played video games more than 5 h per week. Factors associated with time spent playing video games included being a boy, being older, and belonging to a medium size family. Having a less educated, single, inactive, or psychologically distressed mother decreased time spent playing video games. Children living in Western European countries were significantly less likely to have high video game usage (9.66 vs 20.49 %) though this was not homogenous. Once adjusted for child age and gender, number of children, mothers age, marital status, education, employment status, psychological distress, and region, high usage was associated with 1.75 times the odds of high intellectual functioning (95 % CI 1.31-2.33), and 1.88 times the odds of high overall school competence (95 % CI 1.44-2.47). Once controlled for high usage predictors, there were no significant associations with any child self-reported or mother- or teacher-reported mental health problems. High usage was associated with decreases in peer relationship problems [OR 0.41 (0.2-0.86) and in prosocial deficits (0.23 (0.07, 0.81)]. Conclusions Playing video games may have positive effects on young children. Understanding the mechanisms through which video game use may stimulate children should be further investigated.
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“Jar uratanasirikul et al 4 1 and Muñoz-Miralles et al 53 reported an inverse association, whereas Kovess-Masfety et al 47 found that high use was associated with 1.88 times the odds of high overall school competence.”
From Association Between Screen Media Use and Academic Performance Among Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (2019) · cites this paper as [47]
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“A similar classi fi cation method has been used in previous studies (Przybylski, 2014; Kovess-Masfety et al., 2016).”
Rihtarić, M. L., Vrselja, I., & Löw, A. (2022) · Cyberpsychology Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace · doi:10.5817/cp2022-3-7 · Cited by 5
“Although some studies show that playing video games can be beneficial for children (e.g., Kovess-Masfety et al., 2016), the research literature attests to growing concern that video game playing exerts negative effects on different aspects of children’s psychological states and on their behavior.”
BackgroundClouet, R., Gaudin, A., Tourtelier, J., Gogendeau, C., Serisier, S., & Prud’homme, T. (2024) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/55738 · Cited by 4
“These values were used in a 2016 study to link the time spent playing video games to children’s mental health and cognitive and social skills [22].”
Digital game addiction, anger and aggression among university students
Altın, M. (2025) · Physical Education of Students · doi:10.15561/20755279.2025.0104 · Cited by 4
“The literature includes numerous studies indicating that digital game addiction contributes to negative emotions and behaviors [59, 60, 61, 62, 63].”
Gaming habits and symptoms of video game addiction in Spanish adolescents
Mora-Salgueiro, J., Feijóo, S., Tobío, T. B., Varela, J., & Boubeta, A. R. (2022) · Behavioral Psychology/Psicología Conductual · doi:10.51668/bp.8322302n · Cited by 4
Blasco-Fontecilla, H., Menéndez-García, Á., Sánchez‐Sánchez, F., & Bella-Fernández, M. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1136671 · Cited by 8
“75 times the odds of high intellectual functioning, and a decreased risk of peer relationship problems (48).”
BackgroundUnderstanding Positive Impact of Game Interactivity in Education
Watson, Z., & Zaidi, S. F. M. (2019) · International Conference on Video, Signal and Image Processing (VSIP) · doi:10.1145/3369318.3369338 · Cited by 4
“It has also been directly proven that younger children who play video games regularly receive increased benefits from this activity[6] something that ties into this concept of ’Actional Immersion’ Further.”
BackgroundLu, W., & Li, X. (2025) · Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101861 · Cited by 3
The Impact of Video Games on the Emotional State of Gamers: Review of Modern Research
Михайловна, Л. Н. (2025) · Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology · doi:10.17759/jmfp.2024130411 · Cited by 3
A Comparative Study: The Demographic Differences of Game Literacy
Wahyuni, L. D., Ariyani, M., & Hutomo, B. A. (2021) · Research and Development Journal of Education · doi:10.30998/rdje.v7i2.9267 · Cited by 3
“From the results of research conducted by Masfety et al, it can be seen that children with a high duration of playing the game will experience a decrease related to problems in relationships with peers and deficits in prosocial (Kovess-Masfety et al., 2016).”
ResultRebecchi, K., Lubart, T., Shankland, R., & Hagège, H. (2024) · British Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjep.12694 · Cited by 8
Learning through video games: A case study of private schools of Pakistan
Khalid, T., & Batool, S. H. (2018) · International Conference on Information Management and Processing (ICIMP) · doi:10.1109/icimp1.2018.8325855 · Cited by 3
“Today, educators are using a vast variety of innovative and creative academic approaches (game based activities) for making the learning process of children more effective, interesting, meaningful and engaging [14].”
BackgroundOnline Social Games in the Eyes of Children and Teens: A Systematic Review
Li, S., Li, E., & Yuan, X. (2022) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-05637-6_15 · Cited by 3
Video Games and Tourism – Tourism Motivations of Chinese Video Game Players
Xu, Y. (2021) · doi:10.26686/wgtn.16571606.v1 · Cited by 3
A Game to Promote Literacy and Psychosocial Well-being among Syrian Refugee ChildrenPreprint
Iakimova, G., Koval-Saifi, N., Wittmann, M., & Guardiola, E. (2022) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/7u946 · Cited by 3
Murray, A., Scott, D. M. S., Nikolajeva, M., Porricelli, D., van Loggerenberg, F., Ougrin, D., & Lau, J. Y. F. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1408771 · Cited by 2
Zhao, Z., Liu, H., Feng, Y., Chang, F., & Tang, B. (2025) · Computers in Human Behavior Reports · doi:10.1016/j.chbr.2025.100755 · Cited by 4
Consumo habitual de videojuegos y nivel de atención en escolares de primaria
López, P. J. C., & Perujo, M. G. (2022) · EDMETIC · doi:10.21071/edmetic.v11i2.13693 · Cited by 2
“…los jugadores problemas a nivel de funcionamiento cognitivo, en la atención y la concentración y, por consiguiente (RestrepoEscobar et al., 2019), pueden comenzar a manifestar dificultades académicas que perjudican a los resultados académicos (Kovess et al., 2016; Jiménez-Rodríguez et al., 2022).”
BackgroundRelationship Between Computer Gambling and Academic Performance of High School Students
Javorčík, T., & Durian, C. (2022) · European Conference on e-Learning · doi:10.34190/ecel.21.1.711 · Cited by 2
López, P. J. C., & Perujo, M. G. (2022) · Innoeduca International Journal of Technology and Educational Innovation · doi:10.24310/innoeduca.2022.v8i2.13758 · Cited by 2
Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Dijital Oyun Bağımlılığı Düzeylerinin İncelenmesi
Kızılkaya, M. F., & Fatma Zuhal, E. R. O. L. (2024) · Batı anadolu eğitim bilimleri dergisi · doi:10.51460/baebd.1454087 · Cited by 2
Aydın, S., Sak, R., & Şahin-Sak, İ. T. (2025) · Children · doi:10.3390/children12070932 · Cited by 5
“Video games’ reported adverse effects include heightened aggression, among other psychological, social, and physical difficulties, but they have also been hailed as enhancing attention [32], hand–eye coordination, self-esteem, intellectual functioning, and academic achievement [33–35].”
The Older Gamer in Games Studies: Marginalised or Idealised?
Wu, H., & Guo, C. (2020) · Cultural Science Journal · doi:10.5334/csci.141 · Cited by 6
Stampfer, B., Weiss, E. M., & Canazei, M. (2023) · Lernen und Lernstörungen · doi:10.1024/2235-0977/a000403 · Cited by 2
A New Approach to Predict Game Addiction : Focusing on the in-game behavior
Lee, S., & Kim, E. (2019) · Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies · doi:10.20879/kjjcs.2019.63.1.005 · Cited by 2
Elucidating the Role of Behavior in Social Media Use and Depression
Shidid, S., & Viswanathan, R. (2020) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.09.017 · Cited by 2
Kuo, H. J., Yeomans, M., Ruiz, D., & Lin, C.-C. (2024) · Entertainment Computing · doi:10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100780 · Cited by 1
Digital play addiction and interactive peer play behaviors in preschool children
Kara, D., & Derman, M. T. (2025) · Education and Information Technologies · doi:10.1007/s10639-025-13518-4 · Cited by 1
Lukka, L., Karhulahti, V., & Palva, J. M. (2026) · JMIR Serious Games · doi:10.2196/69236 · Cited by 1
“…mirror lay perspectives regarding video games [33,35] that they are associated with aggressive [36,37] and addictive behavior [38,39], while also being popular entertainment [40,41] and linked to positive effects on affective well-being [42], cognitive skills [43,44], and even intelligence [45,46].”
de la Rosa, P. A., Wilkinson, R., Cowden, R. G., Chen, Y., Case, B. W., Suzuki, E., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2026) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-026-09093-7 · Cited by 1
Al‐Shammary, A. A., Aldawsari, N. F., Alharfi, R. A., Almujil, A. A. I., Alanazi, Y. A., Ahmad, M. S., & Orfali, H. A. (2026) · Public Health Challenges · doi:10.1002/puh2.70300 · Cited by 1
“Other studies suggest that short-term interactive video games combined with traditional rehabilitation can improve physical health in children with developmental delays [ 23 ], and high video game use is linked to fewer peer relationship problems and prosocial deficits [ 24 ].”
DEHB OLAN ÇOCUKLARIN PLANLAMA BECERİSİ VE AHLAKİ OLGUNLUKLARINA POPÜLER OYUNLARIN ETKİSİ
ÇAKICI, A. (2021) · Cumhuriyet International Journal of Education · doi:10.30703/cije.766834 · Cited by 1
Does Playing Video Games Give a Child an Advantage in Digital Game-Based Learning?
Dondio, P. (2023) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-49065-1_22 · Cited by 1
Ren, Y., Liu, Y., & Chen, G. (2024) · Children and Youth Services Review · doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107488 · Cited by 1
Gupta, A., Trivedi, S., Singh, K., Bagwe, S., & Maini, L. (2022) · MAMC Journal of Medical Sciences · doi:10.4103/mamcjms.mamcjms_128_21 · Cited by 1
A TEORIA DA MENTE NA ERA DAS MÍDIAS DIGITAIS E O QUE MUDOU COM A PANDEMIA DA COVID-19
Knochenhauer, A. E., Watanabe, R. G. S., & Lin, K. (2022) · Arquivos Catarinenses de Medicina · doi:10.63845/xezdsa68 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Kovess-Masfety, V., Keyes, K., Hamilton, A., Hanson, G., Bitfoi, A., Golitz, D., Koç, C., Kuijpers, R., Lesinskiene, S., Mihova, Z., Otten, R., Fermanian, C., & Pez, O.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- New Bulgarian University (BG)
- Université Paris Descartes (FR)
- Venue
- Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
- Published
- 2016-02-05
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 349-357
- ISSN
- 0933-7954 (ISSN-L)
- 1433-9285
- PMC
- PMC4814321
- OpenAlex
- W2271123592
- Cited by
- 140
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 42.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- DG SANCO EU (2006336)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- video game use, children, child mental health, cognitive skills, academic performance, social skills, peer relationship problems, prosocial behavior, maternal distress, family size, parental education
- MeSH terms
- Child, Cognition, Europe, Female, Humans, Leisure Activities, Male, Mental Health, Surveys and Questionnaires, Time Factors, Video Games, Social Skills
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