The DOI matches its Crossref record; 30 of the 30 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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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Citations
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“There were no significant associations with any SDQ dimension: emotional, ADHD, conduct, peer relationship, Table 1 continued Demographic characteristic Subcategory Less than 1 h or 1 h/week Greater than 1–5 h/week Greater than 5 h/week p value Total sample size (n = 1205) (n = 1270) (n = 620) Mother’s marital status…”
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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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