The Association between Video Game Time and Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from Rural China
Open accessAbstract
As digital devices like computers become more widely available in developing countries, there is a growing need to understand how the time that adolescents spend using these devices for recreational purposes such as playing video games is linked with their mental health outcomes. We measured the amount of time that adolescents in rural China spent playing video games and the association of video game time with their mental health. We collected data from primary and junior high schools in a poor, rural province in northwest China (n = 1603 students) and used the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21) to measure mental health symptoms. The results indicated that the average video game time was about 0.69 h per week. There was a significant association between adolescent video game time and poorer mental health. Each additional hour of playing video games also increased the chance of having moderate or above symptoms. Moreover, boys and non-left-behind children had worse mental health if they played more video games. Our study contributes to literature on the links between recreational screen time and mental health, and it sheds light on an issue addressed by recent government legislation to limit the video game time of minors in China.
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Traditional sedentary games have been associated with negative health outcomes due to prolonged inactivity.
“Unlike traditional sedentary games, which have been associated with negative health outcomes due to prolonged inactivity [64–67], AVGs incorporate bodily movement as a core component of gameplay [68]; exergaming is a specific type of AVG designed primarily for exercise rather than entertainment [68].”
From Health Benefits of Video Games in Adolescents and Young Adults (2026) · cites this paper as [66]
The Conclusions (page not specified) report an association between video game time and worse mental health among rural adolescents in China. The paper does not establish that the games were sedentary or that prolonged inactivity caused the outcomes; the Introduction also describes prior findings as mixed. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Li, L., Abbey, C., Wang, H., Zhu, A., Shao, T., Dai, D., Jin, S., & Rozelle, S.
- Affiliations
- Hangzhou Dianzi University (CN)
- Stanford University (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Lili
- Abbey, Cody
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-11-10
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 14815
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9691221
- OpenAlex
- W4308866995
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4
- FWCI
- 8.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Enlight Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- adolescent mental health, screen time, depression, anxiety, stress, rural adolescents, left-behind children, gender differences, China
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent Health, Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Child, China, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Video Games
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