Abstract
Young boys who did not own video games were promised a video-game system and child-appropriate games in exchange for participating in an “ongoing study of child development.” After baseline assessment of boys’ academic achievement and parent- and teacher-reported behavior, boys were randomly assigned to receive the video-game system immediately or to receive the video-game system after follow-up assessment, 4 months later. Boys who received the system immediately spent more time playing video games and less time engaged in after-school academic activities than comparison children. Boys who received the system immediately also had lower reading and writing scores and greater teacher-reported academic problems at follow-up than comparison children. Amount of video-game play mediated the relationship between video-game ownership and academic outcomes. Results provide experimental evidence that video games may displace after-school activities that have educational value and may interfere with the development of reading and writing skills in some children.
References
Section:
| Anderson C.A., Bushman B.J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353–359. Google Scholar Link | |
| Anderson C.A., Dill K.E. (2000). Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 772–790. Google Scholar CrossRef, Medline | |
| Anderson C.A., Gentile D.A., Buckley K.E. (2007). Violent video game effects on children and adolescents: Theory, research, and public policy. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar CrossRef | |
| Anderson C.A., Sakamoto A., Gentile D.A., Ihori N., Shibuya A., Yukawa S., . (2008). Longitudinal effects of violent video games on aggression in Japan and the United States. Pediatrics, 122, e1067–e1072. Google Scholar CrossRef, Medline | |
| Bailey K., West R., Anderson C.A. (2009). A negative association between video game experience and proactive cognitive control. Psychophysiology, 47, 34–42. Google Scholar Medline | |
| Baron R.M., Kenny D.A. (1986). The moderator-mediator distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. Google Scholar CrossRef, Medline | |
| Carnagey N.L., Anderson C.A. (2005). The effects of reward and punishment in violent video games on aggressive affect, cognition, and behavior. Psychological Science, 16, 882–889. Google Scholar Abstract | |
| Carnagey N.L., Anderson C.A., Bushman B.J. (2007). The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 489–496. Google Scholar CrossRef | |
| Cohen J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Google Scholar | |
| Cummings H.M., Vandewater E.A. (2007). Relation of adolescent video game play to time spent in other activities. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 161, 684–689. Google Scholar Medline | |
| Ennemoser M., Schneider W. (2007). Relations of television viewing and reading: Findings from a 4-year longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 349–368. Google Scholar | |
| Gentile D.A. (2009). Pathological video-game use among youths ages 8 to 18: A national study. Psychological Science, 20, 594–602. Google Scholar Abstract | |
| Gentile D.A., Lynch P.J., Linder J.R., Walsh D.A. (2004). The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 5–22. Google Scholar CrossRef, Medline | |
| Gentile D.A., Saleem M., Anderson C.A. (2007). Public policy and the effects of media violence on children. Social Issues and Policy Review, 1, 15–61. Google Scholar CrossRef | |
| Hofferth S., Davis-Kean P.E., Davis J., Finkelstein J. (1997). The Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research. Google Scholar | |
| Hofferth S.L., Sandberg J.F. (2001). How American children spend their time. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 295–308. Google Scholar | |
| Kaufman A., Kaufman N. (2004). Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, Second Edition manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Google Scholar | |
| Kutner L.A., Olson C.K., Warner D.E., Hertzog S.M. (2008). Parents’ and sons’ perspectives on video game play. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23, 76–96. Google Scholar Abstract | |
| MacKinnon D.P., Fairchild A.J. (2009). Current directions in mediation analysis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 16–20. Google Scholar Link | |
| McGrew K.S., Woodcock R.W. (2001). Woodcock-Johnson III technical manual. Itasca, IL: Riverside. Google Scholar | |
| Ostrov J.M., Gentile D.A., Crick N.R. (2006). Media exposure, aggression and prosocial behavior during early childhood: A longitudinal study. Social Development, 15, 612–627. Google Scholar CrossRef | |
| Rayner K., Foorman B.R., Perfetti C.A., Pesetsky D., Seidenberg M.S. (2001). How psychological science informs the teaching of reading. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2, 31–74. Google Scholar Link | |
| Reynolds C.R., Kamphaus R.W. (2004). Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Google Scholar | |
| Roberts D.F., Foehr U.G., Rideout V. (2005). Generation M: Media in the lives of 8–18 year-olds. Washington, DC: Kaiser Family Foundation. Google Scholar | |
| Schmidt M.E., Vandewater E.A. (2008). Media and attention, cognition, and school achievement. The Future of Children, 18, 63–85. Google Scholar Medline | |
| Sharif I., Sargent J.D. (2006). Association between television, movie, and video game exposure and school performance. Pediatrics, 118, 1061–1070. Google Scholar | |
| Valentine G., Marsh J., Pattie C. (2005). Children and young people’s home use of ICT for educational purposes. London: Department for Education and Skills. Google Scholar | |
| Vandewater E.A., Bickham D.S., Lee J.H. (2006). Time well spent? Relating television use to children’s free-time activities. Pediatrics, 117, 181–191. Google Scholar | |
| Walsh D.A., Gentile D.A. (2001). A validity test of movie, television, and video-game ratings. Pediatrics, 107, 1302–1308. Google Scholar CrossRef, Medline | |
| Willoughby T. (2008). A short-term longitudinal study of Internet and computer game use by adolescent boys and girls: Prevalence, frequency of use, and psychosocial predictors. Developmental Psychology, 44, 195–204. Google Scholar CrossRef, Medline |
