Term Paper on "Effects of Video Games on Children"

Term Paper 3 pages (1283 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Video Game Addiction

With each advance of technology as the creation of the telephone, radio, and television, psychologists have conducted research to determine the positive and negative impact on adolescents. Recently, the game playing on the TV and Internet have become one of the major entertainment vehicles for youths. Online gaming, similar to activities in previous generations, has raised concerns regarding the effects on behavior. These games appeal to adolescents for many reasons.

A large number of the studies have dealt with video game playing teens (boys) and violence. Another growing area of concern is addiction. It is not so much the video/Internet game, itself, but the time spent playing the game that raises an issue. My study would be about the video game/Internet game addiction and time spent playing the game. That is, how much time per day/week would be considered addictive? (This is similar to alcohol abuse and the number of drinks per day that are consumed). The title would be: ADOLESCENT VIDEO/INTERNET GAME PLAYING: AMOUNT of TIME PER DAY CONSIDERED ADDICTIVE

I believe this is an area that should be studied, since I did not see any studies that actually addressed this issue. In addition, there are not many studies that I saw that researched video/Internet game playing addiction in general (and some of the ones I saw and include below are not peer reviewed). The concern is that adolescents are spending a great deal of time playing these games, which is taking them away from other social activities. In middle school and high school, there were many students I knew who spent considerable time playing these games. In fact, that is all they did every day when they went home from school. Plus, they spent more time on the weekend online or with the video games.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Hauge and Gentile (2003) from the Minnesota School on Professional Psychology studied 607 8th and 9th graders for hand-held devices, video game consoles, and the computer to analyze addiction levels and degree of aggressive behavior. A scale of addiction was identified and separated into two groups (Non-Addicted and Addicted). The results showed that the addicted group revealed more reports of involvement in physical fights in the last year, more arguments with friends and teachers, higher hostile attribution scores, and lower grades. The authors report that video game "addiction" is a problem among adolescents, particularly among males, and that addiction is associated with adjustment problems, such as school performance and aggressive attitudes and behaviors.

Moore (2005) expresses his concern about his own children and addictive behavior. He states: "Lest you think I'm jesting about the addictiveness of these games: The family down the street had a ten-year-old who was so deeply entranced by the Harry Potter game that he would sit unblinking in front of the TV set for three to four hours at a time, until he wet his pants rather than interrupt the game for a bathroom break." He continues that unless he gives his children even a moment of unscheduled and unmonitored time, they are immediately downstairs again in front the video games. He states that his sons will not play real basketball, but they will play Allen Iverson in the NBA game for hours on end, similar to other sports.

Harris Interactive in collaboration with Psychology Professor Douglas Gentile, Ph.D., director of the Media Research Lab at Iowa State University and director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family interviewed 1,178 U.S. children and teenagers (ages 8 to 18) concerning their online game use between January 17 to 23, 2007. This study is the first to document a national prevalence rate of pathological video game use among youth.The amount of video game playing time varies by age of the player as well as gender. Harris found the average 8- to 12-year-old plays… READ MORE

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