Iowa State University professor Douglas Gentile has been a thorn in the side of the videogame industry with his research linking gaming and addiction. Now he’s at it again in a report that suggests pathological, or obsessive, gamers are at higher risk for mental illness.
“Pathological gaming can influence other mental health issues,” Gentile, head of the Media Research Lab at Iowa State, and several co-authors say in a study published in the journal Pediatrics. They say that “although children who are depressed may retreat into gaming, the gaming increases the depression, and vice versa.”
The researchers looked at more than 3,000 elementary- and middle-school children in Singapore over a two-year period to assess “pathological gaming.” Hard-core gamers made up about 9 percent of the children, the study reports, roughly the same percentage as those in other countries.
“Youths who became pathological gamers ended up with increased levels of depression, anxiety, and social phobia,” the study concludes. Most pathological gamers, moreover, are still obsessing over games two years later, meaning “pathological gaming is not simply a ‘phase’ that most children go through.”
The researchers cautioned that “Several important questions remain to be answered, including information on protective factors, how children can be helped, and what types of help might be most effective.” But the Entertainment Software Association, the videogame industry’s trade group, was quick to suggest Gentile was up to his old tricks. “We commend credible, independent, and verifiable research about computer and videogames,” spokesman Richard Taylor said. “However, this research is just more of the same questionable findings by the same author in his campaign against videogames.”
“There simply is no concrete evidence that computer and videogames cause harm,” he added.
In 2009, Gentile reported that nearly one in 10 U.S. children who play videogames may be growing addicted to the pastime. But a British researcher who questions Gentile’s findings told Reuters that the Singapore study is confusing addiction with excessive gaming. “If 9 percent of children were genuinely addicted to video games there would be video game addiction clinics in every major city!” said Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University.
It would be great if the article can also point to some links which define “Pathological Gaming”. In medical terms, the word “addiction” has a totally different meaning than its normal day usage.
Let’s say for example that when I play games for around 2-3 hours a day, my family thinks I am “addicted” to the game. The very next logical jump they are going to do is link this “addiction” to your article and take me to a psychiatrist for anti-depression treatment.
Please do a favor to your readers and define such terms before you dole out such a strong sounding article :)
So… does the study really suggest that gamers are more likely to be depressed or suffer mental illness…
OR
…does it me that people who are asocial due to depression or mental illness tend to pass their time in isolation by gaming?
I can’t tell that this study identified which is the cause and which is the effect (or if the two are simply correlated).
Given the millions of game players it is likely there will be people who are addicted to gaming for the reasons you cite.
But, there is also a number of people who are using the technology to connect, educate and inspire. Fun makes learning pop and the educationals are starting to get this.
There is a growing movement to change attitudes to make it socially unacceptable to buy a virtual sword for a monster chaser but acceptable to play a game which teaches them, for instance about a different culture or a global issue. Games for the social good.
Games are here to stay but we have time to harness the energy and turn it into a method to make a change in the world for the better.
At least the addicted ones will at least be learning something along the way.