With an estimated 90% of children and adolescents playing video games (Lenhart et al.2008), the impacts that video games have on users is a fierce and ongoing debate in academic literature. There is a wealth of literature that reveals that there are both positive and negative outcomes associated with gaming.
Some academics hold the perspective that gaming is a modern form of play and should be considered as a contemporary means of psychosocial development. With the increasing social connectivity built into modern video games, playing online provides an opportunity to connect and cooperate with peers. Social connection is an often cited as a positive outcome for users. Yet, researchers have discovered various other benefits too.
Playing ‘shooter’ games has been shown to promote some specific cognitive skills. This is likely to do with the visually rich environments and rapid attentional demands within modern games. Recent literature has shown that ‘shooter’ video games have been associated with enhanced attention allocation and enhanced spatial abilities (Green & Bavelier, 2012; Uttal et al., 2013). These cognitive benefits remained over time and generalized to other contexts. Gamers that are strong in these cognitive skills are advantaged academically in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) (Wai, Lubinski, Benbow, & Steiger, 2010).
Another - admittedly more speculative - area of benefit relates to motivation. A recent study (Ventura et al., 2013) found that the extent of video game use significantly predicted how long participants would demonstrate persistence in attempting to solve difficult puzzles.
Many psychologists and educators are familiar with Carol Dweck’s seminal ‘Growth Mindset’ philosophy which posits that persistence and continual effort are key to success (Dweck & Molden, 2005). The finding by Ventura and colleagues (2013) links to the ideas purported by Dweck and is particularly interesting in light of the popularity of the recently released videogame, Fornite.
In Fortnite, success involves outlasting other players. With the likelihood of winning being small, a substantial amount of persistence and determination is required for players who seek to win. Some researchers speculate that players of video games, such as Fortnite, can develop a ‘persistent motivational style’ which may have beneficial generalized effects in school or work contexts. Though this relationship is merely correlational and needs further empirical evidence.
A final benefit, which is more robustly researched, is that of social benefits. Research has found that video game players can develop prosocial skills when they play games that are designed to reward effective cooperation, support, and helping behaviours (Ewoldsen et al., 2012).
The critical dimension that seems to determine whether video games are associated with helping and prosocial behaviour is the extent to which they are played cooperatively versus competitively.
A day spent searching for research papers debating the negative impacts of gaming would yield dozens of papers with wide ranging and opposing findings. Thankfully, we have meta-analyses. Meta-analyses are a type of research review that combines the findings of many other studies. Further, we have great research bodies that do meta-analyses of other meta-analyses, combining the results of hundreds of individual studies.
One such research body is the American Psychological Association who has recently released a major review of research into the impact of violent video games. To conduct their review, the APA contacted approximately 130 of the most frequently published researchers and experts in the field of gaming and requested nominations of the 10 strongest empirically based studies on this topic. This process yielded four meta-analyses which took into account more than 150 individual studies.
The review produced robust evidence that violent video game exposure was associated with increased aggressive behavior and increased aggressive thoughts. The review also clearly evidenced that video game exposure produced desensitization to violence and decreased empathy. The review concluded that violent video game use is a risk factor for adverse outcomes.
There are also factors that have been found to influence and interact with the development of aggression in gamers. Some researchers have suggested that it is the competitive features of certain games that produce the aggressive effects (Adachi & Willoughby, 2011). As mentioned above, this is contrary to cooperative games that can have prosocial benefits.
Past research has identified a number of risk factors that can moderate and influence the development of aggression, such as: pre-existing aggressive traits, low socioeconomic status, harsh parental discipline practices and experiences of peer rejection and bullying (Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, 2006; Herrenkohl et al., 2000). The APA review was able to determine that in the majority of studies, even after these factors were controlled for, violent video games still independently predicted aggression. Existing research suggests that higher amounts of exposure are associated with higher levels of aggression and other adverse outcomes. The conclusions of the APA review relate to children, adolescents and young adults.
This is far from an exhaustive list of outcomes that result from gaming. The intention of this paper is to inform the public of a range of valid findings from either side of the debate.
Calvert, S. L., Appelbaum, M., Dodge, K. A., Graham, S., Nagayama Hall, G. C., Hamby, S., ... & Hedges, L. V. (2017). The American Psychological Association Task Force assessment of violent video games: Science in the service of public interest. American Psychologist, 72(2), 126.
Dodge, K. A., Coie, J. D., & Lynam, D. (2006). Aggression and antisocial behavior in youth. In N. Eisenberg, W. Damon, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 719–788). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Dweck, C. S., & Molden, D. C. (2005). Self-theories: Their impact on competence motivation and acquisition. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 122–140) New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American psychologist, 69(1), 66
Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2012). Learning, attentional control, and action video games. Current Biology, 22, 197–206. doi:10.1016/j.cub .2012.02.012
Herrenkohl, T. I., Maguin, E., Hill, K. G., Hawkins, J. D., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2000). Developmental risk factors for youth violence. Journal of Adolescent Health, 24, 176– 186.
Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games, and civics: Teens’ gaming experiences are diverse and include significant social interaction and civic engagement. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from the Pew Internet & American Life Project website: http://www.pewinternet.org/ Reports/2008/Teens-Video-Games-and-Civics.aspx
Uttal, D. H., Meadow, N. G., Tipton, E., Hand, L. L., Alden, A. R., Warren, C., & Newcombe, N. S. (2013). The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 352– 402. doi:10.1037/a0028446
Ventura, M., Shute, V., & Zhao, W. (2013). The relationship between video game use and a performance-based measure of persistence. Computers & Education, 60, 52–58. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2012.07 .003
Wai, J., Lubinski, D., Benbow, C. P., & Steiger, J. H. (2010). Accomplishment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and its relation to STEM educational dose: A 25-year longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 860 – 871. doi: 10.1037/a0019454
Daniela Jensen, Psychologist
Child psychologists often use games in therapy with young children and teens due to their appeal to young people. Games are a fun and age-appropriate way to engage your child in an activity and provide lots of ‘accidental’ opportunities for your child to communicate their thoughts, feelings, fears and worries to you in a non-threatening and indirect way. As such, even the most fundamental games can facilitate your child’s social skills and emotional development.
While there are many games that psychologists and therapists use that are designed specifically to assist children with their symptoms of anxiety, anger, impulsivity, to name a few, it is not necessary to purchase expensive games to encourage your child to talk to you about their difficulties. Inexpensive family games such as Jenga or Snakes and Ladders can be very helpful to parents who want to help their child express their thoughts and emotions in a natural setting.
Jenga is a versatile and fun game for children of all ages. It can be easily adapted to any topic that you, as a parent, would like to talk about with your child. To make it even less obvious, you can include other family members to take part in the activity. To a child who, for example worries about sleeping in their room by themselves or not finishing their work in time, it is helpful to know that their siblings and/or parents also have their own worries.
If using Jenga, I tend to draw a different number on about half of the Jenga blocks. Before you start playing, you would need to create a list of questions or statements related to the topic you would want to explore or talk about with your child. For example, you may choose to focus on social strengths and weaknesses, difficult feelings, self-esteem or changing family circumstances. As each player takes their turn and picks up a block, you can read the corresponding numbered question (e.g. name three things you are good at for self-esteem, or I worry when if related to anxiety) or statement to your child and your child can think about their response.
Snakes and Ladders can also be used in a similar way and adapted depending on the age and needs of your child. I sometimes use a couple of small jars with a list of questions or statements in addition to the board. For younger children, you can use stepping on a ladder as a prompt to pick a paper from the ‘ladder’ jar. You can choose to divide the questions/statements in the two jars on a range of topics. These can include thoughts/feelings, positive/challenging situations or even worries/coping strategies. For older children, you can use stepping on each numbered section as a prompt to refer to a personalised and numbered list of statements that you would have created beforehand.
You may find that by modifying these games slightly, all players will have lots of opportunities to express difficult emotions or thoughts, problem solve, reinforce good behaviour and facilitate positive interactions.
Our first School Transition program is ready to go and we can't wait to jump in! Not only do we have activities that will help new prep children prepare for the start of their schooling journey, but we include a social thinking program which will give children the boost they need to navigate their daily interactions with classmates.
We look forward to meeting all the participating children and to support them (and their parents!) in their next step - being a big school kid!
In Term 1 we ran our first Lego Social Skills Group. We had 10 participants from ages 5-13 across two sessions. The children quickly warmed up and became engaged and enthusiastic to belong to the group.
The group members had a diverse set of interests, skills and personalities, and we enjoyed getting to know them all. Parents generally enrolled their children because they felt a need for the children to learn more effective social skills and that meant different things for different families.
For some children this meant learning assertiveness or knowing how to make and keep friends. For others, the parents were concerned about limited cooperation, sharing and turn-taking skills.
While many of the children had a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), this was not a criteria for group entry. The one thing all children had in common was their love of Lego and eagerness to work on the group projects.
We started each session with a mini-lesson. These lessons included topics such as: tone of voice, assertiveness, communicating with our eyes, and how to fill someone's 'bucket' with our kind words and actions.
In groups of three, children then began their group Lego projects. One child was the engineer (in charge of reading the instructions), one child was the supplier (had to find the pieces) and one child was the builder (put the pieces together). These roles changed each week. The children had to communicate clearly, wait their turn, practice frustration tolerance, and do their job in order for the project to be successful. They also got to celebrate together and felt a joint sense of pride when they achieved their goal.
The role of the psychologists was to facilitate the interactions and assist the children with problem solving, task behaviour, joint attention, effective communication and adaptive coping strategies when things weren't going their way, and provided positive reinforcement for appropriate social interactions.
The content of our group sessions was guided by research that has shown Lego-based interactive therapy in this format improves social competence over the long-term.
In the final weeks of term, we taught the children how to make stop motion animations using the Lego Movie Maker app. Children worked in pairs to decide on characters, build a set, create a plot and take the photos to make their movie. Again, the psychologists coached the children to use their social communication skills during this project.
All in all, Lego group was a hit, and the children enjoyed the sessions (and I suspect for the most part they did not even realise they were 'learning' as the coaching merged seamlessly into the activities).
Bring on Term 2! To register click here