Gaming Time Has Little Effect on Short-Term Mental Health

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

The short-term mental-health impact of playing video games “is probably too small” to be noticeable, according to a major study by the University of Oxford published recently.

“Our study finds little to no evidence of connections between gameplay and well-being,” said Andrew K. Przybylski, a researcher at the university’s Oxford Internet Institute.

The study surveyed 38,935 players from the English-speaking world, asking them to rate their mental well-being and comparing it with the amount of time they spent gaming in the previous two weeks.

“Many have warned about video games’ possible addictive qualities and their potential harm to players’ well-being, leading to far-reaching and widely contested health policy decisions,” said the study published by the Royal Society.

In China, children are only allowed to game for one hour each day on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

“Our results show that the impact of time spent playing video games on well-being is probably too small to be subjectively noticeable and not credibly different from zero,” the study said.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-07-gaming-effect-short-term-mental-health.html