Video Game
VIOLENCE Linked to Childhood
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ideo games — available on personal computers, gaming consoles, cell phones, tablets or other wireless devices — can take a child on a gruesome, violent, virtual reality trip, and a new study shows that video game violence is linked to depression in pre-teen children. What are parents to do? “Know what your kids are watching,” advised Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatrist Eugene Beresin, of the hospital’s Center for Mental Health and Media. “Ninetyfive percent of the parents we talk to have no clue what their kids are seeing or playing on a screen.” “Set time limits and be outspoken about the types of video games you’ll allow,” Great Barrington psychologist Anne Benson added. And what if your child becomes upset because you prohibit certain video games?
“Ignore their slamming doors and rolling eyes,” Benson said.
Link to Depression This advice comes on the heels of a recent study, of more than 5,000 fifth-grade children published in the Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking journal. It found that kids who played violent video games every day for more than two hours a day were likely to show signs of depression. “It’s possible that kids prone to depression are attracted to violent video games,” said Susan Tortolero the study’s lead author and University of Texas psychologist. “They exasperate their depressive mood because they’re seeing violence and develop a cynical view of the world.” Massachusetts mental health experts reacted differently to this
study but agreed on the steps parents can take to control how often children play video games as well as other kinds of media they consume. “Some kids are depressed and try to manage their depression by video game playing,” said Cheryl Olson, co-author of the book Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and the co-founder of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Mental Health and Media. “Girls who play video games the most use them as a way to combat depression,” said Beresin. “It’s like self-medicating. Video games can help release the chemical dopamine in the brain.” In other words, video games, because they can help release this chemical, can make kids feel better and distract them from their problems. Boston-based psychologist
Anthony Rao, author of The Way of Boys: Promoting the Social and Emotional Development of Young Boys, said the study’s results are no surprise. “These games can affect the neurochemistry,” he noted. “A little for entertainment can be okay, but anything beyond that can be a problem. Heavy use is correlated with depression. Whether or not it’s cause and effect is unimportant. If your kid is off track or there’s depression, the game is likely a problem.” Springfield psychiatrist John Fanton, of Baystate Medical Center, is equally worried. “The problem, in some ways, isn’t so much the screen time but that children are spending time in stories that aren’t their own,” he said. “Video games crowd out their imagination and prevent them from exercising their own imagination as well as learning problem-solving
“Heavy use is correlated with depression. Whether or not it’s cause and effect is unimportant. If your kid is off track or there’s depression, the game is likely a problem.” ² %RVWRQ EDVHG SV\FKRORJLVW $QWKRQ\ 5DR 52 OCTOBER2014