Canadian study finds causal link between time playing videogames at age 12 and ADHD symptoms at age 13

Recent studies have linked screen time — including video game play — to concerning outcomes in children, including low self-esteem, low life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. Screen time has also been found to be correlated with symptoms of ADHD in children and adolescents, even when earlier attention difficulties are taken into account. These findings suggest that excessive video game play may be a risk factor for the development of ADHD symptoms. Other research suggests the possibility of reverse causation, i.e., that ADHD symptoms predicts the development of excessive video game play. Determining whether causal links exist between ADHD symptoms and video game play requires a longitudinal study in which ADHD symptoms and video game play are measured at 2 points in time. With this design, researchers can test whether video game use at Time 1 predicts an increase in ADHD symptoms at Time 2, after controlling for ADHD symptoms at Time 1., i.e., more video game play leads to more ADHD symptoms. Similarly, one can test whether ADHD symptoms at Time 1 predicts higher video game use at Time 2, controlling for video game use at Time 1., i.e., more ADHD symptoms leads to more video game play. The New Study: This design was employed in a study published recently in the Journal of Attention Disorders: Associations between video game engagement and ADHD symptoms in early adolescence. Participants were over 1400 youth (roughly 50% female) from a representative sample drawn from...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Education & Lifelong Learning Technology & Innovation adhd ADHD-symptoms adolescence screen time screens video-games videogames Source Type: blogs