1 in 10 young gamers are clinically addicted
Many parents say their children are addicted to playing computer games, now scientists agree almost 1 in 10 are. Psychologists tested over 1,000 youngsters against standards established for pathological behavior finding that 8.5 percent are clinically addicted to computer games.
Researchers from Iowa State University found playing games like GTA and Mario can cause the same family, social or psychological damage as other addictions.
They compared respondents' gaming habits to the symptoms established used to measuer pathological gambling and gamers were classified as "pathological" if they exhibited at least six of 11 symptoms.
Gamers who asked if they could meet the researchers for a quest on World of Warcraft before partaking in the study were automatically put on the addicted list.
"This is the first study to tell us the national prevalence of pathological play among youth gamers, and it is almost 1 in 10." said Prof Gentile.
"What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing, in this case, playing video games, is damaging to their functioning,
"It's not simply doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in multiple ways."
LINKS
Iowa State University
"What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing, in this case, playing video games, is damaging to their functioning,
"It's not simply doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in multiple ways."
LINKS
Iowa State University
