Video games threaten kids' attention span

July, 2010

A large study of elementary school children and college students has found greater screen time (TV and video games) is associated with more attention problems.

A study following 1,323 children in Grades 3 to 5 and 210 college students has found that children who exceeded two hours per day of screen time (TV and video games) were 1.5 to two times more likely to be considered above average in attention problems by their teachers compared to children who met the guideline. A similar association between screen media time and attention problems (self-reported) was found for the college students. A study earlier this year found U.S. children aged eight to 18 devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes per day to entertainment media (http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm ).

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2010/07/05/health-video-games-tv-screen-att...

Reference:

[1634] Swing, E. L., Gentile D. A., Anderson C. A., & Walsh D. A.
(2010). Television and Video Game Exposure and the Development of Attention Problems.
Pediatrics. peds.2009-1508 - peds.2009-1508.

Video games

attention problems

Children

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