In this Conversation article, QUT Education researchers Professor Sue Walker and Professor Susan Danby explain why low-to-moderate use of electronic games may have a positive effect on children’s later academic achievement.
Electronic games: how much is too much for kids?
Most parents view their children’s playing of electronic games as potentially problematic – or even dangerous. Yet many children are engaging with electronic games more frequently than ever.
Concerns about electronic gaming do not stack up against the research. So, how much gaming is too much for young children?
Electronic games (also called computer or digital games) are found in 90% of households in Australia. 65% of households have three or more game devices. Given this prevalence, it’s timely to look more closely at electronic game playing and what it really means for children’s development and learning.
A study of more than 3,000 children participating in the Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children explored children’s electronic gaming. This national sample was broadly representative of the Australian population.
The study had two phases:
- parents reported on their children’s use of electronic games when their children were eight or nine years of age; and
- teachers reported two years later on these children’s social and emotional development and academic achievement, when the children were 10 or 11.
Read the full Conversation article.
