Dailymail Vesti

Don't tell your teens, but gaming can be good for mental wellbeing (and older brains can benefit too!)

Exasperated parents may decry video games as a mind-destroying waste of time as they try to prise their children away from them. But could video games - whisper it - actually be good for us?

Source: Cubes | 

04.12.2024, 16:25

facebook twitter linkedin link mail

Cubes

Exasperated parents may decry video games as a mind-destroying waste of time as they try to prise their children away from them. But could video games – whisper it – actually be good for us?

A new study from Japan suggests they can significantly improve mental wellbeing in children and adults.

‘These games can serve as distraction or emotional release, providing stress relief, mood enhancement and a sense of accomplishment,’ Dr Hiroyuki Egami, an assistant professor at Nihon University and the lead author of the study, told Good Health.

The behavioural scientist, who analysed the effects of gaming on people aged from ten to 69, added that many parents ‘feel excessively worried about their children’s video game habits, fearing potential negative consequences’... but ‘our study now provides robust scientific evidence to ease some of those worries’.

While many video game studies take place in a lab, Dr Egami’s research had the advantage of being a real-world experiment. It took place between December 2020 and March 2022, when, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, consoles were in short supply in Japan and retailers decided to use lotteries to allocate the available PlayStation 5s and Nintendo Switches.

Dr Egami’s team tracked the 8,192 people who took part in the ballot, sending them five rounds of surveys to check their gaming habits and psychological distress levels, a barometer of mental wellbeing.

They found that console ownership, along with playing more video games, significantly improved mental wellbeing.

Dr Egami added: ‘Our natural experimental design allows us to confidently say that gaming actually leads to improved wellbeing, rather than just being associated with it.’

Scientists found that console ownership, along with playing more video games, significantly improved mental wellbeing

Comments (0)

LIVE TV

Blue to Red: The Shifting of America
The most read