Study Links Video Games, Attention Problems

(AP)  A new study suggests that children who spend too many hours watching TV or playing online video games may be harming their ability to focus in school.

The Iowa State University study found that kids who exceed the recommended two hours of daily screen time per day are almost twice as likely to have attention problems.

Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society recommend parents limit a child's screen time to one or two hours daily.

But co-author Douglas Gentile says the average child in the U.S., and likely in Canada, spends many more hours per day with screen-based technology.

The researchers analyzed screen time and attention problems for both elementary school kids and college students in their 13-month study.

Gentile says attention problems in the classroom got worse in relation to how much time kids spent in front of the TV or playing video games.

The study is published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics.

[Gamesman001]

@ curse914 No not an opinion. Tested more than once. And to answer your inevitable question: by licensed (in one case government) officials with standardized tests. I could probably give them now but not officially. Personally I hate when parents try to blame the whole world for their own bad parenting. Parents are the #1 most important influence on their children. Blaming everyone else is how they duck the responsibility for bad parenting. TV did it Video games did it. Ask a teacher what their biggest problem is and they will tell you the parents (if they are honest).

[rwsmith29456]

I think TV/movies are just as guilty. Kids expect to see somthing happen every few seconds. If it doesn't, they get bored.

[Gamesman001]

Perhaps the problem is just a wee bit more complicated than that. I and my siblings all watched hours of TV and (when they first came out) played hours of video games. We all have high I.Q.'s my brothers are an engineer and a software designer (he retired at 45) my sister earned an academic scholarship (after being diagnosed as dyslexic) to become a teacher and recently went back to college to get an admin degree. My other sister became an electrician in a Navy shipyard for 20 years and when that got old became a tax consultant. Our addiction to TV was so bad my mom literally cut the cord to the TV. Yet we did not turn out so bad. But what really helped was if we wanted something we had to work for it. We did chores for an allowance and we all had jobs before we were "adults". My mom did not buy us candy or soda if we wanted them we bought them ourselves same for games or name brand clothes. I bought my first pair of Levis myself (hated those "toughskins" sears jeans).

[curse914]

Your high IQ is your opinion...hang on...

Ok...where was I...hold up...going to check Facebook...

HEADSHOT!!! OWNIZOR!! What were we talking about?

[sophiewack]

2 hours!!!! Good grief, take the damn things away completly and let these spoiled, obese kids get out in the fresh air and play! I have seen myself how these kids turn out; unable to socialize, unable to use their imaginations, etc. Why a parent would let their children sit on their butts like this is beyond me - I wonder if they just can't be bothered....

[rwsmith29456]

I made a huge parental mistake by getting cable TV installed. One of the worst decisions I've ever made. I would really like to get it UN-installed but I signed up for a year. Perhaps I'll 'break' it.

[Gepardk]

With the world moving forward with technology at an ever increasing pace, to totally cut a child's connection with technology is to give them a great disadvantage in the world. Having grown up on the cusp of the technological revolution I spent hours playing video games, my father spent so much time on computers I often made my own lunches as a young child; I also read extensively and loved art. Moderation in all things is what is important, not dismissing something out of hand because you don't like it.