GAME ON

Though many parents might be frustrated with the amount of time their kids spend playing video games, they could be right to worry if their gaming habit starts to resemble an addiction.

“When you talk about the problem of video game addiction, it’s on a spectrum,” said Dr. Nihit Kumar, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. “It ranges from playing an hour or two all the way to playing to an extent that you’re neglecting your physical health and relationships, and at that point, it becomes a disorder.”

He said some kids and adults can play and not become addicted, but a subset of those who play may develop a problematic game disorder. If video gaming habits start to crowd out other interests such as playing sports, spending time with friends or family, or other previous hobbies, parents should be concerned.

“The kids may also start to lie or hide things. I’ve known teenagers to say, ‘I don’t have homework’ when they did have homework because they wanted to play video games,” Kumar said. “Or they steal money from their parents to buy things for video games.”

Furthermore, when kids don’t have access to games, they can display classic symptoms of withdrawal, such as anger and defensiveness.

“I knew a family who went on vacation for a week, and they didn’t have access to video games and you can see feelings of withdrawal similar to drugs,” he said.

He warns video game addiction rates could rise during the coronavirus pandemic due to quarantine and the limits on activities that might've been options before. Though few studies have been done on video gaming addiction in the U.S., he referenced studies done in other countries.

“In general, Asian countries have higher rates of video game addiction,” he said. “Pre-COVID, the prevalence was around 5 percent, but that number went up from 3.5 percent to more than 25 percent with COVID because they are home playing video games.”

These addictive behaviors can also cause conflict and arguments in the home. For example, if a kid comes home from school and starts playing games to relax, and the parent says, ‘All you do is play video games,’ the child can get defensive and angry, he said.

Despite the frustration from parents, Kumar acknowledges the draw of video games is strong for kids, especially immersive roleplaying games where they can take on a completely different personality and explore another world. He said children with a negative perception of themselves may be particularly drawn to these games and more likely to form addictions.

“It’s important to understand what this is stemming from,” he said. “It’s like when you’re in a dream and you see yourself doing certain things, it can make you more confident. A lot of times kids who don’t have a very good view of themselves out in the real world, in video games they can have magical powers or build things, or go places they would never otherwise go.”

He says if parents see that, and take an interest in the child’s video gaming interests, they can help transition some of those interests or online experiences to the offline world. And potentially deepen the relationship with their child.

“That would decrease the need for them to be online,” he said. “That’s the background and where we start with this, and helping parents understand why their child would want to live in this online world all the time.”

To address the issue, the first thing is to be aware of the pattern and to have a sense of when things are going wrong, he said.

“That’s when I would start to monitor this behavior and pay more attention,” he said. “Do not confront the teenagers or younger kids, but start to take an interest in what they are playing and who they are playing with. That helps kids feel safe and feel like they can open up to the parents, and at the same time it allows the parents an opportunity to monitor what’s going on.”

“These addictive behaviors can also cause conflict and arguments in the home."

The second thing is to encourage physical activity and suggest kids take hourly breaks from gaming.

“Kids don’t eat or drink sometimes and taking breaks disconnects you from the online world and puts you back into a real world that exists,” he said.

He added that physical activity gives a sense of accomplishment in the real world while making the body healthier and improving sleep and emotional well-being.

“Kids tend to play very late at night,” he said. “Teenagers already have a sleep-based delay because it’s a developmental thing that happens. They’re not getting good quality sleep. It’s a huge health problem, and it’s really scary.”

Parents should still set requirements for video game access based on real-world responsibilities. For instance, he suggests things like maintaining good grades, doing chores, staying on the sports team and getting homework done on time.

He also says parents should be consistent when enforcing these limits. Both parents need to be on the same page.

“If one parent is more permissive than the other, and they enable the teenager by saying, ‘It’s fine if you don’t do your chores’ or avoiding that video game argument at home, that’s not really a good idea,” he said.

In short, parents should not be confrontational about video gaming habits, he said. Setting limits and being consistent will help, but so will taking an interest in the child’s game interests.

“That’s an untapped opportunity,” he said, “When parents take interest in what the kid is playing, think about what it will do for the relationship. It’s going to go a long way in building up that relationship.”