Video gaming addiction and its association with memory, attention and learning skills in Lebanese children
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Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health Open Access
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Video gaming addiction and its association with memory, attention and learning skills in Lebanese children Youssef Farchakh1, Chadia Haddad2,3, Hala Sacre4, Sahar Obeid2,4,5*†, Pascale Salameh4,6,7† and Souheil Hallit1,4*†
Abstract Background: Examining whether any association exists between addiction to video games and cognitive abilities in children could inform ongoing prevention and management of any possible harm. The objective of this study was to investigate the associations between addiction to video games, and memory, attention and learning abilities among a sample of Lebanese school children. Methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted between January and May 2019, enrolled 566 school children aged between 9 and 13 years. Three private schools were chosen conveniently for this study. Students were randomly chosen from the list given by the school administration. The students’ parents are those who responded to the questionnaire. Results: The results showed that higher addiction to video gaming salience was significantly associated with worse episodic memory, problem solving, basic reading skills, written expression skills and worse clinical attention. Higher addiction to video gaming tolerance were significantly associated with worse novel problem solving and worse attention. Higher addiction to video gaming withdrawal were significantly associated with worse attention, factual memory, attention, processing speed, visual spatial organization, sustained sequential processing, working memory, novel problem solving and worse written expression skills. Conclusion: The results suggest a correlation between addiction to video games and worse memory, attention, as well as cognitive and academic abilities among school children. Those findings indicate the need for more extensive research, and serve to highlight vital next steps needed in future papers, such as identifying predicting factors that could aid in early detection of video gaming addiction in children. Keywords: Video gaming, Addiction, Learning, Attention, Memory
*Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] † Sahar Obeid, Pascale Salameh, and Souheil Hallit are last co-authors 1 Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), Jounieh, Lebanon 2 Research and Psychology Departments, Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross, P.O. Box 60096, Jal Eddib, Lebanon Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Background Recent advances in new technologies have made video games the top leisure time occupation for children, who are particularly susceptible for addiction. Currently, video games have become the most famous type played worldwide among children. Nielsen reports that total weekly time spent playing games increased expeditiously from 5.1 to 6.3 h in 2011 and 2013 respectively [1]. In a study involving children aged between 9 and 12, from 12
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