Playing video games is usually discouraged for kids, saying it can affect the development of their young minds, even exaggerating that playing them will rot their brains.
However, a 2022 research paper published by a team from the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden showed a link between spending more time playing video games and children’s higher intelligence.
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The researchers’ results support the claim that screen time generally doesn’t impair children’s cognitive abilities. Playing video games can even help boost intelligence, consistent with cognitive benefits documented in experimental studies on video gaming.
The researchers studied 9,855 US children between ages 9 and 10 who were part of the ABCD datasets. The kids in the study spent an average of 2.5 hours per day watching TV or online videos, an hour of playing video games, and 30 minutes socializing online with friends and family.
After two years, they compared the data of over 5,000 of these kids and found a 2.5-point IQ increase above the average for those who spent more time playing video games.
However, before you print the story and show it to your mother, you should slow down. IQ is only one factor affected by video games, and it does not even differentiate between the types of video games.
“We didn’t examine the effects of screen behavior on physical activity, sleep, well-being, or school performance, so we can’t say anything about that,” said Torkel Klingberg, one of the researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.
While this result can be “good news” for those looking for validation for playing games, it’s important to note that studies also associate excessive gaming with various physical, mental, and well-being issues, including video game addiction.
Via: Scientific Reports