Children who think their parents nag a lot or supervise poorly tend to play videogames more than other kids, according to a new U.S. study.
The study is one of the first to link parental behavior to kids’ videogame playing. Michigan State University researchers surveyed more than 500 students from 20 middle schools and found that the more children perceived their parents’ behavior as negative (e.g., “nags a lot”) and the less monitoring parents did, the more the children played videogames.
The next step, said lead researcher Linda Jackson, is to find out what’s fueling children’s videogame behavior.
“Does a parent’s negative interactions with their child drive the child into the world of videogames, perhaps to escape the parent’s negativity?” said Jackson, professor of psychology. “Or, alternatively, does videogame playing cause the child to perceive his or her relationship with the parent as negative?”
The study is part of a larger project in which the researchers are exploring the effects of technology use on children’s academic performance, social life, psychological well-being and moral reasoning.
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