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Digital game playing motives among adolescents: Relations to parent-child communication, school performance, sleeping habits, and perceived health

Jason Rutter - Tue, 09/02/2010 - 14:25
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

The aims of this research were to describe Finnish adolescents' different motives for digital game playing, and to examine relations between digital game playing and parent-child communication, school performance, sleeping habits, and perceived health. A questionnaire was used to assess a nationwide postal sample of 12-18-year-old Finns (6761 respondents, response rate 69%) in winter 2003. Among respondents, 4085 adolescents played digital games and answered questions on digital game motives. Two main motives emerged: instrumental (learn new things and procedures, have a common topic for conversation, use and develop game playing skills, experience different roles/worlds) and ritualized (pastime, entertainment; recover, relax; escape everyday life, forget worries). The importance of all motives increased for participants with longer playing times. Instrumental motives were more important to boys and younger respondents. They were associated with earlier bedtime, worse perceived health, better mother communication, and better school grades, but only among boys. The importance of ritualized motives increased with age and was related to better school performance, worse sleeping habits, and worse perceived health in both sexes. Digital games seem to have the same basic functions as media in serving adolescents' mood management and stimulation seeking. Among boys, gaming is part of the male socio-cultural communication context. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Electronic Game Play and School Performance of Adolescents in Southern Thailand

Jason Rutter - Mon, 18/01/2010 - 10:50
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Increasing exposure of children and adolescents to electronic media is a worldwide phenomenon, including in Thailand. To date, few studies examine electronic game play in Thai adolescents. Our research describes the prevalence of electronic game play and examines associations between the time spent engaged in electronic game play and school performance of adolescents in Hat-Yai municipality. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,492 adolescents from four secondary schools and one commercial college from January through March 2007, using questionnaires for collecting information about demographic data, school grades, and electronic game play behaviors. The prevalence of electronic game play was 75% in boys and 59% in girls. Twenty-two percent of boys and 8.7% of girls played electronic games every day with more than 2 hours per session. The two most common places of game play were at game shops (71%), followed by at their own home (70%). Using linear regression analysis, the "low user or less than 2 hours per session" game players and females were less likely to have school grades below 3.00 with adjusted odds ratios of 0.44 (95% CI 0.25-0.80, p = 0.004) and 0.49 (95% CI 0.30-0.76, p = 0.005) respectively. This study finds that excessive playing of electronic games is associated with school grades below 3.00.

Digital game playing and direct and indirect aggression in early adolescence: The roles of age, social intelligence, and parent-child communication

Jason Rutter - Thu, 21/06/2007 - 10:00
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

The roles of age, social intelligence and parent-child communication in moderating the association between digital game playing and direct and indirect aggression were examined in 478 Finnish 10- and 13-year-old schoolchildren based on self-reports. The results confirmed that digital game violence was directly associated with direct aggression, especially at age 10, but only among boys. The moderating role of social intelligence was substantiated among older boys: game violence was associated with indirect aggression among those with high level of social intelligence. Further, as hypothesized, digital game playing was associated with direct aggression especially when parent-child communication was poor, but only among boys. Our findings emphasize the importance of individual and situational factors as moderators of the link between game violence and aggression.

Nodding off or switching off? The use of popular media as a sleep aid in secondary-school children

Jason Rutter - Fri, 09/03/2007 - 21:01
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Aim: To describe the use of media as a sleep aid in adolescents and relate this to their sleep routines and feelings of tiredness. Methods: A questionnaire about using media as a sleep aid, media presence in bedrooms, time to bed and time out of bed on average weekdays and average weekend days, and questions regarding level of tiredness in the morning, at school, after a day at school and after the weekend was completed by 2546 seventh and 10th grade children in a random sample of 15 schools. Results: Of the adolescents, 36.7% reported watching television to help them fall asleep. In total, 28.2% of the boys and 14.7% of the girls used computer games as a sleep aid. Music was used to fall asleep by 60.2% of the adolescents in this sample. About half of the adolescents read books to fall asleep. Except for reading books, using media as a sleep aid is negatively related to respondents' time to bed on weekdays, their number of hours of sleep per week and their self-reported level of tiredness. Conclusion: Using media as a sleep aid appears to be common practice among adolescents. Those who reported using music, television, and computer games more often as a sleeping aid slept fewer hours and were significantly more tired.

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