Kids’ Video Game Obsession Isn’t Really About Video Games. It’s About Unmet Psychological Needs.

Generally, parents panic when their kids video game playing comes at the expense of doing other things like studying or helping around the house. But let's be honest, kids have been avoiding these activities for ages. Equally true is the fact parents have been complaining about their unhelpful children well before the first video game was plugged into its socket. In fact, moderate video gameplay has been shown to be beneficial. A study conducted at Oxford by Dr. Andrew Przybylsky revealed playing about one hour per day enhanced psychological well being, while when taken to an extreme, playing over three hours per day was correlated with less well being. The real question should be what is it about the special draw of gaming that makes it the preferred pastime of so many millions of kids? What makes it so difficult for even non addicted kids to step away from video games? Sometimes.