This is the online home of David G. Schwartz, who 
Kids addicted to gaming
Problem gambling is classified as an impulse control disorder, and it looks like it may have company. An Iowa State study says that many children suffer from addictive video gaming. From USA Today:
Nearly one in 10 children and teens who play video games show behavioral signs that may indicate addiction, a new study reports.
The study found 8.5% of those who played had at least six of 11 addictive symptoms, including skipping chores and homework for video games, poor test or homework performance and playing games to escape problems. The research, which is published in the May issue of the journal Psychological Science, is based on a 2007 Harris poll of 1,179 U.S. youngsters, the first nationally representative poll on the subject.
Exhibiting six of 11 symptoms can lead to a diagnosis of addiction, such as pathological gambling. Iowa State University researcher Douglas Gentile adopted the addiction criteria for gambling because there is no current medical diagnosis of video-game addiction.
Study: Video-game-playing kids showing addiction symptoms – USATODAY.com.
This seems to be a rather casual study; the authors just substituted “video gaming” for “gambling” on a screening checklist. But it raises interesting questions about the nature of addiction for both video games and gambling. For example, is the addiction to the activity of gambling, as it appears to be with video gaming? In that case, it’s not really about the money, but about the activity. That’s got to have some implications for treatment.
Posted in gambling & cultureon 04/21/2009 12:27 pm by Dave
04/22/2009 at 2:09 am
When I was in high school in the early 80’s me and my friends would play Intellivision a lot. Intellivision was a popular video game counsel that had games like football, basketball, baseball, etc. and back then I thought the graphics looked great.
I was playing some video game with my nephew a couple of years ago and the graphics were about 10000 times better than Intellivision. The graphics looked like they were coming out of the TV screen it was so real.
04/22/2009 at 5:54 am
When I was a kid, I played Atari non-stop until my parents made me stop to “get out of the house and get the stink blowed off me.” lol
However, I tend to think that gambling is more about the money than the activity. We don’t put 20’s in video poker machines for the graphics.
04/22/2009 at 7:15 pm
When I was a kid I was betting at the age of 12 at track and events.
04/22/2009 at 10:09 pm
This study has been attacked for poor methods:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/04/22/abc-news-polling-guru-slams-nimf-game-addiction-data
04/22/2009 at 10:35 pm
An interesting follow-up for anybody who cares is to read the book Playstation Nation by Olivia and Kurt Bruner. I am usually leery of ‘psychology’ books written by husband-wife teams, and this one turned out to be no exception to the usual light-handed approach to a serious subject matter. Filled with ‘I am convinced’ and ‘I have no question’ and ‘I feel’ statements, it is a mostly anecdote and gut-feeling driven book. But I still recommend reading it, especially if you can find it in the discount bin at Wal-Mart.
Then again, if you have already fallen prey to this insidious epidemic, and have more ’screen time’ than real life, you can see their videogametrouble.org.
I am not particularly endorsing them or their lame ‘research’, but it is, maybe, easier to read than those darned hyper-academic articles by Don Ross and co.!