Is your child glued to the computer screen?
Your child might just be playing a lot of computer games and researchers have now identified the most important warning signs.
Many children and adolescents play a lot, games such as Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft and often with both known and unknown online players.
This can be a great way to socialize with friends and acquaintances. But it can get completely out of hand for some.
However, Lars Wichstrøm, professor at NTNU's Department of Psychology said, “When gaming over a long period of time affects the young person's ability to relate to the outside world, it may be due to computer game addiction, or 'Internet gaming disorder.'"
An international research group investigated how symptoms of computer game addiction develop, and how stable these symptoms are from childhood to late adolescence.
Two factors were repeated across age and gender among those who were diagnosed with IGD: Strong involvement (a lot of gaming) and negative consequences (harmful consequences).
"Around one in ten boys met the diagnostic criteria for computer game addiction called 'Internet gaming disorder (IGD)' at least once between the ages of 10 and 18," revealed Wichstrøm.
Boys are most easily hooked on gaming while only 1 to 2 per cent of girls develop this kind of problem. An average incidence overall of between 5 and 6 per cent thus hides large gender differences.
“Boys are simply more competitive,” Wichstrøm says.
"We don't really know why more boys become addicted, but boys have always been more interested in gaming than girls, whether it's computer games, Ludo or chess," he added.
When boys and men do things together, it is often centred around an activity, such as football, carpentry or playing. Girls don't need this type of structure as much.
"The brain releases dopamine in the its reward center when we do activities we enjoy, like gaming. This release increases when we expect a positive experience and when the expectation is actually met," says Beate W. Hygen, a senior researcher at NTNU Social Research AS.
Parents who wonder if their child can become addicted to computer games are wise to address this early.
"Children who are heavily involved in gaming as they approach their teenage years are more likely to become even more involved later on. They also experience negative consequences more often, especially when they are 14 to 18 years old," Wichstrøm pointed out.
