Video game time tied to kids' mental, social health

The amount of time children spend playing video games is linked to small differences in their mental and social health, according to a new study.

Compared with children who didn't play any video games at all, kids who played for no more than an hour a day scored better on mental and social health assessments -- while kids who played for three or more hours per day scored worse.

But the new research also found that time spent on video games might only influence a sliver of a child's overall behavior.

Past studies highlighted positive and negative effects of video games, but experimental psychologist Andrew Przybylski writes in the journal Pediatrics that no study has looked at the balance of these effects among children.

For the new study, he analyzed data from about 5,000 U.K. boys and girls between ages 10 and 15.

There was no difference in scores between kids who played between one and three hours of video games and those who reported no video game play. Children who reported playing less than an hour of video games per day tended to score better on their mental and social assessments than those who reported no video game play, Przybylski found. An hour or less of video game play each day was tied to higher life satisfaction scores, better social scores and less internalization and externalization of problems, compared with those who didn't play video games.

The study can't answer why video game time is linked to mental and social well-being, but Przybylski said one possibility is that kids who spend less time playing video games spend more time with friends and family.

Still, he said video game time may be constructive and social under the correct circumstances.