Les « jeux de non-oxygénation » chez les jeunes collégiens français : résultats d’une étude pilote

Abstract

IntroductionDangerous games and specifically fainting games like “choking game”, “space monkey” and “blackout” have become a social phenomenon among children and adolescents, be it in school or elsewhere. After a thorough review of the literature about this category of risk-taking behaviours in children, we conducted a descriptive study aimed at investigating the context of children's initiation in suffocation practices and the sort of games they generally prefer. MethodAn ad hoc questionnaire with 16 questions was used in a sample of 246 children, mean age 11.6 years (10–14 years) in three schools in France. The children were also encouraged to write their personal opinion on this sort of “games”. ResultsResults show that almost 1 in 4 children (n=61) had already experienced a dangerous practice of this type; age of first experience can be as early as 4 years old; places of first experience are varied (on the streets, at home or on the Internet). Frequency of practice goes from “2 to 3 times a month” to “every day”. The preventive role of information received (mainly by the parents) is striking: 31 % of the children who practice suffocation declare having never received any information vs. 9 % of the other children. ConclusionOur results show that this phenomenon is complex, probably mixing group pressures, sensation seeking, Internet influence, negligence in education and personality factors. These results pointing a significant information for most contribution of prevention programs.