Video game playing frequency, social cognition, and social behavior in childhood.

Abstract

Socialization is the basis of human behavior and thus an individual’s social competence is key to creating and maintaining satisfying relationships, communicating with others, and functioning adaptively in society. With video games increasingly omnipresent in the leisure activities of young people, concerns have been raised as to their potential harmfulness, or conversely, their utility with respect to developing cognitive, affective, and social skills. However, reported links between video game playing frequency (VGPF) and markers of social competence are equivocal, with some studies reporting adverse associations and others highlighting measurable benefits. Much of the previous work in this area has focused on adolescents, yet video game use is also common in elementary school children. This study aimed to explore associations between VGPF and three components of social competence: social cognitive skills, social adaptive skills, and social behavior. Children (n = 57, 6–12 years) completed measures of these components, and their parents completed a video game habits questionnaire. Weekly VGPF was positively associated with executive and social behavior difficulties and negatively associated with social adaptive skills and prosocial behavior. Social adaptive skills, empathy, and lower VGPF were independently associated with prosocial behavior, while poorer empathy and executive difficulties were associated with social behavior problems. In conclusion, elementary school children who played video games less frequently in this study displayed better social competence in terms of prosocial behavior, but there was no association between VGPF and social behavior problems. Limiting gaming frequency could possibly increase opportunities for real-life social interaction, promoting prosocial behavior.