Poll: 86% of parents believe teens spend too much time gaming

Gary L. Freed

An estimated 86% of parents agree or strongly agree that their teens spend too much time gaming, but many may be mistaken regarding the extent of their child’s gaming habits, according to a recent poll.

“Gaming, like pretty much all teen activities, needs to have reasonable limits,” Gary L. Freed, MD, MPH, professor of pediatrics and health policy at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, which conducted the poll, told Healio. “Parents also expressed the idea that sometimes gaming could have a positive impact on their children. It's important that parents discuss the limits that they establish and the reasons for them and help their teens understand that any rules around gaming are really not arbitrary, but are actually tied to safety, health, school and relationships.”

Freed and colleagues analyzed poll data from 963 randomly selected adults who were parents of at least one child aged between 13 and 18 years. They weighted poll data to accurately reflect population figures from the Census Bureau.

Of the parents surveyed, 46% believed gaming gets in the way of their teen’s family activities and interactions, 44% believed it interferes with their teen’s sleep and 34% believe it interferes with their teen’s friendship with nongaming peers. Parents reported sometimes or frequently encouraging other activities (75%), providing incentives (23%), setting time limits (54%) and hiding gaming equipment (14%) to limit their teen’s gaming time. However, 54% of parents of daily gamers reported their teen plays for 3 or more hours a day and 13% of parents of daily gamers believed their teen spends more time gaming than others. Many — 78% — believed their teen’s gaming is less than or the same as that of their peers.

Freed stressed the potential for positive applications of gaming between teens and their parents.

“If they show their teen they are interested in what they are playing and want to understand why teens are interested, it can probably help in communicating healthy limits as well as just greater communication with their teen in general,” Freed said. “In some situations, games can serve as a point of connection and could even be structured as a family activity to be able to foster interaction with parents, teens and other siblings.”

Freed also noted the potential for improvements in gaming-related research.

“The most important part of future efforts into research in gaming should be how to make sure that gaming is safe — and to be able to help parents figure out how to help parents and teens to agree on limits that make gaming not at the expense of face-to-face time with family, friends and their teachers,” Freed said. – by Eamon Dreisbach

Reference:

C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Mott poll report. https://mottpoll.org/reports/game-teens-and-video-games. Accessed January 30, 2020.

Disclosure: Freed reports no relevant financial disclosures.