Video games improved mental health during COVID-19 pandemic
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Key takeaways:
- People who owned a Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 experienced less psychological distress.
- Children who played Nintendo Switch experienced greater mental health improvements than adults.
Owning and playing on game consoles during the COVID-19 pandemic improved mental health among Japanese children and adults, according to findings published in Nature Human Behavior.
“In discussing our study with other scientists, we’ve encountered individuals who firmly believed that video gaming must have negative effects on mental well-being and overall life quality,” Hiroyuki Egami, PhD, MA, MPP, behavior scientist at Nihon University’s Research Institute of Economic Science in Tokyo, told Healio. “Some seemed to hold these beliefs with unwavering conviction, despite the lack of scientific evidence. Our findings, therefore, are not just surprising, but also intriguing, challenging these long-held beliefs.”
Egami and colleagues surveyed 97,602 people aged 10 to 69 years in Japan between 2020 and 2022. One-quarter were aged 10 to 25 years, 36% were aged 25 to 44 years and 39% were aged 45 to 69 years.
Because of supply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese stores used lotteries to distribute Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 consoles to customers. Among survey respondents, 8,192 participated in the lotteries.
People who won a Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 lottery had lower psychological distress than those who did not win, and people who won a PlayStation 5 had higher life satisfaction, the researchers found.
Owning a Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 improved respondents’ mental health by 0.6 standard deviations (95% CI, 0.38-0.82) and 0.12 standard deviations (95% CI, 0.03-0.21), respectively. Playing on their console in the previous month also improved respondents’ mental health by 0.81 standard deviations (95% CI, 0.53-1.1) for Nintendo Switch and 0.2 standard deviations (95% CI, 0.05-0.36) for PlayStation 5.
One-quarter of all respondents reported playing video games for 1 to 3 hours per day, and 5% reported playing more than 3 hours per day. Respondents reported better mental health and life satisfaction with more play time, although Egami noted that the benefits diminished when participants played more than 3 hours per day.
Egami said having a Nintendo Switch was more beneficial to children’s mental health than adults, and the data did not support the stereotype that games are harmful to children.
“These findings suggest that blanket restrictions on gaming may overlook the potential benefits for children who balance gaming with other activities,” Egami said. “When advising families, pediatricians should adopt individualized approaches rather than imposing universal limits on game time, though the benefits of gaming diminish when play becomes excessively long.”
References:
- Egami H, et al. Nat Hum Behav 2024;doi:10.1038/s41562-024-01948-y.
- Video gaming improves mental well-being, landmark study finds. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1055770. Published Aug. 27, 2024. Accessed Sept. 5, 2024.