Video Gaming and Its Effects on Children and Adolescents: Research Priorities and Recommendations

This chapter critically considers the research literature on the experiences and potential effects of gaming among young people. The effects of gaming on young people's well-being appear complex and multidirectional, and depend on patterns, content, and context of gaming activities. Research into media effects appears to have become specialized in discrete areas (e.g., cognition, mental health, social effects), with few studies synthesizing data across subfields. Priority research areas include studies of short- and long-term effects of gaming; studying artificial intelligence-driven designs, monetized, and gambling-like designs in games; evaluating assessment and interventions for problematic gaming; and testing regulatory measures and safeguards for young users and their families. Methodological improvements include the use of holistic frameworks and designs to examine positive and negative effects; considering gaming activity as a unit of analysis in psychological and social terms as distinct from "screen time;" the use of objective measures to complement self-report measures; and the use of industry data. As gaming products evolve and become increasingly embedded into young people's lives, understanding the psychosocial effects on young users remains a global priority.