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Douglas A. Gentile, PhD (Professor of Developmental Psychology, Iowa State University) discusses the importance of content in children’s video games—and the potential benefits and harms video game content can have for children’s development–at the #AskTheExperts webinar “Win or Lose: What To Do About Video Gaming?” on September 20, 2020.
Read the Video Transcript
[Dr. Douglas Gentile]: But again, it’s not that games are bad or games are good. The content matters greatly. And so in a number of studies, we’ve also shown that when kids play prosocial games where you help for or help care about other characters, help them out with things, that in fact kids gain in empathy and increase their helpful and cooperative behaviors. But then there are other problems, too, that in playing some types of games can increase racial and gendered stereotypes and prejudice and even discrimination. There’s a lot of research on school performance showing that in general, greater screen time leads to worse school performance. And there is starting to be a literature demonstrating that with greater screen time come greater attention problems.
View the full webinar
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Win or Lose: What to Do About Videogaming
What should families know about video gaming, its effects on child development, and how to manage children's video game use?
Marc Potenza, PhD, MD
Professor of Psychiatry; Director
Cam Adair
Founder; Director; Keynote Speaker
Douglas A. Gentile, PhD
Professor of Developmental Psychology; Editor; Co-author
Edward Spector, PsyD
Psychologist