| ||||||
Most middle-school boys and many girls play violent video games |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new study by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital's (MGH) Center for Mental Health and Media dispels some myths and uncovers some surprises about young teens and violent video and computer games. The study, published in the July issue of Journal of Adolescent Health, is the first to ask middle-school youth in detail about the video and computer games they play and to analyze how many of those titles are rated M (Mature -- meant for ages 17 and up). It is also the first to ask children why they play video games. Two-thirds of boys and more than one in four girls reported playing at least one M-rated game "a lot in the past six months." A third of boys and one in ten girls play video or computer games almost every day. At a time when the availability of M-rated games is on the rise, it is important to explore their effects on the children who play them, the researchers note. Co-authors of the report are senior author Eugene Beresin, MD, co-director of the Center for Mental Health and Media; Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Dorothy Warner, PhD, also of the Center; Jason Almerigi, PhD, Michigan State University; and Lee Baer, PhD, and Armand Nicholi, MD, MGH Psychiatry.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
