Game on… girls: associations between co-playing video games and adolescent behavioral and family outcomes.

PURPOSE

Video game use has been associated with several behavioral and health outcomes for adolescents. The aim of the current study was to assess the relationship between parental co-play of video games and behavioral and family outcomes.

METHOD

Participants consisted of 287 adolescents and their parents who completed a number of video game-, behavioral-, and family-related questionnaires as part of a wider study. Most constructs included child, mother, and father reports.

RESULTS

At the bivariate level, time spent playing video games was associated with several negative outcomes, including heightened internalizing and aggressive behavior and lowered prosocial behavior. However, co-playing video games with parents was associated with decreased levels of internalizing and aggressive behaviors, and heightened prosocial behavior for girls only. Co-playing video games was also marginally related to parent-child connectedness for girls, even after controlling for age-inappropriate games played with parents.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to show positive associations for co-playing video games between girls and their parents.