Time Spent Gaming and Social Competence in Children: Reciprocal Effects Across Childhood

2019/04/23 by Beate Wold Hygen, Jay Belsky, Frode Stenseng +4 · 66 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Child Development and Digital Technology #Impact of Technology on Adolescents #Social Media and Politics #Norwegian #Psychology #Social competence #Developmental psychology #Socioeconomic status #Competence (human resources) #Reciprocal #Social change #Social psychology #Demography #Population

paper · open access · doi:10.1111/cdev.13243

published in Child Development 91(3), 861-875 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2019/04/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/19

Abstract

Electronic games are popular and many children spend much time on this activity. Here we investigate whether the quantity of time children spend on gaming is related to their social development, making this the first study to examine this relationship in children. We examine prospective relations between time spent gaming and social competence in a community sample of Norwegian 6 year olds (n = 873) followed up at ages 8, 10, and 12, controlling for socioeconomic status, body mass index, and time spent gaming together with friends. Results revealed that greater social competence at both 8 and 10 years predicted less gaming 2 years later and that more age-10 gaming predicted less social competence at age 12 but only among girls.

Citations

• Socioeconomic Status, Family Processes,and Individual Development
• The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Research Note
• The benefits of playing video games.
• Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives
• The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance
• Species Richness of Parasite Assemblages: Evolution and Patterns
• Young Children's Video/Computer Game Use: Relations with School Performance and Behavior
• The Nature of Social Competence: A Theoretical Review

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