BYU Study Sees You Gaming, Isn't Happy
Well, the Deseret News (one of the big newspapers in Utah) recently put an article about a BYU study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence this month that deals with internet and videogame use in 'emerging adults' (i.e. undergrad college students). The News article actually interviews the undergrad student, Alex Jensen, who assisted Laura Walker, also interviewed, and two other professors on the study, Jensen probably doing the grunt work of gathering and correlating the data. The study is interesting in that it correlates the habits of young adults and their use of internet and gaming medias; however, the study is sensationalized in that, as Professor Walker states, ""everything we found associated with video games came out negative." How negative? Well GamePolitics reports that these were three of the major conclusions:
- the more the students play video games, the worse their relationships are with friends and parents (although this effect is modest)
- those who play video games daily smoke pot twice as much as other players and three times more than those who never play
- young women who play often have lower self-esteem
Now before everyone starts lambasting the study, let's look at who the sample for this study was:
Participants included 813 undergraduate students (500 young women, 313 young men, M age = 20, SD = 1.87) who were mainly European American (79%), unmarried (100%) and living outside their parents' home (90%).
So, basically this looks like the sample set was unmarried undergraduate students (possibly) at BYU. As some of you may know, I have two siblings that have gone to BYU and numerous friends who are attended or have attended the college, and I'll be the first to admit that the undergraduate population at BYU is not known for being the best cross section of American youth in the nation. Hell, I'm even surprised that any of them even admitted to smoking pot if they actually attend BYU (which leads me to believe that the study may not solely comprise of BYU students); needless to say, this may not have been the most culturally, socially, and racially diverse group.
MUCH more info after the jump.
So the study showed a number of findings on how gender, videogames, and internet use correlate to social interactions and self image, and while the correlation between games and relationships was slightly negative, "the good news for gamers is the association between relationship quality and video games is a modest one, statistically." Professor Walker quickly steps back and states that "I don't want parents to go out and yank all video games... It's like TV. We have to choose what's good and bad and practice moderation." Well at least that sounds like a level headed statement. I also hope that parents have detached themselves enough from their 'emerging adult' children to realize that trying to remove these items in such a manner would only add to a poor self image, since that means your parents are still running your life at the age of 19 or older.
The most important quote I found in the article is that it specifically states that this was a correlation study and not one that we can draw causation from:
The study didn't allow Jensen and Walker to determine whether video games are drawing college-age adults away from social settings or if they are a way for those already struggling with relationships to spend their time. Walker [the professor] guesses both are at play.
My two cents, I think most kids that are leaving their parents for the first time, going to a new college environment, making new friends, starting to date people more seriously, are probably going to have a lot of relationship problems with both family members and/or loved ones. The fact that the ones with more problems turn to games might show just how comforting games can be; however, one shouldn't spend all your time escaping life through games either.
I'm not in academia anymore, so I'll have to wait to try and get my hands on the study, but I do have a sister who may have worked with a few of these professors, so I'll update you guys if she can tell me anything more about the study. Until then try to go and take those games out of the hands of all those suffering BYU undergrads, I know I'll try to do so too.
Y. student researches effects of video games [Deseret News]
[via GamePolitics]
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany, Video Games on 23 January 2009
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: byu, college, correlation, negative habits, pot, relationships, study, utah
I love these studies that show when you do something in excess that bad things happen. Next they'll tell us why obesity is rampant and drug abuse hurts families and kittens. :)
Animal Crossing is a gateway drug!!
They have time for relationships, games and drugs? Lucky them.
I feel guilty for 'wasting' time even reading this rather n studying.
Frankly, I think the gaming industry has attracted too much attention to itslef in the last few years. Otherwise Ican't explain why are so many redundant studies being done about gaming.
It's Brigham-Young University, for goodness sake. This is a university that has published "research" on how plural marriages have much higher positive correlations with healthier, overall lifestyles (e.g., average life span, incidence of serious medical conditions, overall quality of life) than those who practice monogamous relationships. I put the word 'research' in quotations because their studies were later found to contain an incredible amount of sampling bias in order to skew the results in their favor.
Any further "research" put forth by this school gets nothing more than a hearty chuckle from me.
Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation.
Jesus, people. You're /scientists/, for God's sake.
These studies are a waste of money.
The Mormons need to start acting Christ-like and spend that money feeding and sheltering the ever increasing homeless population due to this crappy economy.
Dear Lordy! Why are there so many gay Mormons? What is it? The dance festivals? Homoerotic encounters at scout camp? Roadshows? Oh wait, I just answered my own question.