Research Hit: What is the Impact of Gaming on Teenage Mental Health?

This is good news - or bad news whichever way you turn it!

I considered many titles for this short review. It could have read “Gaming Improves Mental Health of Teenagers” — that may have garnered a few more clicks — not strictly true though. It could also have read “Gaming Has No Impacts on Mental Health of Teenagers”, however, the data can be seen in two ways.

So, I settled on the simple question so as not to mislead too much. But the long and short of it is that we do not need to be overly concerned with gaming rotting our kids’ brains, causing emotional withdrawal, and a host of mental health problems. In the vast majority of cases there is no impact and in a sizeable proportion heavy gaming seem to improve mental health! So, let’s dig into what this study did and didn’t find.