London - Children with autism spend about twice as much time playing videogames as those who do not have a developmental disability, according to a new study.
Researchers also found that children with an autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at an increased risk of gaming addictions, compared to children without the disabilities.
“What we found is that it looks like addictive gaming is largely driven by inattention,” said Christopher Engelhardt of the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Previous studies have found that children with an autism spectrum disorder or ADHD spend more time playing videogames and are at increased risk of gaming addictions, the researchers wrote in the journal Paediatrics.
No single study, however, has looked at the three groups to see whether shared features of autism and ADHD – such as inattention or hyperactivity – seem to drive videogame use.
For the new study, Engelhardt and his colleague surveyed the parents of 141 boys between the ages of eight and 18.
Of those, 56 had an autism spectrum disorder, 44 had ADHD and 41 were developing normally.
Overall, they found that children with an autism spectrum disorder played – on average – 2.1 hours of videogames a day.
Children with ADHD spent about 1.7 hours a day playing videogames and normally developing children played about 1.2 hours a day.
Children with an autism spectrum disorder or ADHD were also more likely to have a videogame system in their rooms, according to the researchers.
The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends children do not spend more than two hours in front of a screen a day.
The researchers also asked the parents to answer questions about the types of videogames their children played the most, about their gaming behaviour and symptoms of hyperactivity and inattention.
While normally developing children tended to pick first-person shooter or sports games, children with autism and ADHD were more likely to play role-playing games.
Role-playing games have been linked to videogame addiction in previous studies.
The researchers did find that children with an autism spectrum disorder or ADHD were more likely to exhibit symptoms of videogame addiction or problematic videogame use, compared to those with typical development.
Overall, they found the number of hours a child spent playing videogames and inattention were linked to videogame addiction.
“Among people with autism, the score on problematic videgame behaviour was driven by inattention and role-playing videogames and not hyperactivity,” Engelhardt said. – Daily Mail