Children's Use of Electronic Games

Running head: CHILDREN’S USE OF ELECTRONIC GAMES
Children’s Use of Electronic Games
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Children’s Use of Electronic Games
Screen-based computer and video games have greatly influenced play among children leading to decreased physical activity resulting to sedentary living and childhood obesity.
One study was done on sixty healthy children; thirty five boys and twenty five girls aged between nine and twelve recruited from local primary schools in Hong Kong. The aim of the study is to determine whether adjusting difficulty levels influences the amount of time and the activity levels in children playing interactive versions of games. The children participated in two sixty-minute sessions in a controlled laboratory setting where they were allowed to choose and play either an interactive electronic game or a screen game with a similar theme. During one session, they were to choose between interactive bowling-type games and during the other between interactive running-type games. The children were also grouped into two stratified by gender with one group, the fixed intensity playing interactive games in a preset mode and the other, the adjustable intensity being permitted to freely modify game difficulty levels. Observation technique was used using an instrument, System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) that would measure each child’s physical activity and the amount of time spent in each game mode during the two sessions (Sit, Lam, McKenzie, 2010).
The study showed that children in the adjustable intensity level group with free access to changing intensity levels of the interactive games spent more time playing than those in the fixed intensity level group. The Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) was found to be higher during interactive bowling tha...