HHS HealthBeat (August 08, 2007)

Playing with the kids

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Mom and Dad want time with the kids. The kids want time with the video game. How to make that work? A researcher has an idea – everybody plays.

Hope Cummings of the University of Michigan bases that on survey data on how 10- to 19-year-olds spent their days. She thinks video games – done right – can draw families together.

"If parents are willing to play video games – particularly for girls, our results show that girls actually spent a significant amount of more time with their parents doing other activities, if they were playing video games together." (11 seconds)

But Cummings also says that boys and girls who played without their parents spent less time with their parents otherwise, too.

Her study in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September, 17 2007