Research time! According to The Washington Post, researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University discovered that at 8.5 percent of 8-18 year-old Americans are "pathological" gamers.
Gentile used a modified version of the criteria for pathological gambling to formula questions to poll 1,178 children and teens. Those "pathological" gamers experienced spending more and more time gaming to achieve the same level of excitement, irritability when play time is reduced, ditching schoolwork to game and even lying about gaming or stealing games or money to buy them.
These pathological gamers were four times likely to be male, twice as likely to suffer from attention-deficit disorder or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and did worse in school.
"It's not that the games are bad," said Gentile. "It's not that the games are addictive. It's that some kids use them in a way that is out of balance and harms various other areas of their lives."
Other researchers agree that game addiction exists, but in smaller numbers as if there were truly 8.5 percent of kid truly addicted, there would be treatment clinics across the country.
Study Finds Some Youths 'Addicted' to Video Games [The Washington Post via GameBizBlog] [Pic]