Infographic: Parents on How Digital Games Affect Family Life

Children today have access to more devices and platforms than ever before. And that means they have access to more entertainment software too. Over the past few years there have been a number of studies looking at video games and children, from how games affect the brain and motivation to learn. With the Digital Games and Family Life series, the Cooney Center has been digging into what parents of children ages 4-13 really think about their children’s game play.

A majority of the parents we surveyed (83%) put limits on the amount of time their children can play digital games, and 79% are aware of the titles of games their kids play (see this infographic for some popular titles). We also wondered what kind of effects that parents felt that the games have on their children’s attitudes and participation in family life. Half of our respondents (49%) said their children learn things that “may come in handy at school” or lead to interesting family discussions (42%). About one third of the respondents felt their children neglected homework or chores (35%) or were cranky (38%) because of their video game play.

We hope you enjoy this infographic. Check out the full series for more information about when and where children play digital games, popular game genres and titles, and more.