Video game use can have negative impact on GCSE results, study shows

Children who frequently play video games are less likely to achieve five or more good GCSE grades, the results of a new study suggests.

According to the National Children's Bureau's ICT and Me study just under half of 14 to 16-year-olds who used gaming devices twice a day achieved five good grades compared to three-quarters of those who rarely played video games.

The apparent link between child gaming and school performance was discovered as a result of a long-term study of 1,000 Northern Irish teenagers which showed that although gaming impacted on results the general use of computers to do homework could actually help.

Anna Feuchtwang, from the National Children's Bureau, said the results indicated that parents and carers needed to "step in and limit excessive amounts of time spent gaming" but should support the use of computers for purposes relating directly to schoolwork.

She said: "We know that excessive use of gaming seems to have a direct link to poor exam results.

"We found that actually the positive news is that if you're online using it for social media that doesn't seem to have the same impact and if you're online doing homework that's fantastic, but online gaming does seem to have an effect on exam results.

"What teachers were reporting about the children whom they knew were gaming was excessive tiredness so there may be a relationship between sleep disruption and gaming."