Comparison of children's social problem-solving skills who play videogames and traditional games: a cross-cultural study

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Yılmaz, E., Yel, S. and Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524, 2022. Comparison of children's social problem-solving skills who play videogames and traditional games: a cross-cultural study. Computers and Education, 187: 104548. ISSN 0360-1315

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104548

Abstract

Social problem-solving is a skill that needs to be developed starting from an early age in order to cope with the problems encountered in all areas of individual's lives. Studies trying to explain the influence of children's games (including videogames and more traditional games) on social problem-solving skills examining only a single game are arguably limited because most children do not play a single game in their daily lives and prefer to play a variety of different games. Therefore, the present study investigated the extent to which videogames and traditional games are associated with problem-solving skills among children across two different cultures (i.e., Turkish and British). The study comprised 523 schoolchildren (aged 9–11 years). Of these, 255 of them were studying in the UK (53.33% girl) and 268 of them were studying in Turkey (52.24% girl). The results showed that British children played videogames more than Turkish children while Turkish children spent significantly more time playing traditional games than British children. Boys in both samples spent more time playing videogames than girls. Using the Social Problem Situations Inventory for Children (SPSIC), girls' SPSIC scores were higher than boys' scores and children who played videogames for less than 1 h a day had significantly higher SPSIC scores than those who played videogames for 4 h or more per day. In both cultures (Turkish and British), action and role-playing videogames were the most preferred genres by children while simulation and puzzle games were the least preferred genres. In relation to traditional games, British children mostly preferred to play sport games while Turkish children mostly preferred action games. Action-adventure videogames were a negative predictor of SPSIC scores while simulation and puzzle games and the videogame genres whose primarily production purposes were serious and educational were positive predictors of SPSIC scores. Moreover, action, strategy, role-playing and sport traditional game genres were positively predicted SPSIC scores.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

Computers and Education

Creators:

Yılmaz, E., Yel, S. and Griffiths, M.D.

Publisher:

Elsevier BV

Date:

October 2022

Volume:

187