Sports versus Video games: Which contributes more to a child’s IQ?

Introduction

The amount of time children spend in playing organized sports is twice the amount they spend in free play (The American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP, 2013). Physical activity has been linked to good physical and mental health in children and teenagers for many years (Oliver et al, 2007). The new century and the new generation are seeing another choice of activity by the children which is video games. Children and their parents find themselves often making the choice between video games or organized sports as a past time for the children (Strasburger & Donnerstein, 1999).

Duncan (1985) writes that ‘background affects ambition, and ambition affects IQ’. Sports and video games, both activities work with ambition, goals and an aim to achieve something. The benefits of physical activity on a child’s mental, physical health have been found in the past few years (Janssen & LeBlanc, 2010). The extent of these benefits has yet to be understood, especially when looked at in the perspective of IQ increase. A lot of research has been conducted on the effects of video games on children’s behavior like aggression, lack of empathy. However, we do not find much constructive research conducted on the effects of video games on children’s IQ. An average child spends about 13 hours per week playing video games (American Psychological Association, APA). This research aims at understanding if a connection is present between a child’s IQ and playing either a sport (physical activity) or video games (media, iPAD, Xbox, Play station etc.).

Background

Anderson (2004) noted a relationship between an increase in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition and exposure to violent video games. Addictive and ‘desensitizing’ behavior among youth who spend time playing video games has also been observed in past research (Funk et al, 2003). On the contrary, Gee (2005) argues that good video games leads to good learning, they challenge a child’s mind and enhances motivation to achieve. His argument is based on the choice of video games and more importantly, place where games are played. He concludes with a question if video games are taken to the classroom, is there enhancement in intelligence? This is what this research attempts to understand that if the intelligence is actually enhanced by playing video games or by indulging in physical activity.

The Athletics Association suggests that participation in sports in high school shows positive effects on personality of students (Roger Rees et al, 1990). The study conducted by Roger Rees, (1990) ends without finding enough evidence to support the argument that ‘sports build character’ and with room for further research to understand the affect of playing sports on children’s thinking. Clark (2008) defines sport as ‘mainly team or organized activity’ such as soccer, competitive swimming, baseball, basketball or hockey. Factors like socioeconomic status, ethnicity, family’s support are crucial for younger children, ages 7-11 years old to be involved in sport (Clark, 2008). Parents’ attitudes towards sports, is the strongest link to how much interest and ambition young children shows towards sports, according to Clark (2008). We find substantial research on how children interest in sports, but not many studies that highlight the affects sports have on the intelligence of children, ages 7-11 years old. A relevant study was conducted by Buck et al (2008) that tested the relationship of aerobic fitness to task performance in preadolescent children. Other data like IQ, personal health records were also taken into account and concluded that aerobics fitness may have benefits to cognitive development in preadolescent age. This study however did not look at the topic comparatively as we do with video games. A connection between physical activity and mental development has been found in some studies. However, a contribution of sports to mental development has not been researched extensively yet.

Problem 

An assessment of past and to date literature reveals that children ages, 7-11 years old are either spending sufficient hours in a week either playing video games (on media, computer or personal devices) or in playing sports. How does each activity contribute to the personality development, IQ and behavior of the children is the question of our research.

Research Questions & Hypotheses

In this study,  we first assess the IQ of two separate groups of children, ages 7-11. The first group is of children who spend at least 10-12 hours a week playing organized sports and probably play video games sporadically. The second group of children is kids, ages 7-11, who spend 10-12 hours a week playing video games and sports are played leisurely. The first goal is to compare the IQ of these two different groups of children. Second goal is to check if their choice of activity is what determines their level of IQ. Finally, the third goal is to see a link between the behavior (negative and positive), social skills, attitude and exposure to either activity i.e. sports or video games.

We predict that children who are involved in sports on a regular basis have better social skills, controlled behavior and higher IQ compared to those children who consume more time in playing video games. We are also assuming that adolescent behavioral problems occur more often among the group of children who play video games compared to the group involved in sports.

Theoretical Framework

Alfred Binet, the founder of the first IQ test that were usable to test intelligence of young children, Binet along with a medical student, Theodore developed these tests on request of the French government to understand demands of school going children’s education needs (Terman, 1961). For ten years starting in 1894, Binet defined intelligence as something vague and just a matter of ‘knowing’ something based on individual differences (Varon, 1936). In 1905, when he developed the IQ tests he highlighted the aspect of attitudes used to measure IQ. According to Broody (2000), Binet was intrigued by the ‘idiographic complexity’ of intelligence present in each person’s life.

This is what we are basing our hypothesis on that intelligence can measured through standard tests, but it varies in individuals especially among children subject to the more than a few factors. Binet also rejected the theory of mental age since most of his work was aimed at testing the needs of retarded children.

References

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Funk, J. B., Buchman, D. D., Jenks, J., & Bechtoldt, H. (2003). Playing violent video games, desensitization, and moral evaluation in children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(4), 413-436.

Gee, J. P. (2005). Good video games and good learning. In Phi Kappa Phi Forum (Vol. 85, No. 2, p. 33). THE HONOR SOCIETY OF PHI KAPPA PHI.

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