Peer-Reviewed Study

Gaming—A Bane or a Boon—A Systematic Review

Apr 2019 🇮🇳 Asian Journal of Psychiatry PEER-REVIEWED PAYWALLED — LINKED, NOT HOSTED

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This Asian Journal of Psychiatry systematic review by Nisha John, Manoj Kumar Sharma, and Aruna Rose Mary Kapanee surveyed 41 studies published between 1997 and 2017 on video and online gaming's effects on behavior and mental health. The authors describe gaming preferences as shaped by age, gender, parental involvement, and game design, and note that excessive gaming has been associated in the reviewed literature with strained relationships and, in a small number of extreme cases they cite, viral game challenges linked to self-harm, such as the Blue Whale Challenge. They also point to gamification's documented benefits in education, health, and social settings. The review calls for more cross-cultural research to weigh gaming's risks against its recognized benefits rather than treating it as uniformly harmful. TechKids Foundation cites this as a clinician-authored review holding both gaming's risks and its benefits in view.

41 studies reviewed, spanning 1997–2017

The systematic review synthesized two decades of published research on video and online gaming's psychosocial effects, examining both harms and benefits rather than one or the other alone.

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CITATION

John, Nisha, Manoj Kumar Sharma, and Aruna Rose Mary Kapanee. "Gaming—A Bane or a Boon—A Systematic Review." Asian Journal of Psychiatry 42 (2019): 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2019.03.001

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