One in ten boys become addicted to gaming

 Is there a lot of playing Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft in your home too? You're not alone. Many children and adolescents play a lot, and often with both known and unknown online players. This can be a great way to socialize with friends and acquaintances. But it can get completely out of hand for some.

"When gaming over a long period of time affects the young person's ability to relate to the outside world, it may be due to computer game addiction, or 'Internet gaming disorder'," says Lars Wichstrøm, a professor at NTNU's Department of Psychology.

An international research group investigated how symptoms of computer game addiction develop, and how stable these symptoms are from childhood to late adolescence. Some of the numbers can be troubling.

Boys are much more likely to get hooked on gaming

Two factors were repeated across age and gender among those who were diagnosed with IGD: Strong involvement (a lot of gaming) and  negative consequences (harmful consequences).

"Around one in ten boys met the diagnostic criteria for computer game addiction called 'Internet gaming disorder (IGD)' at least once between the ages of 10 and 18," says Wichstrøm.

Boys are most easily hooked on gaming. Just 1 to 2 per cent of girls develop this kind of problem. An average incidence overall of between 5 and 6 per cent thus hides large gender differences.

Boys are simply more competitive, Wichstrøm says.

"We don't really know why more boys become addicted, but boys have always been more interested in gaming than girls, whether it's computer games, Ludo or chess," he said.

When boys and men do things together, it is often centred around an activity, such as football, carpentry or playing. Girls don't need this type of structure as much.

The fact that boys are simply gaming much more than girls also makes them more vulnerable to becoming addicted.

Also about rewards

"The brain releases dopamine in the its reward center when we do activities we enjoy, like gaming.  This release increases when we expect a positive experience and when the expectation is actually met," says Beate W. Hygen, a senior researcher at NTNU Social Research AS.

Hygen has extensive experience in studying the conditions surrounding computer games.

"Research has shown that dopamine is released during gaming, mostly when you are doing well and especially in competition with others. Boys play competitive games more often, which can result in more frequent dopamine releases. Perhaps this is also part of the explanation for why boys are more often hooked on gaming," says Hygen.

Numbers from a long-term study

The research group has obtained the figures from a group of young people in Trondheim. The Trondheim Early Secure Study is a long-term birth cohort study. Eight hundred and twelve participants from the 2003/2004 cohorts were followed up five times from 10 to 18 years of age, with participants roughly equal divided between genders.

The measurements were largely comparable across ages.

"We see that the proportion who are heavily involved in gaming increases from the age of 10 to the age of 16. But then this clearly falls when they are 18 years old," says Wichstrøm.

Despite the fact that gaming decreased for the 18-year-olds, the negative consequences remained stable. This may indicate that many people are quitting or reducing their gaming. But a smaller group continues to game, with negative consequences for some.

Address the problem early

Parents who wonder if their child can become addicted to computer games are wise to address this early.

• "Children who are heavily involved in gaming as they approach their teenage years are more likely to become even more involved later on. They also experience negative consequences more often, especially when they are 14 to 18 years old," Wichstrøm points out.
• Early adolescence, around 12 years, can be an important time for prevention and early intervention. This is before the symptoms become more complex and difficult to change, he said.

Researchers from NTNU Social Research AS, Nottingham Trent University and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology were also involved in the research.

Reference:
Wichstrøm L, Hygen BW, Kuss DJ, Stavropoulos V, Skalická V, Rodríguez-Cano R, Øien AK, Stenseng F, Steinsbekk S. Structure and stability of internet gaming disorder from childhood to late adolescence: A 5-wave birth cohort study. Addiction. 2025 Sep 20 doi: 10.1111/add.70195. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40974257.

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Journal

Addiction

DOI

10.1111/add.70195 

Educational reforms have attempted to fix past problems instead of inventing the future

 For decades, the consensus has been that American education is not good enough, students are falling behind and society needs to do something to improve schools. But countless efforts at reform and millions in investments have not resulted in better education. In a new book, a University of Kansas scholar argues that is because leaders are trying to fix the problems of the past for all students instead of finding a new way forward for each individual.

“Fix the Past or Invent the Future: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education” by Yong Zhao, Foundation Distinguished Professor in the KU School of Education & Human Sciences, details the problems with reform efforts and how each individual has the power, not to mention the technology, to help students find and solve problems for the betterment of the world.

“The basic argument is this: Education has been trying to improve for a long time. People say education should be better. Everybody is complaining and we’re investing so much in reform, but why haven’t schools improved? I said, ‘I’m going to try to explain why improvement hasn’t happened. First, any improvement hasn’t been about meeting the needs of the individual student. Each classroom features a real child, not a probability. Our society seems to be intent on applying the same approach to all children.”

The book features two parts of five chapters each. In part one, “Fix the Past,” Zhao focuses first on the issue of probability. Research in the field looks for ways to find solutions, interventions, approaches and methods to better reach students. The studies are widely accepted by educators, policymakers and others, who often fail to realize that probability is not certainty and that even if a given approach works for some students, it inevitably will not work for others.

Further, Zhao provides detailed analysis of how efforts at improvement such as the growth mindset and social-emotional learning can result in stubbornness and fail to solve students’ emotional problems at school.

Finishing part one, Zhao points out how artificial intelligence is often viewed as either a threat or an opportunity to education. If applied in the current paradigm, AI would fail to solve any problems, as it would be applying new technology to the old educational paradigm, he wrote.

In part two, “Invent the Future,” Zhao illustrates how society is at a moment of opportunity to finally make real improvements to how young people are educated. While some may view AI as a shortcut or way for students to not do their own work, it can be a way for students and educators to customize education to each individual.

“Personalized learning follows an individual’s strengths and passions. I describe how that can be done with AI,” Zhao said. “I also look at how you can use it to find and solve problems that are helpful to society. People cannot continue to compete with each other using the same set of outdated skills, but that is what our system is doing. We should focus on each person’s strengths.”

In following chapters, the author elaborates on how schools, teachers and individuals can move from teaching known answers to known problems to develop the future-facing skill of identifying new issues and how to solve them, one of the most necessary skills future citizens will need. Such an approach could grow beyond the classroom to help establish human interdependence and shift away from the myth of meritocracy,  Zhao wrote.

Last, the book acknowledges that reform efforts have largely failed, which can understandably leave people feeling defeated, or that new attempts by those in power will also fail. But one needs not wait for the traditional methods of reform to catch up, and Zhao leaves readers with a message of inspiration on how each student, educator and community member can make changes without waiting for larger, societal shifts. Students, teachers and others willing to personalize learning can start by forming a “school within a school,” wherein new approaches outside of the traditional approach are accepted.

The final chapter points out how anyone interested, be it just a few educators, students or parents, can start the reform themselves. 

“The message of the book is, ‘Can we imagine a new future for education?' Right now it’s about curriculum, standards and assessment,” Zhao said. “I think we should break out of that and ask about each child. What are you good at, or what do you want to be good at? Then look at resources like family, AI, community and what is unique to each setting to find and solve problems that matter.”

As a young man, Zhao would often get carsick on bus rides. Riding along while others steer where educational reform goes can leave teachers, students and families feeling unwell. The answer is to become the driver, he said.

“I learned the driver never gets carsick,” Zhao said. “You want to be the driver of change. Change comes from you, and we can’t encourage others to change without changing ourselves.

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Increase in risk of binge drinking among 12th graders who use 2 or more cannabis products

 The cannabis marketplace continues to grow and evolve, offering consumers new ways to use cannabis — and new ways to combine it with other substances, such as alcohol. That practice can be particularly detrimental to adolescents, who are known to use both substances in high numbers.

And when it comes to cannabis use and binge drinking among high school seniors, modality matters, according to new research from the University at Buffalo finding that differing modes of cannabis consumption may be associated with risky alcohol use behaviors in this population.

The study is among the first to evaluate modes of cannabis use on binge drinking outcomes among U.S. 12th graders. Researchers sought to first assess modes of cannabis administration among 12th grade students. The next objective was to understand the association between different methods of cannabis use, such as smoking, vaping or consuming via edibles, and multi-modal cannabis use — the use of two or more cannabis products — with binge drinking outcomes over the previous two weeks.

Published last month in Substance Use & Misuse, the study leveraged 2018-2021 data from a nationally representative sample of high school seniors who completed surveys as part of Monitoring the Future, an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes and values of Americans from adolescence through adulthood.

It’s not just the ways cannabis can be consumed that’s increasing, largely due to the greater availability of vaped and edible cannabis products. The use of two or more cannabis products among U.S. 12th graders is also on the rise.

“Different ways of using cannabis matters. Students who smoke, vape or dab cannabis are more likely to binge drink compared to those who don’t use or use other modes of cannabis,” says study first author Michelle Goulette, who obtained her PhD in community health and health behavior from UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions this fall.

“Additionally, using more than one mode increases the risk of binge drinking. Students who use at least two or more modes of cannabis administration are at an increased risk for engaging in recent binge drinking,” adds Goulette, who conducted the research during her PhD program.

Goulette wanted to study cannabis use risks following New York State’s legalization of recreational cannabis in 2021.

“I wanted to study the risks associated with use as they are often overlooked. People may not know that there are different levels of risk associated with cannabis use depending on the way that it is administered,” she says.

Among survey participants, nearly 31% reported using cannabis within the previous year. At 87%, smoking was the most reported method of cannabis use, followed by edible consumption (49%) and vaping (45%). In addition, the majority of cannabis users, or 65%, reported multi-modal cannabis use, which means they used at least two or more different ways of consuming cannabis.

Smoking, vaping and dabbing — the process of vaporizing highly potent cannabis concentrates at extremely high temperatures — all were associated with any past two-week binge drinking occurrence.

“What surprised me was that edible forms of cannabis were not associated with binge drinking,” Goulette says. “I initially thought that drinkable cannabis products might be linked to the higher use of alcohol. I was surprised when it was only associated with combustible modes of cannabis. This could be from the high levels of THC that are often found within these drinkable products, but I can’t say for certain as I did not assess THC levels.”

Advertising might provide one explanation for the increase in the prevalence of cannabis product use. Goulette and her colleagues cited previous research that found that cannabis advertisement exposure was highest among U.S. adolescents compared to any other age group.

The researchers conclude that cannabis use methods need to be evaluated more frequently among adolescents to better understand the risks associated with different cannabis products and that tighter regulation should be considered if certain products are found to have more risks compared to others.

“We know that new forms of cannabis enter the market every day and vary between states due to cannabis legislation. If certain modes of cannabis are associated with an increased risk of binge drinking in adolescents, we should educate adolescents on what those modes are,” Goulette says. “There are both benefits and risks to cannabis use, and providing clear education about these distinctions can help guide adolescents toward safer choices.”

Co-authors on the paper are Alison Haney, PhD, assistant professor; Gregory Homish, PhD, chair and professor; and Jessica Kulak, PhD, clinical associate professor, all of the UB Department of Community Health and Health Behavior.

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Journal

Substance Use & Misuse

DOI

10.1080/10826084.2025.2581244 

School feeding programs lead to modest but meaningful results

 

Free or subsidized school meals lead to modest gains in math and school enrollment, according to a new Cochrane review that examined the global impact of school feeding programs on disadvantaged children in both high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries.

The research team, led by scientists from University of Ottawa, found that providing free or subsidized meals in schools slightly improves math achievement and enrolment rates in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and likely contributes to small gains in physical growth indicators such as height-for-age and weight-for-age scores.

School feeding programs aim to reduce hunger and improve children’s learning, focus, and overall health. Worldwide, many children do not get enough nutritious food to keep them healthy and ready to learn in school, and disadvantaged children are particularly vulnerable. LMICs account for almost 90% of global undernutrition. Yet in 2024, on average, only 27 percent of primary schoolchildren in low-income countries and 42 percent in lower-middle-income countries received school meals. In contrast, 58% of children in upper-middle-income countries, and 79% in high-income countries received school meals, according to a report from the World Food Programme.

Consistent improvements in growth, enrollment, and math achievement

The review analyzed 40 studies including 91,000 students across primary and secondary schools. Most studies were conducted in LMICs, including some in conflict-affected regions, expanding on earlier evidence that was limited in geographical scope.

Overall, the authors found school feeding programs in LMICs lead to a small increase in math test scores and school enrollment. They were also likely to lead to slight gains in a relative measure of a child’s height and weight for age. However, the authors found that these programs may have little to no effect on reading test scores and school attendance.

“School meals are a critical source of nourishment for children experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage,” said Jennifer Garner, a Registered Dietitian and Assistant Professor from University of Michigan School of Public Health who co-authored the review. “Given the variation in contexts and program designs studied, seeing measurable improvements in growth, enrolment, and math achievement is encouraging.”

Despite the promising findings, the authors caution that evidence from high-income countries is limited, so results should not be generalised beyond LMICs.

“School meal programs play an important role in improving health and educational outcomes for disadvantaged children,” said Elizabeth Kristjansson, lead author and Professor Emeritus from the University of Ottawa. “What we’re seeing are modest, but real results. The way I see it, we have a moral imperative to feed hungry children.”  

Calls for stronger research and greater equity

The team emphasises the need for stronger, more standardised research to guide future policymaking. They argue that policymakers should treat research as an integral part of decisions around implementing and running school feeding programs.

They also call for more attention to equity. Dr Anita Rizvi, another author of the review from the University of Ottawa, said, “Research too often focuses on average effects and misses differences between groups. We assessed outcomes by socioeconomic disadvantage and sex, but too few studies reported these data to draw firm conclusions. Future studies need larger, better-designed comparisons.”

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Journal

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

DOI

10.1002/14651858.CD014794.pub2 

Guide for parents of adolescents with autism published by Oxford University Press

 

The prevalence of autism as reported by the federal government has increased substantially in recent years. The latest figures, published in April 2025 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), show that among eight-year-olds at selected study sites, 1 in 31 were identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020.

What this reported rise in the prevalence of autism means, and what has caused it, are subjects of fierce debate. Contrary to the resurgence of debunked claims that vaccines may be linked with autism, what is clear is that “much of autism is genetic,” wrote FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). The National Academies of Sciences and Medicine said that “based on our body of work on this topic and the overwhelming scientific consensus, we support the statement that vaccines do not cause autism.”

For adolescents diagnosed with autism, the transition to adulthood is replete with challenges beyond the usual ones that all teens face. To help them, their parents, and other caregivers navigate this terrain, Oxford University Press has published the new book “If Your Adolescent Has Autism: An Essential Resource for Parents,” by Emily J. Willingham, Ph.D. (Oxford University Press, 2025), the latest in a series superintended by APPC for parents of teens who have been diagnosed with a variety of mental health conditions, including depression and bipolar disorder.

This concise, authoritative guide to understanding and helping an autistic teenager offers the latest in evidence-based information about the intersection between adolescence and autism, covering the years from middle school to adulthood, including college and employment. The book features the real-life stories of autistic people and their parents, as well as an extensive list of resources to help them through this transition. This accessible guide addresses autism along with co-occurring medical and mental health issues, social connections, puberty and hygiene, and sexuality.

“This book is a wonderful combination of knowledge and suggestions about how to support adolescents with autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions,” says Catherine L. Lord, Ph.D., George Tarjan Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Education at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. She describes the guide as “relevant for any reader who wants to better understand and support an autistic adolescent anywhere on the spectrum.”

The book is one in a series developed by the Adolescent Mental Health Initiative, a project of  the Annenberg Public Policy Center and The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, under the guidance of series editor Patrick E. Jamieson, Ph.D., director of APPC’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute.

“This book fills an important gap between childhood and adulthood by providing a reader-friendly guide for caregivers of adolescent autistic persons by addressing the specific challenges that autism poses,” Jamieson said.

This month, Oxford University Press will publish an updated, third edition of “Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders,” an extensive overview for clinicians and others of the major mental health disorders that emerge during adolescence. The updated volume, co-edited by Dan Romer, APPC’s research director, includes treatment and prevention approaches in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to greater use of online interventions. The book covers the latest knowledge about problematic internet use, gambling, stigma reduction, and positive youth development, among many other topics.

About the author

Emily J. Willingham is a developmental biologist and journalist who earned a Ph.D. in biology at the University of Texas at Austin, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular developmental genetics. The author of several books, Willingham’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Aeon, Undark, and other outlets. She has been a regular contributor to Scientific American.

About the series

If Your Adolescent Has Autism is the latest in a series developed by the Adolescent Mental Health Initiative for parents, caregivers, teachers and others seeking guidance and support in helping adolescents with a range of adolescent mental health conditions. Other books in the series focus on teens with bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia. Learn more about them and download free PDFs of the older books in the series on the Annenberg Public Policy Center website.

Read an excerpt from “If Your Adolescent Has Autism” on Medium. The book on autism is available in hardcover and paperback, and from online book sellers as an eBook.

If Your Adolescent Has Autism | Oxford University Press | November 2025 | Paperback | $19.99 | ISBN: 9780197513132.

If Your Adolescent Has Autism | Oxford University Press | November 2025 |Hardcover | $99.00 | ISBN: 9780197513149.

Using social media may impair children’s attention

 Children who spend a significant amount of time on social media tend to experience a gradual decline in their ability to concentrate. This is according to a comprehensive study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Pediatrics Open Science, where researchers followed more than 8,000 children from around age 10 through age 14.

The use of screens and digital media has risen sharply in the past 15 years, coinciding with an increase in ADHD diagnoses in Sweden and elsewhere. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Oregon Health & Science University in the USA have now investigated a possible link between screen habits and ADHD-related symptoms.

The study followed 8,324 children aged 9–10 in the USA for four years, with the children reporting how much time they spent on social media, watching TV/videos and playing video games, and their parents assessing their levels of attention and hyperactivity/impulsiveness.

Social media stands out

Children who spent a significant amount of time on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter or Messenger, gradually developed inattention symptoms; there was no such association, however, for watching television or playing video games.

“Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate,” says Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. “Social media entails constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and the mere thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain the association.”

Significance at population level

The association was not influenced by socioeconomic background or a genetic predisposition towards ADHD. Additionally, children who already had symptoms of inattentiveness did not start to use social media more, which suggests that the association leads from use to symptoms and not vice versa.

The researchers found no increase in hyperactive/impulsive behaviour. The effect on concentration was small at the individual level. At a population level, however, it could have a significant impact.

“Greater consumption of social media might explain part of the increase we’re seeing in ADHD diagnoses, even if ADHD is also associated with hyperactivity, which didn’t increase in our study,” says Professor Klingberg.

Well-informed decisions

The researchers stress that the results do not imply that all children who use social media develop concentration difficulties, but there is reason to discuss age limits and platform design. In the study, the average time spent on social media rose from approximately 30 minutes a day for 9-year-olds to 2.5 hours for 13-year-olds, despite the fact that many platforms set their minimum age requirement at 13.

“We hope that our findings will help parents and policymakers make well-informed decisions on healthy digital consumption that support children’s cognitive development,” says the study’s first author Samson Nivins, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet.

The researchers now plan to follow the children after the age of 14 to see if this association holds.

The study was financed by the Swedish Research Council and the Masonic Home for Children in Stockholm Foundation. There are no reported conflicts of interest.

Publication: “Digital media, Genetics and Risk for ADHD Symptoms in Children – a Longitudinal Study”, Samson Nivins, Michael A. Mooney, Joel Nigg, Torkel Klingberg, Pediatrics Open Science, online 8 December 2025, doi: 10.1542/pedsos.2025-000922.

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Journal

Pediatrics Open Science

DOI

10.1542/pedsos.2025-000922 

Student writing has evolved in the AI era

Style, sentiment, and quality of undergraduate writing in the AI era: A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of 4,820 authentic empirical reports

 A University of Warwick-led analysis of almost 5,000 student-authored reports suggests that student writing has become more polished and formal since the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022— but grades have remained stable.

Published in Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, the new study examines student reports submitted over a 10-year period and finds that the ‘language’ in students’ writing has become more sophisticated, formal, and positive since 2022, coinciding with the widespread availability of generative AI (GenAI).

GenAI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot are now widely used across higher education with a recent sector-wide survey showing that up to 88% of students report using ChatGPT for assessments.

This new analysis of 4,820 reports, containing 17 million words, is one of the largest of its kind. The experiment does not assess individual student’s AI use but instead explores how writing has evolved at a cohort level during a period of rapid technological change.

It found that since 2022, writing sentiment has become more positive overall, regardless of the substantive content of the reports. This mirrors well-documented positivity tendencies in many GenAI systems, which are designed to produce polite, constructive-sounding responses.

Dr. Matthew Mak, Assistant Professor in Psychology, University of Warwick and first author said: “The tone of students’ writing appears more positive, in line with ChatGPT's output, which is not inherently a good or bad thing, but it does raise concerns about the possibility of AI tools homogenising students’ voices.

“There are also psychological studies showing that we tend to be less critical when we are in a positive mood; if students constantly receive GenAI output, it raises important questions about how these AI tools shape students’ critical thinking in the long term.”

The study also found significant increases in formality and range of vocabulary after ChatGPT’s launch. These stylistic features would be expected to appear after many years of writing experience, making it unlikely this is a natural development in students’ writing abilities nor does it indicate corresponding improvements in their underlying writing skills.

Additionally, some words frequently associated with AI-generated text, such as “delve” and “intricate”, rose sharply in use until 2024 before plummeting in 2025, suggesting that students may have moderated their use—to make their writing read less AI-assisted.

To better understand these trends, the researchers also asked ChatGPT to rewrite reports submitted before ChatGPT was launched in 2022. These rewritten reports exhibited similar shifts in tone and style as in those submitted after ChatGPT’s launch, providing additional evidence that the observed cohort-level changes are influenced by students’ engagement with GenAI tools.

Importantly, despite these stylistic shifts, there was no corresponding changes in grades or examiner feedback. This may suggest that core academic skills — such as critical reasoning, interpretation, and argumentation — remain central to assessment and have, at least, not yet been overshadowed by changes in surface-level style brought about by ChatGPT.

Professor Lukasz Walasek, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, author of the paper added: “Our findings highlight a transition in writing style that is likely happening across sectors. It is vital that institutions understand how tools like GenAI interact with learning and communication. This will help universities design assessments and guidance that support students to use these technologies responsibly and effectively.”

The findings present opportunities for institutions to rethink assessment design, AI policy, and to support students in developing strong, authentic writing voices in an AI-rich world.

The paper ‘Style, sentiment, and quality of undergraduate writing in the AI era: A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of 4,820 authentic empirical reports’ is published in Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2025.100507