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Video Game Addictions in Children
An Assessment Questionnaire for Parents

• Does your child play video games for hours at a time?

• Does he have few interests other than gaming?

• Are his school grades suffering because of excessive video game playing?

• Does he get angry or defensive when you ask him to cut back on the time he spends playing video games?

Did you answer "yes" to any of the questions above? If so, you may be worried that your child is addicted to video games. The Video Game Addiction Questionnaire for Parents (below) may be helpful in assessing how much of a problem this is, and the book How to Help Children Addicted to Videos Games - A Guide for Parents is now available for instant download.

Although video game addiction is not yet a formal diagnosis (see more on the issue of diagnosing video game addiction), there is little doubt that some people play far too much and that it interferes with healthy functioning in other parts of their lives.

Although people of all ages can find themselves struggling to break an addiction to video games, children, teens and young adults may be most at risk.

Because children and teens have less experience setting healthy limits for themselves and recognizing when a behavior is becoming problematic, they may be more likely to develop an addiction to a formerly harmless and enjoyable activity such as playing video games.

Every day TechAddiction receives emails from parents concerned about how excessive video game play is interfering with their child's health and happiness. To help parents assess video game addictions in children and whether they should take action on their child's video game habits, TechAddiction is now offering the most comprehensive video game addiction assessment questionnaire for parents available on the internet.

The Video Game Addiction Questionnaire for Parents is a 30-item multiple choice survey of your child's gaming habits. Questions ask not only about excessive gaming but also about behaviors and factors that may protect against the development of video game addictions in children. As such, it is believed that this questionnaire can offer a more comprehensive assessment of your child's video game addiction status (as compared to the short surveys on other websites asking only about risk factors).

Keep in mind however that no questionnaire can perfectly measure a psychological difficulty (including video game addictions in children). The purpose of this test is to provide parents with an initial sense of whether their child may have a problem with excessive video gaming. If after completing this questionnaire you still believe your child is addicted to video games, it may be helpful to have an in-person consultation with a psychologist or counsellor in your area. Additionally, the workbook How to Help Children Addicted to Video Games - A Guide for Parents is now available at TechAddiction.

If you are concerned about your child's video game habits, I sincerely hope that you find this questionnaire helpful for assessing the extent of the problem and for taking steps to help him or her.

Dr. Brent Conrad,
Clinical Psychologist
TechAddiction.ca

Is your child addicted to video games? Now you know.