Elsevier

Eating Behaviors

Volume 10, Issue 3, August 2009, Pages 161-167
Eating Behaviors

Correlates of video game screen time among males: Body mass, physical activity, and other media use

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2009.05.001Get rights and content

Abstract

This study examined the correlations between media use, body mass variables, and physical activity among 116 male undergraduates (white n = 106; African American n = 5, Latin American n = 1, Asian American n = 2, and 2 others). Length of video game play during one sitting was positively related to body mass index (BMI; r = .27, p < .01) and negatively correlated with frequency of exercise (r =  .21, p < .05) and days of walking (r =  .22, p < .05). Frequency of video game play was negatively correlated with length of exercising (r =  .21, p < .05). Years of video game play was negatively correlated with length of exercise (r =  .21, p < .05). These results were stronger among those who play online games. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that video game use predicted BMI, accounting for 6.9% of the variance. The implications of the results are discussed.

Section snippets

Literature review

Video game play is a ubiquitous activity in industrialized countries, particularly among males (Nielson Company, 2007, Yee, 2006). Research on the correlates and experimental impact of video game play primarily has focused on aggression (see Ballard, Hamby, Panee, & Engold, 2006 for a review). This study examines video game play among males in relation to body mass index, body fat percent, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. The link between media use and physical health correlates has

Participants

Participants included 116 male students (M age = 19.54; ethnicity: white n = 106; African American n = 5, Latino n = 1, Asian American n = 2, and 2 others). Most (72%) participants were non-smokers. Some (32%) participants self-reported that they are athletes. Most of the participants volunteered for the study by signing up for a computerized participant pool that offered them opportunities for research participation in the Psychology Department at Appalachian State University; they received either extra

Results

The primary data analyses consisted of Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses. These analyses are described following the descriptive statistics.

Discussion

The primary goal of this study was to examine the relationship between video game use and BMI, exercise, and other media use. We hypothesized that the video game use would be (a) significantly positively related to BMI, (b) negatively correlated with physical activity, and (c) positively correlated with other media use.

These hypotheses were partially supported. Those who typically engaged in longer sessions of video game play did have higher BMI. The strongest correlations were between BMI and

Role of Funding Sources

The Cratis D. Williams Graduate School at Appalachian State University provided financial support for the conduct of the research. The Graduate School had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Contributors

All of the authors contributed to the design of the study and to collecting data. Dr. Ballard and Melissa Gray conducted literature searches and Melissa Gray provided a summary of many of these articles and wrote a rough draft of the literature review. Dr. Ballard conducted the statistical analysis, wrote the formal paper, and prepared the manuscript for submission. Jenny Reilly and Matthew Noggle gave feedback on drafts of the submission. All authors contributed to and have approved the final

Conflict of Interest

All of the authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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