OCD and kids: video games, screen time linked to compulsive behavior

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A recent study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that the amount of time spent on screens by preteens was linked to the future development of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

In fact, every hour of playing video games increases the risk that a child would develop OCD by 15%, according to to study lead author Dr. Jason Nagata, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

Every additional hour per day of watching videos, such as on YouTube, also increases the odds by 11%.

OCD is a mental disorder that features recurring and intrusive thoughts and makes a person feel urged to perform certain repetitive behaviors, the report says. According to the authors of the study, OCD can have severely debilitating effects that continue to a person's adult life.

How the study was conducted

Nagata and his team chose to examine kids aged 9 and 10 for their study since OCD tends to peak around these ages. 

The study evaluated over 9,000 American children who were analyzed using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

The study was almost equally balanced between girls and boys and was racially and ethnically diverse, and researchers examined data at baseline and two years later.

To determine the time spent on screens, every child took a survey that included questions on how many hours they usually spent on various types of screens, including watching TV or movies, playing video games, watching videos, video chatting, texting, and social media. The results were used to calculate the screen time children engage in on a usual day.

A diagnostic tool, the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (KSADS-5), was used to evaluate whether the study participants had OCD at the two-year mark, and researchers found that every additional hour of total screen time was connected to higher odds of having an OCD diagnosis after two years.

Spending hours playing video games and watching videos were the most strongly two screen uses linked to OCD.

Screen time may be linked to OCD development in preteens

In an interview with Healthline, Nagata said that kids who spent a great deal of time playing video games revealed a need to play more and more and an inability to stop even when they needed or wanted to.

“Intrusive thoughts about video game content could develop into obsessions or compulsions,” he explained.

YouTube videos can allow for compulsive viewing, Nagata noted, saying that algorithms and advertisements can exacerbate obsessions and compulsions.

Researchers had one “interesting” observation during the study: no association between traditional television viewing and OCD was found, he noted.

“With traditional television, it’s harder to be so focused on only one area as there are limited channels and programming,” he explained.