A Longitudinal Study Of Children's Online Game Addiction And Executive Function

With the development of the society and the popularization of the Internet,the Internet has become an indispensable part of our production and life.And Internet games as one of today's children are the most common web application,a lot of negative influence on children's physical and mental development,make children's Internet game disorder become a focus problem in today's social attention.Executive function,as a higher cognitive processing ability,is particularly important in the development of children.But there has been controversy over whether Internet gaming disorder impairs executive function.This study aims to explore the basic characteristics and vertical relationship of children's Internet gaming disorder and executive function,providing a reference and basis for further analysis of the causes of children's Internet gaming disorder.In this study,1197 students in grades 2-5 of a primary school in Tianjin were selected by cluster sampling.Have measured for two times.The first test was conducted in May 2019(T1),and the second test was conducted in October 2019(T2).This research adopts the " Internet Gaming Disorder Scale(IGDS)" and " Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory(CHEXI)" as a research tool,to examine children's Internet gaming disorder and the vertical relationship between the executive function.The results showed that:(1)In children as a whole,T1's Internet game disorder significantly predicted all dimensions of T2's executive function,including working memory,planning,inhibition,and regulation.The higher the level of Internet game disorder,the lower the level of executive function.(2)Among boys,T1's Internet game disorder significantly predicted all dimensions of T2's executive function in one direction.(3)In girls,T1's Internet game disorder significantly predicted working memory and regulatory ability in T2's executive function in one direction,but it had no correlation with the planning ability and inhibition ability.By studying the longitudinal relationship between Internet gaming disorder and executive function in adolescents,this study provides some reference for future research.Introducing gender into this study can explore the relationship between Internet gaming disorder and executive function in different genders,and provide theoretical support for preventing Internet gaming disorder and promoting the healthy development of executive function.