Television and Video Game Use Among Children with ASD Compared to Typically Developing Siblings

Background:  

Clinical and anecdotal reports suggest that excessive use of television and video games can be a clinically significant problem for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).  It is possible that for some individuals with ASD, the tendency to engage in restricted and repetitive interests may manifest as preoccupation with television and video games.  Surprisingly, there has been almost no empirical research on this topic.  This issue has clear clinical relevance given that excessive use of television and video games has been shown to have detrimental effects on functioning and outcomes among typically developing (TD) children (Anderson et al, 2008, Landhuis et al., 2007, Sharif et al., 2009).  This study represents a first step towards characterizing the nature of television and video game use among children with ASD. 

Objectives:  

1) To examine patterns of television and video game use among children with ASD as compared to TD siblings, and 2) to examine the extent to which children with ASD engage in problematic use of video games.

Methods:  

The sample included 202 children with ASD and 179 TD siblings (ages 8-18). Participants were recruited with the assistance of the Interactive Autism Network (IAN) Research Database at Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins Medicine. Data were collected online via web-based parent-completed surveys.  Measures included a demographic history form, a modified version of the Problem Video Game Playing Test (PVGT; King et al. 2011), questions assessing parental video game rules and beliefs, and questions assessing hours per day spent in various screen-based and other activities.

Results:  

Independent samples t-tests revealed that children with ASD spent significantly more hours per day than TD siblings watching TV (2.2 vs. 1.9, p = .03) and playing video games (2.3 vs. 1.2, p = .000); and significantly less time than TD siblings engaged in reading, homework, spending time with friends, and physical activity (all p = .000). Children with ASD were also significantly less likely than TD siblings to play video games with others, χ²(1, N = 377) = 12.0, p = .001, or to play online multiplayer video games, χ²(1, N = 376) = 13.4, p = .000, and spent fewer hours per day using social media (0.2 vs. 1.0, p = .000 ).  Children with ASD also demonstrated significantly higher PVGT scores (M = 38.99) than TD siblings (M = 30.53), t(345) = 7.44, p = .000. 

Conclusions:  

Consistent with anecdotal observations, the results indicate that children with ASD spend a great deal of time watching television and playing video games, and that solitary screen-based media use accounts for a majority of extracurricular time.  Children with ASD spent significantly more time watching television and playing video games than TD children, and had higher levels of problematic video game use.  In contrast, children with ASD spent little time using social media or engaging in interactive video game play with others.  Future studies using well-characterized samples and longitudinal designs are needed to examine the predictors and outcomes of television and video game use among children with ASD.