Feb 10, 2011 18:31 GMT  ·  By

A new study suggests that the so-called gaming addiction might be a problem that stems from bigger psychological issues and that its symptoms could be managed differently based on the gender of the gamer that spends too much time on his or her hobby.

The new scientific paper will be published in the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and has been conducted by psychologists at the Eastern Michigan University, with 126 college students serving as subjects.

They were asked to detail their game playing habits and to then fill out a survey which dealt with any real life problems, like bad school performance, sleep issues or relationship trouble that could be linked with excess video-game playing.

The psychologists also administered a test for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to the college students, to see whether a previous condition could be linked to problem gaming.

The specialists are saying that the results show that men were overall more likely to game for longer periods of time and report problems linked to this activity while women were more likely to have problem gaming associated with ADHD symptoms.

The Eastern Michigan University psychologists are saying that the study also shows that teaching male gamers techniques linked to time management was usually all that was needed to reduce their gaming time and lessen the impact that their hobby had on their lives.

Researchers are saying, “These findings suggest that interventions to address problematic play may need to vary as a function of gender. Specifically, for men, time management training may help alleviate problematic play, but for women, reducing ADHD symptoms may be more effective.”

Video games, like other new entertainment mediums such as comics and television before them, have been blamed for a lot of the problems of the youth, from bad performance in school to obesity.