title: Game on… girls: associations between co-playing video games and adolescent behavioral and family outcomes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Video game use has been associated with several behavioral and health outcomes for adolescents. The aim of the current study was to assess the relationship between parental co-play of video games and behavioral and family outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants consisted of 287 adolescents and their parents who completed a number of video game-, behavioral-, and family-related questionnaires as part of a wider study. Most constructs included child, mother, and father reports.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the bivariate level, time spent playing video games was associated with several negative outcomes, including heightened internalizing and aggressive behavior and lowered prosocial behavior. However, co-playing video games with parents was associated with decreased levels of internalizing and aggressive behaviors, and heightened prosocial behavior for girls only. Co-playing video games was also marginally related to parent-child connectedness for girls, even after controlling for age-inappropriate games played with parents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to show positive associations for co-playing video games between girls and their parents.
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. smcoyne@byu.edu
authors.forename: Sarah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Coyne
authors.forename: Laura M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Padilla-Walker
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stockdale
authors.forename: Randal D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Day
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012919:Social Behavior; D018910:Video Games / Q000706:statistics & numerical data