In the third interview, the participants were 16 years old, and 25 percent of them said they engaged in unsafe driving habits. Meanwhile, the number of participants who said they were in a car accident in that timeframe went from eight percent to 14 percent. The number of teens who said they’d been pulled over between the second and third interviews increased from 11 percent to 21 percent. The games noted were associated with increases in thrill seeking, rebelliousness and self-reported risky driving, according to the study. teenagers, where half of the participants reported in their initial interview that their parents let them play mature video games. Reckless driving could lead to an increase in car accidents, police stops and more willingness to drink and drive.ĭartmouth College conducted a study that comprised 5,000 U.S.

Teenagers who play more mature or risk-glorifying video games could be more inclined to become reckless drivers than those who don’t play those types of games, according to the American Psychological Association. Different Video Games Impact Teens’ Driving In Different Ways Here are a few observations about whether or not video games impact teen driving. Several studies have been conducted to examine video games’ impact on the teen drivers-with varying results. With that in mind, should we be so quick to ask teens to put down their controllers? However is it possible that teens who play video games for hours-particularly driving games-could actually develop habits to lead to better driving? After all, much like driving, video games require quick reaction time and good hand-eye coordination. The question is what kind of impact do video games have on teenagers’ driving skills? The natural assumption is that they’d negatively impact teens-the thought being that the aggressiveness needed to succeed in these games could follow them to behind a real-life steering wheel and lead to reckless behavior like speeding, tailgating and trying to “beat” yellow lights before they turn red. And if you’re convinced that all of this video game playing, especially car driving games, has an impact on teenagers’ real-world driving skills, you’d be right about that too.

Other studies have shown that 56 percent of teens play video games an average of 2.5 hours per day. According to a Pew Research poll, 84 percent of teens said they have a game console at home or have access to one.

If you ever thought your teenager, or teens in general, play spend too much time playing video games, you might be on to something.

Texting and driving simulator games