Online games impact marriage
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PROVO, UTAH
Online role playing games negatively affect real-life marital satisfaction, according to a new BYU study published Feb. 15 in the Journal of Leisure Research.
The study reports that 75 percent of spouses of gamers wish they would put less effort into their guilds (video-game groups) and more effort into their marriage. The researchers, led by graduate student Michelle Ahlstrom, and recreation management professor Neil Lundberg, studied 349 couples to learn how online role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft, affect marital satisfaction for both gamers and their spouses.
"It's common knowledge that many couples experience challenges around gaming," Brother Lundberg said. "Particularly when husbands are heavy gamers, it clearly has a negative impact on their marriages."
What the researchers found confirms popular opinion, with some interesting new details. The study revealed it isn't the time spent playing games that caused dissatisfaction, but rather the resulting arguments or disrupted bedtime routines. These issues can cause problems such as poorer marital adjustment, less time spent together in shared activities and less serious conversation, the study reports.
"It's not the hours that make a difference," Brother Lundberg said. "It's really what it does to the relationship — whether or not it creates conflict and quarreling over the game."
