Video games helped teenagers evaluate, express and manage their own emotions when it was used as part of an emotional intelligence training programme.

You may be worried that your child is being exposed to more screen time by playing video games. A study published in the Games for Health Journal, however, revealed how it can boost emotional intelligence in teens.

As per the study, video games helped teenagers evaluate, express and manage their own emotions when it was used as part of an emotional intelligence training programme.

The experimental group of teenagers participated in eight sessions and their emotional competency was evaluated before the beginning of the programme, at the end of the training, and three months later.

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“Games for health have been designed to address an increasing variety of issues. A relatively new health issue is emotional intelligence, which has implications for various health problems, including coping with stress,” Tom Baranowski, Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in the US, was quoted as saying.

Dr Samir Parikh, consultant psychiatrist and director, Fortis Mental Health Programme, Delhi, however, believes that emotional intelligence can be boosted through personal interaction and connections. “In the modern day where interaction is increasingly becoming online and more time is spent indoors, the right way to build emotional intelligence is people to people interactions and connecting, spending quality time with peers and family, learning through experiences and feedback,” he said.

Sagar Lavania, head of department, Psychiatry and Mental health, Nayati Medicity, Mathura, added that “human and one-on-one interactions are ideal ways to increase emotional intelligence, especially among adolescents, and can never be substituted by alternative methods.”

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