75

The purpose of this study is to analyze the social-emotional adaptation of children who play online video games according to their various motives and to gender. A questionnaire survey was conducted in fifteen schools in the French region of Occitanie involving 295 children—180 boys and 115 girls—who play video games, with an average age of 10.6 years (σ = 1.018). Using Goodman’s Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (1997), translated into French, which appeals to parental representations, we were able to determine the children's social-emotional and behavioral adaptation. The children were asked to complete two self-assessment questionnaires. The first questionnaire inquired about online gaming frequency and duration, the digital device used, the place of use, and partners in the online communication. The second questionnaire asked about their various motives for playing online video games. The results show that boys tend to play more online video games than girls and that the vast majority of children fall within the behavioral norms of social-emotional adaptation. Communication with children they do not know is not harmful, although playing video games as a way to compensate for social interactions may be detrimental to children's social-emotional adaptation. Even though some factors may have a slight impact, generally speaking, moderate use of online video games does not seem to compromise children's social-emotional adaptation.