( Health.com ) -- Parents who believe that playing video games is less harmful to their kids ' attention spans than watching TV may want to reconsider -- and unplug the Xbox . Video games can sap a child 's attention just as much as the tube , a new study suggests . Elementary school children who play video games more than two hours a day are 67 percent more likely than their peers who play less to have greater-than-average attention problems , according to the study , which appears in the journal Pediatrics . Playing video games and watching TV appear to have roughly the same link to attention problems , even though video games are considered a less passive activity , the researchers say . `` Video games are n't less likely than television to be related to attention problems , '' says the lead author of the study , Edward Swing , a doctoral candidate in the department of psychology at Iowa State University , in Ames . `` They were at least as strong as television at predicting attention problems . '' However , the study does n't prove that video games directly cause attention problems . It could be that kids who have short attention spans to begin with might be more likely to pick up a joystick than a book , for instance . Health.com : Quiz : Do you have adult ADHD ? The relationship between video games and attention is probably a two-way street , Swing says . `` It would n't surprise me if children who have attention problems are attracted to these media , and that these media increase the attention problems , '' he says . Swing and his colleagues followed more than 1,300 children in the third , fourth , and fifth grades for a little over a year . The researchers asked both the kids and their parents to estimate how many hours per week the kids spent watching TV and playing video games , and they assessed the children 's attention spans by surveying their schoolteachers . Previous studies have examined the effect of TV or video games on attention problems , but not both . By looking at video-game use as well as TV watching , Swing and his colleagues were able to show for the first time that the two activities have a similar relationship to attention problems . Health.com : Attention sappers : 5 reasons you ca n't concentrate . C. Shawn Green , Ph.D , a postdoctoral associate in the department of psychology at the University of Minnesota , in Minneapolis , points out that the study does n't distinguish between the type of attention required to excel at a video game and that required to excel in school . `` A child who is capable of playing a video game for hours on end obviously does not have a global problem with paying attention , '' says Green , who has researched video games but was not involved in the current study . `` The question , then , is why are they able to pay attention to a game but not in school ? What expectancies have the games set up that are n't being delivered in a school setting ? '' Experts have suggested that modern TV shows are so exciting and fast paced that they make reading and schoolwork seem dull by comparison , and the same may be true for video games , the study notes . Health.com : 10 kid-targeted junk foods . It 's unclear from this study whether that 's the case , however , because Swing and his colleagues did n't look at the specific games the kids were playing . `` We were n't able to break [ the games ] down by educational versus non-educational or nonviolent versus violent , '' says Swing , adding that the impact different types of games may have on attention is a ripe area for future research . The study also suggests that young kids are n't the only ones whose attention spans may be affected by video games . Health.com : Too much TV linked to earlier death . In addition to surveying the elementary school kids , the researchers asked 210 college students about their TV and video-game use and how they felt it affected their attention . The students who logged more than two hours of TV and video games a day were about twice as likely to have attention problems , the researchers found . These attention problems later in life may be the result of `` something cumulative that builds up over a lifetime '' or `` something that happens early in life at some critical period and then stays with you , '' Swing says . `` Either way , there are implications that would lead us to want to reduce television and video games in childhood . '' The American Academy of Pediatrics , the leading professional organization for pediatricians and the publisher of Pediatrics , recommends that parents limit all `` screen time '' ( including video and computer games ) to less than two hours per day . Health.com : The 10 habits of healthy families . For his part , Green says that how much time kids spend playing video games should be a matter of common sense and parental judgment . `` A hard boundary , such as two hours , is completely arbitrary , '' he says . `` Children are individuals , and what makes sense for one wo n't necessarily work for another . 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Video games were at least as strong as TV at predicting attention problems , study said . TV and video games have a similar relationship to attention problems . Comment: