If a just-released study by Iowa State University and the National Institute on Media and the Family is accurate, then I’m a video game addict — just like the 30 million or so other American children and teens ages 8 to 18 the study says qualify for that title.

The research, based on numbers compiled in early 2007 by the polling group Harris Interactive, buttonholed almost 1,200 young people who like to play games — about 100 subjects per age in the sample — and had them fill out online questionnaires on their behavior related to gaming. Among the questions: Have you ever played video games to escape problems or bad feelings? Have you ever lied to someone about how much you play? One asked whether the kids felt bad or restless when they stop playing.

The verdict from the answers: About 8 percent of America’s kids in that age range qualify for help from a 12-step program and maybe even spring break at a Betty Ford Center for gamers.

Researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University said he started the research thinking that parents were the problem, that they were just grousing about their kids playing games instead of doing chores or school work, but believes now those complaints have merit.

“(Some kids) play in such a way that it becomes out of balance. And they’re damaging other areas of their lives, and it isn’t just on area, it’s many areas,” Gentile told the Washington Post.

The researchers found that, yes, kids do play video games to escape problems in their lives and they’ll lie about how much they’ve played, then feel restless after a long stretch working the controller. A few kids even stole money to keep up their habit.

Sounds pretty harsh, eh?

The thing is, you could have said the same thing about the same age range 25 years ago regarding its TV watching, phone use and penchant for hanging out in the Dairy Queen parking lot.

Which makes me wonder: How much faith should we invest in this gaming study? Questions such as the ones above can be answered with a simple yes or no, nothing else. But what kinds of problems were the kids escaping? Did they lie out of anguish or just brag to friends about their playing time? And were they restless after playing because of chronic use, the demands of the game or because of the two Red Bulls they drank in the meantime?

Were I to answer the same questions, the results might look something like this:
Yes, I too play video games to escape problems (such as yard work). Yes, I have lied to people about how often I play (to make it sound as though I spend more time doing yard work). And, yes, I also become restless or irritable when I stop playing (because then I have no choice but to do yard work).

Yet based on these answers, the good folks at Iowa State and the NIMF could deduce that I’m on track toward game addiction, when in fact the larger problem is my intense dislike of yard work.

And for all we really know, that may be what some of the kids in the study were trying to avoid, too.