NEW YORK – A new study on children who play video games suggests they’re more intellectual and social than those who do not.

Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health analyzed mental health data on thousands of European kids between the ages of six and 11 using information filled out by parents and teachers, and questions kids answered through an interactive tool, the Independent reports.

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“Accounting for variations in development explained by the children’s ages and genders, the team found that high video game usage was associated with a 1.75 times increase in the odds of high intellectual functioning,” according to the news site.

“Children who played a lot of video games were also found to be 1.88 times more likely to have ‘high overall school competence.’”

The research also counters the common belief that extended video game play erodes social skills, an argument made by other researchers as recently as last year, UPI reports.

“Video game playing is often a collaborative leisure time activity for school-aged children, and these results indicate that children who frequently play video games may be socially cohesive with peers and integrated into the school community,” said Katherine M. Keyes, epidemiology professor at the Mailman School and author of the study.

“We caution against over interpretation, however, as setting limits on screen usage remains (an) important component of parental responsibility as an overall strategy for student success.”

The study notes that children who performed best played more than five hours of video games a week on average, and children with less educated parents or single mothers played the least.

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The research, published this month in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, did not find any correlation between kids who played video games and mental health issues, Australia Network News reports.

Last year, the American Psychological Association released a meta-analysis of studies that have examined the relationship between violent video games and aggression in children, and came to the conclusion that there’s a link.

“No single risk factor consistently leads a person to act aggressively or violently,” an APA task force wrote on the organization’s website. “Rather, it is the accumulation of risk factors that tends to lead to aggressive or violent behavior. The research reviewed here demonstrates that violent video game use is one such risk factor.”

But over 200 academics have argued the alleged link between video games and bad behavior is far from concrete, and is subject to “controversial laboratory measures of aggression” that may not be reliable, UPI reports.

“If you play three hours of ‘Call of Duty’ you might feel a little bit pumped, but you are not going to go out and mug someone,” Middlesex University psychology professor Mark Coulson told the BBC.