The article is a review of empirical studies on the problem of children and adolescents’ videogaming and its effects on academic performance and attention problems (including ADHD). Despite many types of research projects, and the variety of their designs and methods, the consistent point of view on how videogaming affect school marks and cognitive developments of schoolers of different ages is missing. There is an evidence of both negative and positive effects of videogaming on academic performance and ADHD; some results also show no significant effect. Diversity of research results may be caused by basic methodological position of research teams — whether videogaming is studied as a form of addiction, or normal leisure activity; a place which videogaming holds in conglomerate of determinants of children’ well-being; specificity of methods which are used for assess of academic performance, attention problems and intensiveness of videogaming.

The article presents the results of a study of Subjective quality of life and Psychological adaptation level among individuals with low, normal and high level of Escapism (N=329, 18-52 years old Russians from big cities). Four tests were applied including the new Escapism Scale. Individual with high level of Escapism have lower Subjective quality of life in several parameters — Stability in Country, Confidence in Future, Ecology, Social recognition, Interesting Job, Health and Active life, Internal Harmony and Inner Conflict absence, Privacy (as a Personal Space), Self-Confidence, (Subjective well-being Questionnaire, T. Savchenko, G. Golovina). ‘Excessive’ escapists also demonstrate lower level of psychological adaptation including Self-acceptance, Loyalty, Internality, Emotional Comfort, Intention to dominate (SPA Questionnaire, C. Rogers, R. Diamond). Because of that, Escapism can be characterized mainly as a compensational mechanism which emerges due to the reduced level of an individual’s adaptation to his/her social environment. The consistence of theoretical layout and empirical data obtained confirm the validity of presented Escapism Scale and its applicability for further empirical research.