Edge Hill gets £ 900k for research on how loot boxes affect kids

30 September 2026

Often when we write about education and esports in the UK, it is about colleges and universities setting up teams, organising events and, of course, creating specific esports-focused courses. This time though, it is all about science and investigation, as Edge Hill University has just received a grant of £ 900.000 from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The goal of that money? For Edge Hill’s Department of Psychology to lead a major study exploring how loot boxes and other gambling-like features in video games influence the development of primary school-aged children. This has been a topic of much discussion in the past few years, and the hope is that this study can help create a solid foundation for what seems like very important scientific and social research.

£ 26 a month

Based on recent numbers, it is said that well over 90% of all children in the United Kingdom aged between five and eleven are playing video games. Out of those 90% of young children, no less than a third regularly makes in-game purchases, spending about £ 26 per month. That might not sound like much but imagine an 8-year-old deciding to spend that amount of money in order to have fun playing video games. The question is what extent this influences a child’s mental and behavioural development, and where potential risks are actually coming from.

“Coercive pressure is often exerted on children to engage with microtransactions through time-limited availability, rarity and the social desirability of virtual items”, explains Dr. John Shaw, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Edge Hill, “Crucially, loot boxes share psychological similarities with gambling and are linked with mental health difficulties in young people. The risks posed by these features may be particularly acute for neurodivergent children, including those with ADHD and autism, who often spend more time playing video games.”

Real money

To put it simply, the new study at Edge Hill University will focus on all of the possible transactions in video games that require real money, or an in-game currency that is directly linked to real money. With “real money”, we refer to money (like British pounds or American dollars) that can be used in the real world to purchase goods and services. Plenty of modern video games contain countless potential “microtransactions” like that, and loot boxes as well. The likeness of these types of items (and the way they function) to traditional gambling is growing into a bigger and bigger public health concern.

“This significant ESRC funding reflects the vital real-world impact of our research community”, says Jay Cullen, Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences at Edge Hill University, “Understanding how commercial gaming mechanics affect young minds is a pressing societal challenge. I am proud that Dr Shaw and his team are leading this vital cross-university collaboration. Their findings will provide families, educators and policymakers with the evidence needed to foster safer, healthier digital environments for children.”