Moreover, video games can even be played in a massively multiplayer online role-playing MMORP environment. These are, by design, games run in real-time that are highly social and competitive — calling for a high level of commitment and cooperation amongst players. There are different categories of video games, some more popular than others.
From action to sports games, strategy, shooting, racing or adventure, there are many different types of games that require different skills from players. A couple of years ago, 3D games were barely a thing and these days they are becoming the new normal.
As of February , Germany was the country where people spent more time on average playing video games 7. The global average at the time was 7.
As the video game industry is expected to grow, the concerns regarding those who play video games them grow as well. Especially, because among the audience of video game players, many are children who are still forming their personality.
So it is important to carefully study their impact on the behaviors of players as they play and after they do it. Since our personality influences how we think and behave, the way a player responds to a video game depends on how they interpret it in their mind.
A literature review made by Quwaider et al. Of course, both positive and negative impacts will depend on variables such as the personality of individuals, how long they play for or how often or their emotional balance and sleep time. By their turn, strategic games seem to be connected with resilience in the face of failure while puzzle and playing games enhance positive feelings, increase self-esteem and promote relaxation.
Hence, cooperative-based games , as well as prosocial and role-playing games have strong ties with social benefits. They reduce feelings of hostility, decrease cognitive aggression, increase cooperative behaviors and promote the quick learning of social skills.
For instance, within sports games like FIFA or Fight Night Round , players can experience anxiety regarding the outcome of the game while feeling joy or pride in the end. When it comes to racing games, playing Gran Turismo or Need For Speed can increase the chances of taking riskier real-life decisions in the pursuit of similar sensations players.
In fact, a study by Draghici et al. Moreover, a study conducted on Norwegian teenagers showed video game addiction was positively linked with internal behavior problems like depression and conduct problems.
Another study found a significantly increased risk of depression among year-olds consistently playing and using their phones for texting and scrolling social media between pm and year-olds doing the same between pm.
An esports-themed hotel in Japan. The study found no evidence that harm from playing violent games accumulates over time. According to the GAM Bushman and Anderson, ; Anderson and Carnagey, , violent video games can make teenagers acquire, repeat, and reinforce aggression-related knowledge structures, including aggressive beliefs and attitude, aggressive perceptual schemata, aggressive expectation schemata, aggressive behavior scripts, and aggression desensitization.
Therefore, aggressive personality is promoted, increasing the possibility of aggressive behavior. The Hypothesis 1 of this study was validated and provided evidence for the GAM.
As shown above, normative beliefs about aggression had a partial mediation effect on the relationship between exposure to violent video games and aggression. Exposure to violent video games, on the one hand, can predict adolescent aggression directly; on the other hand, it had an indirect effect on adolescent aggression via normative beliefs about aggression. According to the above results, when exposure to violent video games changes by 1 standard deviation, adolescent aggression varies by 0.
Too much violence in video games makes it easy for individuals to become accustomed to violence and emotionally apathetic towards the harmful consequences of violence. Moreover, it can make individuals accept the idea that violence is a good way of problem solving, leading to an increase in normative beliefs about aggression; under certain situational cues, it is more likely to become violent or aggressive.
This conclusion is supported by other studies Gentile et al. One of the main findings of this study was the validation of Hypothesis 3: a moderated mediation model was constructed involving exposure to violent video games, family environment, normative beliefs about aggression, and aggression. Family environment moderated the first half of the mediation process of violent video games, normative beliefs about aggression, and aggression.
In this study, family environment encompassed three factors, including 1 cohesion reflecting the degree of mutual commitment, assistance, and support among family members; 2 conflict reflecting the extent of anger, aggression, and conflict among family members; and 3 moral-religious emphasis reflecting the degree of emphasis on ethics, religion, and values. Individuals with high scores of family environment often help each other; seldom show anger, attack, and contradiction openly; and pay more attention to morality and values.
These positive aspects would help them understand violence in video games from the right perspective, reduce recognition and acceptance of violence or aggression, and diminish the effect of violent video games on normative beliefs about aggression. Hence, exposure to violent video games could not predict normative beliefs about aggression of these individuals. By contrast, individuals with low scores of family environment are less likely to help each other; they often openly show anger, attack, and contradiction and do not pay much attention to morality and values.
These negative aspects would not decrease but increase their acceptance of violence and aggression. For these individuals, because of the lack of mitigation mechanisms, exposure to violent video games could predict normative beliefs about aggression significantly.
The moderated mediation model of the relationship between exposure to violent video games and aggression could not only help reveal that exposure to violent video games can affect aggression but also provide an elaboration of the influencing mechanism.
According to this model, for individuals with high scores of family environment, exposure to violent video games had only direct effect on aggression. However, for those with low scores of family environment, there was not only a direct effect of exposure to violent video games on aggression but also an indirect effect mediated by normative beliefs about aggression. In short, exposure to violence video games affecting aggression through normative beliefs about aggression is more likely to happen to adolescents with poor family environment than those with good family environment.
That is, generation of adolescent aggression is not only related to internal cognitive factors but also to external situations. The proposed model incorporated some perspectives of GAM and CM: while confirming the effect of exposure to violent video games on aggression occurrence, the combined effect of individual and environmental factors was verified.
Compared with the simple mediation or moderation model, the present moderated mediation model provided deeper insights into the internal mechanism of the effect of violent video games on aggression, providing inspirations for preventing adolescent aggression.
First, in view of the close relationship between exposure to violent video games and adolescent aggression, relevant government departments should continue to improve the grading system of video games; meanwhile, parents should appropriately monitor the types of video games used by teenagers as well as the time spent and reduce the degree of exposure to violent video games.
Second, by allowing teenagers to objectively distinguish between violence in games and reality, the mediating role of normative beliefs about aggression could inspire people to identify rational ways to solve violence problems and to experience the hurtful consequences of aggression. This would help adolescents change normative beliefs about aggression, establish a correct view of right and wrong, and reduce the occurrence of aggression.
Finally, the moderating effect of family environment on the mediation process suggests that more attention should be paid to the important role of family environment.
On the one hand, family education is closely related to adolescent aggression. Then, parents should create a good family atmosphere, publicly show anger and aggression as little as possible, and advocate and practice positive moral values.
Parents should adopt authoritative styles, abandoning autocratic and indulgent parenting styles Casas et al. On the other hand, for teenagers with poor family environment, while reducing exposure to violent video games, it is particularly important to change their normative beliefs about aggression, no longer viewing aggression as an alternative way to solve problems.
Limitations of the current study should be mentioned. First, only Chinese school students were assessed, in a relatively small number, which could affect sample representativeness. A large sample of teenagers from different countries and in different ages, also including juvenile offenders, would be more accurate in revealing the effect of violent video games on adolescent aggression.
Second, this study only focused on violent video games, not involving violent media such as internet and television, daily life events, wars, and other major social events.
Indeed, these factors also have important effects on adolescent aggression, and their influencing mechanisms and combined effect are worth investigating further. Third, this study mainly adopted the self-report method.
Use of peer, parent, or teacher reports to assess exposure to violent video games and aggression would help improve the effectiveness of the study.
Fourth, there might be other mediators, moderating variables and relational models. In addition to normative beliefs about aggression and family environment, individual emotions, personality characteristics, school climate, and companions may play mediating or moderating roles in the relationship between violent video games and aggression.
This study developed a moderated mediation model between family environment and normative beliefs about aggression, but the possibility of multiple mediation and mediated moderation models cannot be ruled out. The current study showed that exposure to violent video games is positively related to adolescent aggression; normative beliefs about aggression have a mediating effect on exposure to violent video games and adolescent aggression, while the family environment regulates the first part of the mediation process.
For individuals with good family environment, exposure to violent video games only has a direct effect on aggression; however, for those with poor family environment, there is an indirect effect mediated by normative beliefs about aggression alongside a direct effect. This moderated mediation model incorporates some perspectives of GAM and CM, enriching studies of generative mechanism of adolescent aggression. YW and RS conceived the idea of the study.
RS analyzed the data. YW and RS interpreted the results and wrote the paper. YW discussed the results and revised the manuscript. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Anderson, C. An update on the effects of playing violent video games. Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: a meta-analytic review of the scientific literature.
Gentile, D. Westport, CT: Praeger , — Google Scholar. Violent video games: specific effects of violent content on aggressive thoughts and behavior. Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life.
Longitudinal effects of violent video games on aggression in Japan and the United States. Pediatrics , e—e Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in eastern and western countries: a meta-analytic review.
Media violence and other aggression risk factors in seven nations. Bailey, C. Differentiating forms and functions of aggression in emerging adults: associations with hostile attribution biases and normative beliefs. Youth Adolesc. Bailey, K. The association between chronic exposure to video game violence and affective picture processing: an ERP study. Bandura, A. Vasta, R. Gaming should not take up time that would otherwise go towards getting enough sleep and physical activity.
Additionally, parents should also make sure that their child is playing video games suitable for their age group. Entertainment Software Rating Board rates and labels all video games. Whether your child will become violent as a result of playing violent video games is not known. If your child or teenager struggles to reduce their gaming habit, then we can help. Building a healthy relationship with them and helping them overcome their video game addiction can reduce the effects of video games that promote violence.
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