Parenting Pointers: Video Games and Aggression

The issue of whether aggressive video games contribute to aggressive behavior in youth remains an issue of significant debate. One issue that has been raised is that some studies may inadvertently inflate effect sizes by use of questionable researcher practices and unstandardized assessments of predictors and outcomes, or lack of proper theory-driven controls. 

New research findings in Springer's Journal of Youth and Adolescence did not find aggressive video games causing future aggression in youth.

"Aggressive Video Games Are Not a Risk Factor for Future Aggression in Youth: A Longitudinal Study" is based on research conducted by Dr. Ferguson and C.K. John Wang, Ph.D., professor of sport and exercise psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. 

In the recently published journal article, more than 3,000 youth around the age of 11 in Singapore, with nearly 73 percent being male, were assessed for links between aggressive game play and seven aggression or prosocial outcomes two years later. 

Participants were asked to rate three video games they currently played and how often they played them both on weekdays. 

I had a chance to interview Dr. Ferguson to learn more.

Why did you decide to study video games and violence?

I've been studying the topic for probably 15 years now.  Back then there was the perception that there was absolutely certain evidence linking aggressive games to youth aggression.  But over time, that assumption has come further and further under question.  Nonetheless, it rears up from time to time, so it's important to have good data out there.  There still are relatively few studies that look at the impact of aggressive video games on kids over time, to see if they are a risk factor for future aggression.  With this study, with Singapore youth at least, we find that aggressive video games are not a risk factor for future youth aggression.

For those who don't know, can you explain what makes it a "longitudinal" study and how that's beneficial to gathering information?

A longitudinal study is one that tracks people, most often kids over time to see how they develop.  That can be as short as a few months to as long as an entire life span, though most are a year or two.  The idea is to see whether things that occur early in life predict outcomes in later life.  Of course the data is all still correlational, but longitudinal studies do give us a sense of the sequence of how things develop.  

What implications does the study have for parents who might be concerned about violence and video games?

Every now and then parents are going to see people say scary stuff in the newspapers.  For the most part, parents can ignore this stuff.  It doesn't appear that aggressive games predict later youth aggression.  Of course, many games are designed with adults in mind, so it helps for parents to familiarize themselves with the ESRB ratings system that comes with all commercial video games which can inform them about the content of those games.