KatsBits Community

General Category => Blog => Topic started by: kat on March 26, 2014, 12:38:55 AM

Title: Long-term Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior
Post by: kat on March 26, 2014, 12:38:55 AM
A new study doing the rounds at present claims there is a link between violent games and violent behavior in children - Mediators and Moderators of Long-term Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior (http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1850198). Conducted by the National Institute of Education in Singapore and Iowa State University Department of Psychology, the study followed 3000 or so children in Singapore for three years. According to Yahoo (http://news.yahoo.com/video-games-linked-aggressive-behavior-kids-203144445.html);
Quote
Participants were asked to respond to six questions about aggressive behavior, such as, "When someone has angered or provoked me in some way, I have reacted by hitting that person." Responses were given on a scale of one to four, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".

Unfortunately, some serious concerns are being voiced about this approach to quantifying the cause/effect as it's not directly measuring behavior but relying on the individual interpretation of the questions asked. It also seems quite a leap-of-faith to suggest the results are broadly applicable - does a study done in Singapore correlate to said-same in the USA, UK or anywhere else given cultural and socioeconomic differences? - which raises further questions about the children used in the study; Who were they? What backgrounds? What level of parenting and/or parental engagement were they subject to before, during and after the study? What level of 'education' (in the broader sense)? What type of games were they allowed to play, 18+? etc., etc. Seems a tad remiss to draw conclusion from such a study if children were intentionally allowed access to 'adult' games for the sake of proving a point?