Dissocial children like aggressive computer games

Study: Aggressive children increasingly play brutal computer games

10/10/2011

Computer games are a controversial subject in public debate. How far are PC games triggering aggressive behavioral patterns in children? This question was pursued by a joint research project of Leuphana University Lüneburg and the University of Hohenheim. As a result, the researchers found that behaviorally prone primary school children have a higher preference for computer games with brutal content than comparatively their classmates. Explicitly, the researchers emphasized that the games do not provoke any anti-social behavior.

If there are bad events like the killing spree in Winnenden, the social life of the perpetrator is examined by police and media. The goal: An unexplainable behavior of a child or adolescent should give answers through details of previous social life. In the case of Winnenden, Tim K. actually had a fondness for so-called first-person shooters, which are about eliminating the opponent in the game. But are such violent excesses actually triggered by the consumption of computer games or play the perpetrators because of their personality structure just like such games? The critics of PC games claim the former and most like to banish all games of this genre banished. Proponents as well as social researchers counter that the rate of outbreaks of violence would have to be much higher in comparison to the millions of consumptions if PC games actually led to such a pattern of behavior. But not excluded are favorable factors that lead to such behavior. A sole answer to the terrible deeds is certainly not the video games.

Behavioral children like to play computer games with aggressive content
Primary school children, who are conspicuous by aggressive behavior, prefer to play PC and video games with brutal content rather than children with less aggressive behaviors. The scientists of the Universities of Lüneburg and Hohenheim were able to observe in the course of a study work that the preference for such a study was greater „violent games“ increases as the children get older.

In the course of the study, around 324 children from the third and fourth school years of various districts of Berlin were interviewed about their favorite games. The study duration was one year during the project. At this distance, the game favorites were questioned again by questionnaire. Content of the question were favorite games with title, playing time and playing habits. Furthermore, the children should provide information about which classmates are particularly noticeable through dissocial behavioral structures such as cursing, slapping and pushing. In order to get a more objective picture, the class teachers of the respective school classes were also asked about the last point.

Almost every child plays PC or video games
As a result, the team of researchers formulated that computer games are very popular and widespread among primary school children, regardless of the genre. Ninety-one percent of eight to twelve-year-olds said in their first survey that at least one PC or video game was theirs „favourite game“ be. In the second survey after just over a year then changed the preferences of the games often. „Most children initially try different offers and only develop over time a pronounced preference for a game or a Spielegenre“, explains the study director and professor dr. Maria von Salisch from Leuphana University Lüneburg.

Screen games do not provoke dissocial behavioral structures
As a second result, it emerged that „aggressively classified girls and boys“ more often prefer games that are considered violent. Although the less aggressive classmates try out games that are violent, they rarely develop a preference for the genre“, explained Jens Vogelgesang from the University of Hohenheim. According to social researchers, there is a risk for behavior-prone children that the preference for „brutal and bloody video games solidified with time“. The scientists explicitly emphasized that a reverse conclusion does not apply. As was often assumed, no evidence was found that violent games provoked or increased the aggressiveness of children. „This is the media educational good news of our study“, sums up Jens Vogelgesang. „However, this is expressly only valid for the age group of eight to twelve year olds that we first examined in an impact study.“

What is not true for the young children can not be ruled out from a scientific point of view among the older adolescents. Older children are proving negative behavioral changes through video games that focus on aggressive behaviors. Therefore, no all-clear can be given in principle, as developmental psychologist Maria von Salisch stressed. „We can not rule out that a firm predilection for violent video games may not lead to greater violence in the course of a player's career.“ Accordingly, further studies are needed that examine a possible context more closely. The study is in the prestigious journal „Media Psychology“ appeared. (Sb)

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