For years I've read that there is no direct correlation between playing violent video games and real world aggression. “You know those are just pixels, right?” That is the usual response from gamers who don't believe that video games can somehow make people aggressive in real life. I would like to believe that too. However, here is one study I ran into that might say otherwise.

For individuals with a good family environment, exposure to violent video games had only a direct effect on aggression; however, for those with poor family environment, it had both direct and indirect effects mediated by normative beliefs about aggression. This moderated mediation model includes some notions of General Aggression Model (GAM) and Catalyst Model (CM), which helps shed light on the complex mechanism of violent video games influencing adolescent aggression.

Now I'm not a psychologist so it's possible that I'm interpreting this incorrectly. If so, feel free to educate me by getting in touch with me. Anyway, from what I'm reading on here, it seems like the combination of playing violent video games and growing up in a poor family environment could lead to aggressive behavior in the future. So, if you allow your kids to play Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto, you better make sure you're not fighting with your spouse. Actually, don't allow them to play those games until they're older, especially not Grand Theft Auto.

It must be noted that the study is limited to a small number of participants in China. It would be nice if other countries perform the same kind of study on their own. I would be curious to see the results. So, while it might not necessarily apply to me and my family, since we don't live in China, this is still an interesting study to me. Especially as a parent who plays video games around my kids and whose kids will more than likely be playing video games as well in the future. It's already happening now. Davin already knows how turn on the Xbox and play PES 2020 by himself.

Source: The Relation of Violent Video Games to Adolescent Aggression: An Examination of Moderated Mediation Effect

Tags: #Bookmarks #VideoGames #Parenting