Essay Sample: Violent Video Games and Aggression in Children

Violent video games have become widespread in the contemporary American culture. Because of the depiction of violence in these games, researchers have sought to examine whether children's exposure to violent media, such as video games, leads to aggressive behaviour. A study conducted by Milani et al. (2015) sought to examine whether exposure of children to violent video games increases aggressive behaviours using a sample derived from Italian children aged 7 to 14 years old. Findings of this study showed that children who prefer violent video games had higher aggression and externalisation scores (Milani et al., 2015). Children's habitual consumption of violent video games has also been found to have other negative impacts, such as decreased prosocial behaviour and reduced empathy. The proposed study aims to determine the relationship between violent video games and aggression in children. Children's perceived aggression following watching of violent video games will be measured using the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Hypotheses and Participants

The relationship between exposure to violent video games and its impact on children's aggressiveness has been a focus of researchers among many researchers. Anderson and Bushman (2001) study revealed that exposing people to violent video games depicted in television and movies leads to increased aggressiveness in young adults as well as in children. Anderson and Bushman (2001) further reported that increased aggressive behaviour observed in children exposed to violent video games is due to increased physiological arousal and thoughts and emotions associated with aggression. Also, exposing children and young adults to violent video games were found to reduce their prosocialness. In a related study, Anderson et al. (2008) investigated if high exposure of children ranging in age from 9 to 15 years to violent video games increases physical aggression. Findings of this study showed that after holding confounding variables such as gender and past aggressiveness constant, high exposure to violent video games at a young age predicted later aggression in children. This means that children who were more exposed to violent video games developed higher levels of physical aggression over time (Anderson et al., 2008).

Even though most studies have found out that exposure to violent video games has negative impacts on children's behaviours (e.g. Anderson and Bushman, 2001; Anderson et al., 2008), some studies have reported positive effects of violent video games. For instance, a study carried out by Granic, Lobel, and Engels (2014) found out that children's exposure to violent video games has beneficial impacts on their social, emotional, motivational, and cognitive developmental domains. The purpose of the proposed study is to determine the relationship between violent video games and aggression in children. The sample for this study will be derived from high school children ranging from the age of 14 to 16 years. This age group will be chosen because they are more independent and are not likely to be controlled by their parents and thus have a higher likelihood of spending time with their peers playing violent video games. The following hypotheses will help to determine whether or not there is an association between violent video games and aggression in children:

Hypothesis 1: There is no statistically significant relationship between children's exposure to violent content on television and increased risk of aggression and violent behaviour in children.

Hypothesis 2: Children who associate exposure to violent video games with violence are more likely to engage in aggressive behaviour than those who do not associate violent video content with violence.

Testing of hypothesis in SPSS

The first hypothesis will be tested using Pearson correlation procedure in SPSS version 23. This is because the hypothesis is comprised of one independent variable (exposure to violent content on television) and one independent variable (aggression). Both of these variables can be measured on the continuous level of measurement, thus making Pearson's Product-Moment correlation the most appropriate statistical test for examining the linear relationship between exposure to violent content on television and aggression. Similarly, the second hypothesis can be tested using Pearson's Product-Moment correlation procedure because both the independent variable (exposure to violent video games) and one independent variable (aggressive behaviour) can be measured on the continuous level of measurement. According to LeBlanc (2004), Pearson correlation procedure yields Pearson's correlation coefficient, r, which is useful in evaluating whether there is a linear relationship exists between two quantitative variables. The correlation coefficient, r, is also used to describe the strength and the direction of a linear association between two continuous variables (De Muth, 2014).

Pearson Correlation Scores

The variables of the first hypothesis are the number of hours that the prospective participants spend to watch violent content on television per day (independent variable scores) while the dependent variables scores will be the participants' aggression and violent behaviour score as assessed using an appropriate instrument. On the other hand, variables of the first hypothesis are the number of hours that the prospective participants spend watching violent video games per day (independent variable scores) while the dependent variables scores will be the participants' aggressive behaviour scores as assessed using an appropriate instrument.

References

Anderson, C., & Bushman, B. (2001). 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. Psychological Science, 12(5), 353-359. doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00366

Anderson, C., Sakamoto, A., Gentile, D., Ihori, N., Shibuya, A., & Yukawa, S. et al. (2008). Longitudinal effects of violent video games on aggression in Japan and the United States. PEDIATRICS, 122(5), e1067-e1072. doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-1425

De Muth, J. E. (2014). Basic statistics and pharmaceutical statistical applications. CRC Press.

Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66-78. doi: 10.1037/a0034857

LeBlanc, D. C. (2004). Statistics: concepts and applications for science (Vol. 2). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Milani, L., Camisasca, E., Caravita, S., Ionio, C., Miragoli, S., & Di Blasio, P. (2015). Violent video games and children's aggressive behaviors. SAGE Open, 5(3), 215824401559942. doi: 10.1177/2158244015599428