Do Violent Video Games Cause Adolescents Behavior Problems

Video games do not affect adolescents’ behavior, do not cause lower school performance, and are not the source of depression. Are these statements true? Do violent video games cause behavior problems? The aim for the essay is to give argumentative answers to questions like these and make the last point for this controversial topic. 

Introduction 

Since video games’ sudden rise to popularity in the 1970s, many games were made and developed in a variety of genres, Sandbox Real-time strategy, Shooters, Multiplayer online battle arena, Role-playing Simulation, and sports Puzzlers and party games, Action-adventure Survival and horror Platformer. Because of these types of games, parents were outraged and claimed that video games were the main cause of rebellion and aggression in their children. Former US President Donald Trump claims that video games were responsible for the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, killing an estimated 31 people over the weekend. As Trump stated, ‘We must stop the glory of violence in our society, including the horrifying, horrifying video games that are common today. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.” Some parents also linked video games as the cause of depression in their children, which led to the dislike or even banning of games in their households. Gathering enough information through reading studies, research, and articles proves that video games do not only have their benefits, but the way it affects young adolescents is not the way parents claim it as.

First Main Point

The parents claim that their children behave differently when playing video games. They claim that their children seem to lash out more and talk back to their parents more often since acquiring their children’s games. According to the APA Task Force on Violent Media concluded that violent video game use influenced aggression based on our analysis of relevant literature directly addressing the topic. This effect manifests itself as both an increase in adverse consequences such as aggression, thought processes, and influence and a decrease in positive results such as social interaction, compassion, and sensitivity to aggression. However, some research shows that it’s the outcome of the game that can lead to aggression, not video games in general. And not only that but, the degree of difficulty that a certain game has can change the result of each behavioral outcome. The study titled “Competence-Impeding Electronic Games and Players’ Aggressive Feelings, Thoughts, and Behaviors” used several studies with different types of methods to control the competence and a variety of ways for examining aggression. Player perceived competence was directly correlated to gaming motivation, which was in turn negatively related to player aggression.

Second Main Point

Another claim is that the reason children don’t do well in school is that they spend too much time playing video games and don’t put an effort anymore into their studies. Gentile et al.claims that children playing such violent video games tend to be more aggressive and hostile to their teachers and may or may not hurt others, which may lead to them having lower grades and can affect their whole study. Even though they may be affecting the behavioral growth of adolescence, it is only a short-term effect and, most of this panic is just false information. Contrary to what adults are afraid of, those who play violent video games either become criminals or fail in class because of it. The work of Vltell indicates that Time Displacement Hypothesis proposes that the amount of time spent playing video games is directly proportional to the time spent on academic works. Typically a young individual who plays video games regularly had less time spent on academic work. Since video games commonly have difficult mechanics especially those who are competitively based, this could hone the cognitive skills of players, which means a regular playtime of video games may improve the attention capacity, visual orientation, and overall memory of the player this is especially the case in young children who showed greater improvements than their adult counterparts and, through observation and data gathering. He stated, “(…) they have found that regular gamers scored higher than non-gamers on tests of executive functioning, fluid intelligence, and working memory”.

Third Main Point

But one and last final argument that most people link to video games is that it causes depression in children. Some parents claim that their children started behaving in a depressed manner after playing video games. They claim that the violent nature of the games causes their children to have sudden bursts of negative emotions and seems to make their children unhappy. The study Daily Violent Game Playing and Depression in Preadolescent Youth investigated whether playing violent video games for years could result in an increase of depressive symptoms in preadolescents youth. Those who played violent games for 2 hours had a further increase in depressive symptoms, assessed by Tortolero et al. The problem with this claim is that there isn’t enough research to back this up. And when there is a study about this subject, they mostly have little to no effect on the players’ behavior. Reference to HealthyGamer reveals that video games do not have that connection because depression is based on the information that no studies have found concrete evidence that there was a link between the two. But video games are commonly used by adolescents to cope with their problems. As further stated, video games have good and bad effects too, Video games create a sense of community, Video games can be an enjoyable recreational activity and, Video games train your analytical mind are some of the examples of good effects it has on the players. In addition, Kowal et. al, work shows that commercial video games can alleviate the symptoms of the two most common mental health conditions, depression and anxiety. There is growing scientific evidence that video games have the potential to improve mental health outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is not video games as a whole that causes these effects or behaviors on adolescents, but other factors come into play. Such as the results or difficulty in the game, other major factors like the environment they live in, and their natural tolerance to these types of games. And since most of the claims that video games have significant negative effects on players and children alike have few studies proving those claims and most studies debunking them. Parents should supervise or look over the type of games children are playing. Each game has an indicated suggestion for what age players should play those games. These indicators are shown in the description below if it is on steam and the cover if you bought it via CD. And the time spent on playing should be monitored because there is a difference between whether they are playing the game or just plain old addicted.

Works Cited

1. American Psychological Association. (2015). Resolution on Violent Video Games. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/about/policy/violent-video-games
2. Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (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
3. Ferguson, C. J. (2015). Do angry birds make for angry children? A meta-analysis of video game influences on children's and adolescents' aggression, mental health, prosocial behavior, and academic performance. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(5), 646-666. doi: 10.1177/1745691615592234
4. Gentile, D. A., Lynch, P. J., Linder, J. R., & Walsh, D. A. (2004). The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27(1), 5-22. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.10.002
5. Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66-78. doi: 10.1037/a0034857
6. Kowal, M., Coll, M. P., & Hightower, J. (2020). Beyond self-soothing: Video games and anxiety in young people. Social Science & Medicine, 246, 112760. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112760
7. Prot, S., Anderson, C. A., Gentile, D. A., Brown, S. C., & Swing, E. L. (2014). The positive and negative effects of video game play. In R. E. Ferdig (Ed.), Handbook of research on effective electronic gaming in education (pp. 539-567). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2838-3.ch028
8. Tortolero, S. R., Peskin, M. F., Baumler, E. R., Cuccaro, P., Elliott, M. N., Davies, S. L., & Schuster, M. A. (2014). Daily violent video game playing and depression in preadolescent youth. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(9), 609-615. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2013.0493
9. Vltell, M. M. (2021). Video gaming in children: Are parents' concerns justified? Clinical Pediatric Endocrinology, 30(1), 1-7. doi: 10.1297/cpe.20-015
10. West, G. L., Stevens, S. A., Pun, C., & Pratt, T. C. (2012). Playing violent video games, desensitization, and moral evaluation in children. Journal of Communication, 62(5), 849-868. doi: 10.1111/j