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Effects of Playing Videogames on Children's Aggressive and Other Behaviors 1
Author(s) -
Schutte Nicola S.,
Malouff John M.,
PostGorden Joan C.,
Rodasta Annette L.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1988.tb00028.x
Subject(s) - jungle , psychology , aggression , character (mathematics) , set (abstract data type) , social psychology , developmental psychology , history , geometry , mathematics , archaeology , computer science , programming language
Noting the pervasiveness of videogames in American culture, the authors set out to examine the effects that playing videogames has on children. Thirty‐one children were matched on sex, randomly assigned to play either a violent (karate) videogame or a nonviolent (jungle vine swinging) videogame, and then observed during free play. The main results were that the children who had played the jungle swing videogame later played more with a jungle swing toy and that the children who played the violent videogame later showed more aggression. The authors interpreted the findings as an indication that young children who play videogames later tend to act similarly to how their videogame character acted.