Even those who spend their entire teenage years playing violent computer games do not have to expect harmful psychological consequences. This is the result of a US study that has now been published in the journal “Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking”, in the framework of which scientists examined a group of children and adolescents between ten and 19 years over a total period of ten years observed and assessed their behavior.

Study “Growing up with GTA ” The media and genealogist Sarah Coyne from Brigham Young University in Idaho and the psychologist Laura Stockdale from Loyola University Chicago titled their study” Growing up with Grand Theft Auto “( GTA), as the teenagers analyzed played the action and shooter game of the same name, among other things. They initially found that boys preferred violent video games more than girls.

The academics divided their initial sample into three subgroups, which had different attitudes towards games from the start: Four percent of the participants had from the beginning had a weakness for high violence and played violent video games on a large scale from an early age. 23 Percent had a “moderate” affinity for GTA & Co. at the start of the study. The largest group with a rate of 73 Percentage of preferred games with low or no degree of violence.

No correlation with aggressiveness The groups with a high initial preference for violence and their moderate counterparts showed, according to the results, a curved pattern of violent video game over time. The faction with the initial aversion to violence shed its fear of violent video games over the years. The groups with high and moderate initial violence were more likely to be male, and the former also tended to have more depressed adolescents than in the comparison units.

Overall, the researchers found no difference in up to the end of the study prosocial behavior between all three groups. People in the moderate group showed the highest level of aggressive behavior in the last wave. Overall, however, no correlation was found between violent video games and increased aggressiveness, even after many years.

Person-centered research approach The duo used the so-called person-centered approach for the study. As a rule, researchers in relevant media impact studies consider each variable or property to be linked to another. They could conclude, for example, that physical activity is associated with a lower incidence of heart disease. In the newer method, on the other hand, different algorithms are grouped across several variables. In this way, it should be possible to more precisely determine how these variable parameters affect different individuals.

Coyne and Stockdale thus include a greater heterogeneity by assigning participants to a common group, “who are similar and one Share set of characteristics that vary equally over time “. The participating families recruited them in “a large northwestern city” in the USA from 2007 in the first wave of the study via telephone directories and the request to fill out questionnaires. 65 percent were white, 12 black, 19 percent multiethnic and four percent belonged to other ethnic groups. Families with lower socio-economic status were underrepresented in the original sample. The team therefore supplemented and diversified the base with personal recommendations and leaflets.

No influence on violent behavior The duo assessed the violence of computer games using the criteria and age ratings of the US organization Common Sense Media, which in this country is roughly comparable to the USK self-regulation authority for entertainment software. The participants classified it on the basis of various behavioral characteristics such as aggression, depressive symptoms, anxiety states and general social behavior.

The debate that has been going on for years about a possible connection between violence in the offline world and in computer games had in this country among others the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) 2018. According to the study published at the time, “the negative influence of violent video games on the behavior of gamers, which is often cited in public, could not be scientifically proven.” For the analysis, the researchers observed the test persons for “only” two months.

(tiw)