Firstly, a Quick Quiz:
Which of the following were thought by politicians and social activists to increase violent and antisocial behavior among teenagers:
A.Video games
B.Comic books
C.Gangster films
D.Paperback novels
E.All of the above
ANSWER: E. All of the above!
In fact, many of the concerns from two, three, four and five generations ago are strikingly similar to today’s worries about violent video games.
Grand Theft Childhood
In 2004, Dr. Lawrence Kutner and Dr. Cheryl K. Olson, co-founders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice on the effects of video games on young teenagers. In contrast to much previous media effects research which has been experiment-based, they studied “real children and families in real situations” - ie. the principle methodology was surveys and focus groups with middle-schoolers and their parents, in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
Media students might like to think about the advantages and disadvantages of the survey and focus-group approach.
Kutner and Olson see ‘experiment studies’ as “problematic in their use of very artificial situations, such as having college students play a new game for a few minutes in a research laboratory, or measuring fraction-of-a-second differences in how long someone blasts an air horn or triggers white noise from a computer (a surrogate, the researchers claim, for aggression or for violent behavior) after playing a violent game.”
The full findings of Kutner and Olson’s research are to be released in a book due out on April 15. You can pre-order now from Amazon.
In the meantime, I do know they did find a correlation between playing M-rated games and bullying. Boys who had more M-rated titles on their most-played lists were more likely to report bullying other kids. But even so, most boys who play M-rated games are not bullies. But the researchers stress that this was only a correlation; and that it’s impossible to show cause and effect from a one-time survey.
They also found a few positive effects of playing video games:
There are a number of potential pluses. Here are just a few:
· Some violent game play seems to improve visual-spatial skills – but it’s the fast, unpredictable action, not the violence, that does it.
· Video game skill can give kids social status; this is especially valuable to kids who have disabilities or ADHD.
· Games help some kids cope with negative feelings. As one said, “If I have a bad day at school, I’ll play a violent video game and then, it just relieves all my stress. If you ever got a bad test grade or had a fight with a friend or something, my advice would be, play a violent videogame.”
In the meantime this teaser website further outlines the major findings of their research.
Media Students might like to examine evidence which the researchers present to debunk several myths about the effects of video game.
MYTH: The growth in violent video game sales is linked to the growth in youth violence — especially school violence — throughout the country.
MYTH: Girls don’t play violent video games like Grand Theft Auto.
MYTH: Within hours of the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, pundits were on the airwaves and the Internet blaming video games for Seung-Hui Cho’s violent behavior. For example, media darling and pop psychologist Phil McGraw, appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live, stated, “Common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fiber of our society…. The mass murders [sic] of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose.” Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in an address to new graduates of Regent University, said, “Pornography and violence poison our music and movies and TV and video games. The Virginia Tech shooter, like the Columbine shooters before him, had drunk from this cesspool.”
MYTH: In August 2005, the American Psychological Association issued a resolution on violence in video games and interactive media, stating that “perpetrators go unpunished in 73 percent of all violent scenes, and therefore teach that violence is an effective way of resolving conflict.”
MYTH: School shooters fit a profile that includes a fascination with violent media, especially violent video games.
Before the book comes out, students and teachers may like to have a closer look at these researchers previous research findings:
Olson, C.K., Kutner, L.A., & Beresin, E.V. Children and video games: How much do we know? Psychiatric Times, October 2007. (Full text available for free.)
Olson, C.K., Kutner, L.A., Warner, D.E., Almerigi, J.B., Baer, L., Nicholi, A.M. Jr., & Beresin, E.V. Factors correlated with violent video game use by adolescent boys and girls. Journal of Adolescent Health, July 2007, pages 77-83.
Olson, C.K., Kutner, L.A., & Warner, D.E. The role of violent video game content in adolescent development: Boys’ perspectives. Journal of Adolescent Research, January 2008, pages 55-75.
Kutner, L.A., Olson, C.K., Warner, D.E., & Hertzog, S.M. Parents’ and sons’ perspectives on video game play: A qualitative study. Journal of Adolescent Research, January 2008, pages 76-96.
Villani, V.S., Olson, C.K., & Jellinek, M.S. Media literacy for clinicians and parents. Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, July 2005, pages 523-553.
Olson, C.K. Media violence research and youth violence data: Why do they conflict? Academic Psychiatry, Summer 2004, pages 144-150.
Hmmmm ….. essential reading perhaps for Australian State Attorney’s-General as they decide whether or not to adopt a R18+ classification for video games at their meeting today.
Some cynics might ask that I don’t hold my breath.
Jamie
