Citation

Hay DF, Johansen MK, Daly P, Hashmi S, Robinson C, Collishaw S, Van Goozen S. Dev. Sci. 2018; 21(3): e12576.

Affiliation

School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/desc.12576

PMID

28736940

Abstract

Concerns about the relationship between computer games and children's aggression have been expressed for decades, but it is not yet clear whether the content of such games evokes aggression or a prior history of aggression promotes children's interest in aggressive games. Two hundred and sixty-six 7-year-old children from a nationally representative longitudinal sample in the UK played a novel computer game (CAMGAME) in which the child's avatar encountered a series of social challenges that might evoke aggressive, prosocial or neutral behaviour. Aggressive choices during the game were predicted by well-known risk factors for aggressive conduct problems and the children's own early angry aggressiveness as infants. These findings suggest that children who are predisposed to aggression bring those tendencies to virtual as well as real environments.

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Language: en