Abstract
Many theories of development suggest that playing violent video games would not impact all adolescents the same way, yet empirical research is sparse. To date there have been no within-subjects analyses that examine which adolescents are most at risk for developing aggression after playing violent video games and under what context, and no longitudinal studies encompassing multiple developmental stages (i.e., early adolescence to emerging adulthood) that examine the long-term effects of playing violent video games. To address this gap, the current study used a longitudinal design (spanning 8 years and encompassing multiple developmental periods) with a sample of U.S. adolescents who completed questionnaires on aggression, video gaming, and multiple risk and protective factors for aggression. Participants included 488 adolescents (M age = 13.82, SD = 1.03 at the initial wave, 51% female, with 65% being White, 12% Black, 19% multiethnic, and 4% other). Mixture regression was utilized to model physical aggression over time and to examine how playing violent video games might be related to aggression on an individual level. There were four classes: “Multi-risk”, “High Gaming, High Aggression” (both of which had high levels of aggression over time), “Moderate Risk”, and “Low Risk, High Privilege” (both of which had lower levels of aggression over time). Individuals were most aggressive with multiple risk factors or higher levels of violent game play and playing violent video games likely increased aggression more in individuals with other gaming problems and in males with low self-regulation. The results are discussed using a balanced perspective and recognize that violent video games do not affect all adolescents the same way. This research has direct implications for designing interventions around reducing aggressive behavior among adolescents.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2018). Media violence and the general aggression model. Journal of Social Issues, 74(2), 386–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12275.
Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., Rothstein, H. R., & Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A meta-analytic review [Supplemental material]. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 151–173. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018251.
Archer, J., & Coyne, S. M. (2005). An integrated review of indirect, relational, and social aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(3), 212–230. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0903_2.
Berntson, G. G., Bigger, J. T., Jr, Eckberg, D. L., Grossman, P., Kaufmann, P. G., Malik, M., Nagaraja, H. N., Porges, S. W., Saul, J. P., Stone, P. H., & van der Molen, M. W. (1997). Heart rate variability: origins, methods, and interpretive caveats. Psychophysiology, 34(6), 623–648. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1997.tb02140.x.
Blain-Arcaro, C., & Vaillancourt, T. (2016). Longitudinal associations between depression and aggression and children and adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 45(1), 959–970. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0204-2.
Bushman, B. J., Hasan, Y., & Bègue, L. (2022). Applied to video game violence, maximal positive controls is far from even a minimal demonstration: Comment on (Hilgard, 2021). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 100, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104200.
Card, N. A., Stucky, B. D., Sawalani, G. M., & Little, T. D. (2008). Direct and indirect aggression during childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review of gender differences, intercorrelations, and relations to maladjustment. Child Development, 79(5), 1185–1229. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01184.x.
Castillo-Eito, L., Armitage, C. J., Norman, P., Day, M. R., Dogru, O. C., & Rowe, R. (2020). How can adolescent aggression be reduced? A multi-level meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 78, 101853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101853
Collier, K. M., Coyne, S. M., Rasmussen, E. E., Hawkins, A. J., Padilla-Walker, L. M., Erickson, S. E., & Memmott-Elison, M. K. (2016). Does parental mediation of media influence child outcomes? A meta-analysis on media time, aggression, substance use, and sexual behavior. Developmental Psychology, 52(5), 798–812. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000108.
Commonsense Media (2022). Who are your reviewers and editors? Accessed online [November 3, 2022] at: https://commonsense.force.com/membersupport/s/article/who-are-your-reviewers-and-editors
Connor, D. F., Newcorn, J. H., Saylor, K. E., Amann, B. H., Scahill, L., Robb, A. S., Jensen, P. S., Vitiello, B., Findling, R. L., & Buitelaar, J. K. (2019). Maladaptive aggression: with a focus on impulsive aggression in children and adolescents. Journal of Child Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 29(8), 576–591. https://doi.org/10.1089/cap.2019.0039.
Côté, S., Vaillancourt, T., LeBlanc, J. C., Nagin, D. S., & Tremblay, R. E. (2006). The development of physical aggression from toddlerhood to pre-adolescence: a nation wide longitudinal study of Canadian children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(1), 68–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-005-9001-z.
Coyne, S. M., & Stockdale, L. (2021). Growing up with grand theft auto: a 10-year study of longitudinal growth of violent video game play in adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0049.
Coyne, S. M., Stockdale, L. A., Warburton, W., Gentile, D. A., Yang, C., & Merrill, B. M. (2020a). Pathological video game symptoms from adolescence to emerging adulthood: A 6-year longitudinal study of trajectories, predictors, and outcomes. Developmental Psychology, 56(7), 1385–1396. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000939.
Coyne, S. M., Swit, C., Stockdale, L., & Summers, K. (2020b). The growth of gossip: socialization of relational aggression from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Aggressive Behavior, 46(6), 535–546. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21924.
Devilly, G. J., O’Donohue, R. P., & Brown, K. (2021). Personality and frustration predict aggression and anger following violent media. Psychology, Crime & Law. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2021.1999949
Dill, K. E., Gentile, D. A., Richter, W. A., & Dill, J. C. (2005). Violence, sex, race, and age in popular video games: a content analysis. In E. Cole & J. H. Daniel (Eds.), Featuring females: Feminist analyses of media. (pp. 115–130). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11213-008.
Dyer, W. J., Pleck, J., & McBride, B. (2012). Using mixture regression to identify varying effects: a demonstration with paternal incarceration. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(5), 1129–1148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.01012.x.
Ellis, B. J., & Boyce, W. T. (2011). Differential susceptibility to the environment: toward an understanding of sensitivity to developmental experiences and context. Development and Psychopathology, 23(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457941000060X.
El-Sheikh, M. (2007). Children’s skin conductance level and reactivity: are these measures stable over time and across tasks? Developmental Psychobiology, 49(2), 180–186. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.2017.
El-Sheikh, M., Keiley, M., Erath, S., & Dyer, W. J. (2013). Marital conflict and growth in children’s internalizing symptoms: the role of autonomic nervous system activity. Developmental Psychology, 49(1), 92–108. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027703.
Ferguson, C. J. (2018). Violent video games, sexist video games, and the law: Why can’t we find effects? Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 14(1), 411–426. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-101317-031036.
Ferguson, C. J., Copenhaver, A., & Markey, P. (2020). Reexamining the findings of the American psychological association’s 2015 task force on violent media: a meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(6), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620927666.
Ferguson, C. J. & Kilburn, J. (2010). Much ado about nothing: The misestimation and overinterpretation of violent video game effects in Eastern and Western nations: comment on Anderson et al. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 174–178. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018566.
Ferguson, C. J., & Wang, J. C. K. (2019). Aggressive video games are not a risk factor for future aggression in youth: a longitudinal study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(1), 1439–1451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01069-0.
Ferguson, C. J., & Wang, C. K. J. (2021). Aggressive video games are not a risk factor for mental health problems in youth: A longitudinal study. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 70–73. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0027.
Fikkers, K. M., & Piotrowski, J. T. (2020). Content and person effects in media research: studying differences in cognitive, emotional, and arousal responses to media content. Media Psychology, 23(4), 493–520. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2019.1608257.
Fikkers, K. M., Taylor Piotrowski, J., Weeda, W. D., Vossen, H. G., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2013). Double dose: high family conflict enhances the effect of media violence exposure on adolescents’ aggression. Societies, 3(3), 280–292. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc3030280.
Fowles, D. C., Christie, M. J., Edelberg, R., Grings, W. W., Lykken, D. T., & Venables, P. H. (1981). Publication recommendations for electrodermal measurements. Psychophysiology, 18(3), 232–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1981.tb03024.x.
Gentile, D. (2009). Pathological video-game use among youth ages 8 to 18: a national study. Psychological Science, 20(5), 594–602. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02340.x.
Gentile, D. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2012). Reassessing media violence effects using a risk and resilience approach to understanding aggression. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1(13), 138–151. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028481.
Gentile, D. A., & Walsh, D. A. (2002). A normative study of family media habits. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 23(2), 157–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(02)00102-8.
Giedd, J. N. (2015). The amazing teen brain. Scientific American, 312(6), 32–37.
Girard, L., Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D., & Cote, S. (2019). Development of aggression subtypes from childhood to adolescence: a group-based multi-trajectory modelling perspective. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47(1), 825–838. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-018-0488-5.
Greitemeyer, T., & Mügge, D. O. (2014). Video games do affect social outcomes: a meta-analytic review of the effects of violent and prosocial video game play. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 578–589.
Hartmann, T., Krakowiak, K. M., & Tsay-Vogel, M. (2014). How violent video games communicate violence: a literature review and content analysis of moral disengagement factors. Communication Monographs, 81(3), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2014.922206.
Huesmann, L. R., & Guerra, N. G. (1997). Children’s normative beliefs about aggression and aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(2), 408–419. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.2.408.
Huesmann, L. R., Dubow, E. F., & Boxer, P. (2009). Continuity of aggression from childhood to early adulthood as a predictor of life outcomes: Implications for the adolescent‐limited and life‐course‐persistent models. Aggressive Behavior: Official Journal of the International Society for Research on Aggression, 35(2), 136–149.
Johnson, J. H. (1986). Life events as stressors in childhood and adolescence. Sage.
Marshall, B., Warburton, W., & Kangas, M. (2022). Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) in children: Clinical treatment insights. Annals of Case Reports, 7(2), 816 https://doi.org/10.29011/2574-7754.100816.
Mathur, M. B., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2019). Finding common ground in meta-analysis “wars” on violent video games. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 14(4), 705–708. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619850104.
Moore, C. C., Hubbard, J. A., Bookhout, M. K., & Mlawer, F. (2019). Relations between reactive and proactive aggression and daily emotions in adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47(1), 1495–1507. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-019-00533-6.
Moore, K., & Lippman, L. (Eds.). (2005). What do children need to flourish? Conceptualizing and measuring indicators of positive development. Springer Press. New York.
Nelson, D. A. (2005). Peer and Romantic Relations Inventory—Self Report (PRRI-S). Unpublished measure. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.
Nikken, P., & Jansz, J. (2006). Parental mediation of children’s videogame playing: a comparison of the reports by parents and children. Learning, Media, and Technology, 31(2), 181–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439880600756803.
Nivette, A., Sutherland, A., Eisner, M., & Murray, J. (2018). Sex differences in adolescent physical aggression: evidence from sixty-three low-and middle-income countries. Aggressive Behavior, 45(1), 82–92. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21799.
Novak, S. P., & Clayton, R. R. (2001). The influence of school environment and self-regulation on transitions between stages of cigarette smoking: A multilevel analysis. Health Psychology, 20(3), 196–207. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.20.3.196.
Piotrowski, J. T., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2015). Finding orchids in a field of dandelions: understanding children’s differential susceptibility to media effects. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(14), 1776–1789. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764215596552.
Pinquart, M. (2017). Associations of parenting dimensions and styles with externalizing problems of children and adolescents: an updated meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 53(5), 873–932. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000295.
Piquero, A. R., Carriaga, M. L., Diamond, B., Kazemian, L., & Farrington, D. P. (2012). Stability in aggression revisited. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(4), 365–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2012.04.001.
Prescott, A. T., Sargent, J. D., & Hull, J. G. (2018). Metaanalysis of the relationship between violent video game play and physical aggression over time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(40), 9882–9888. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611617114.
Robinson, C. C., Mandleco, B., Olsen, S. F., & Hart, C. H. (2001). The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSQD). In B. F. Perlmutter, J. Touliatos, & G. W. Holden (Eds.), Handbook of family measurement techniques: Vol. 3. (pp. 319–321). Sage. Newbury Park, CA.
Salomon, K., Matthews, K. A., & Allen, M. T. (2000). Patterns of sympathetic reactivity in a samples of children and adolescents. Psychophysiology, 37(6), 842–849. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8986.3760842.
Sijtsema, J. J., Shoulberg, E. K., & Murray-Close, D. (2011). Physiological reactivity and different forms of aggression in girls: moderating roles of rejection sensitivity and peer rejection. Biological Psychology, 86(3), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.11.007.
Shao, R., & Wang, Y. (2019). The relation of violent video games to adolescent aggression: an examination of moderated mediation effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 384. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00384.
Söderberg, P., & Björkqvist, K. (2020). Victimization from peer aggression and/or bullying: Prevalence, overlap, and psychosocial characteristics. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 29(2), 131–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2019.1570410.
Susman, E. J. (2006). Psychobiology of persistent antisocial behavior: stress, early vulnerabilities and the attenuation hypothesis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 30(3), 376–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.08.002.
Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2013). The differential susceptibility to media effects model. Journal of Communication, 63(2), 221–243. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12024.
Valkenburg, P. M., Pouwels, J. L., Beyens, I., van Driel, I. I., & Keijsers, L. (2021). Adolescents’ social media experiences and their self-esteem: A person-specific susceptibility perspective [Supplemental material]. Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000037.supp.
Verheijen, G. P., Stoltz, S. E. M. J., van den Berg, Y. H. M., & Cillessen, A. H. N. (2019). The influence of competitive and cooperative video games on behavior during play and friendship quality in adolescence. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, 297–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.023.
Walters, G. D. (2021). School-age bullying victimization and perpetration: a meta-analysis of prospective studies and research. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 22(5), 1129–1139. https://doi.org/10.1177/152483802090651.
Warburton, W. A., & Anderson, C. A. (2015). Social psychological study of aggression. In J. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopaedia of social and behavioral sciences (2nd ed., pp. 295–299). Elsevier. Amsterdam.
Warburton, W. A., & Anderson, C. A. (2018). Aggression. In T. K. Shackleford, & P. Zeigler-Hill (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of personality and individual differences: Vol. 3 Applications of personality and individual differences (pp. 183–211). Sage. Newbury Park, CA.
Warburton, W. A., Parkes, S., & Sweller, N. (2022). Internet gaming disorder: evidence for a risk and resilience approach. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(9), 5587. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095587.
Weinberger, D., Schwartz, G., & Davidson, R. (1979). Low-anxious, high-anxious, and repressive coping styles: Psychometric patterns and behavioral and physiological responses to stress. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88(4), 369–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.88.4.369.
Weissman, M. M., Orvaschel, H., & Padian, N. (1980). Children’s symptom and social functioning self-report scales: Comparison of mothers’ and children’s reports. Journal of Nervous Mental Disorders, 168(12), 736–740. https://highriskdepression.org/files/1980D.pdf.
Ybarra, M. L., Mitchell, K. J., & Oppenheim, J. K. (2022). Violent media in childhood and seriously violent behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Health, 71(3), 285–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.03.003.
Acknowledgements
We thank the BYU Family Studies Center, School of Family Life, and College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, and we recognize the generous support of the many private donors who provided assistance for this project. We also thank those families who were willing to spend valuable hours with our team in interviews, and the many students who assisted in conducting the interviews.
Authors’ Contributions
S.C. conceptualized the project, conducted the analyses, provided project supervision, and wrote portions of the original manuscript; W.W. conceptualized the project and wrote portions of the original manuscript; C.S. conceptualized the project and wrote portions of the original manuscript; L.S. conceptualized the project, helped with data collection, and wrote portions of the original manuscript; J.D. helped with the analysis, physiological data collection, and project supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Data Sharing and Declaration
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Pre-registration
Hypotheses were preregistered via the Open Science Foundation Network (study registration: osf.io/f7bvc).
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Coyne, S.M., Warburton, W., Swit, C. et al. Who is Most at Risk for Developing Physical Aggression After Playing Violent Video Games? An Individual Differences Perspective From Early Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood. J Youth Adolescence 52, 719–733 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01739-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01739-0