Correlational study of violent video game exposure and aggression among adolescents in Shaanxi Province

Objective To explore the correlation between adolescents' violent video game exposure and aggression,so that to provide a reference for decreasing the violent attacks among teenagers.Methods Mixed method was applied in this study.Firstly,a cluster sampling was used to select 200 juvenile offenders and 182 middle school students.Game rating,game preference and gaming motivation were investigated through self-report questionnaire and aggression level was measured via Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire.Totally 10 typical interviewees,including 6 criminal juvenile offenders and 4 middle school students,were selected for semi-structured interviews based on the results of the questionnaire.Results There was a positive correlation between the preferred game rating and aggressiveness of adolescents(r=0.20,P<0.01).Compared with middle school students,juvenile offenders spent more time (x2 =105.14) on video games and played more frequently (x2 =146.70).And they had more intensive motivation on "seeking for stimulation" (x2 =11.02) and "making friends"(x2 =17.05) (P<0.01).While compared with juvenile offenders,middle school students were more likely to prefer to "puzzle games"(x2 =11.04) and "turn-based strategy games" (x2 =19.01) which ask for more intelligence from game players(P<0.01).However,there was no significantly statistical difference (x2 =1.85,df=3,P=0.61) in the degree of violence between video games played by these two groups,which indicated that violent games are not the cause of juvenile delinquency.Conclusion There are significant differences in game behavior between juvenile offenders and middle school students.Although a positive correlation between preferred game rating and aggression is found,violent video games could not be regarded as the cause of juvenile delinquency.