Factors Correlated with Violent Video Game Use by Adolescent Boys and Girls
Received 27 September 2006; accepted 17 January 2007. published online 13 April 2007.
Abstract
Purpose
To compare the video and computer game play patterns of young adolescent boys and girls, including factors correlated with playing violent games.
Methods
Data collected in November/December, 2004 from children in grades 7 and 8 at two demographically diverse schools in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, using a detailed written self-reported survey.
Results
Of 1254 participants (53% female, 47% male), only 80 reported playing no electronic games in the previous 6 months. Of 1126 children who listed frequently played game titles, almost half (48.8%) played at least one violent (mature-rated) game regularly (67.9% of boys and 29.2% of girls). One third of boys and 10.7% of girls play games nearly every day; only 1 in 20 plays often or always with a parent. Playing M-rated games is positively correlated (p < .001) with being male, frequent game play, playing with strangers over the Internet, having a game system and computer in one’s bedroom, and using games to manage anger.
Conclusions
Most young adolescent boys and many girls routinely play M-rated games. Implications for identifying atypical and potentially harmful patterns of electronic game use are discussed, as well as the need for greater media literacy among parents.
aHarvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry, Boston, Massachusetts
bDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
cUniversity Outreach & Engagement, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
Address correspondence to: Cheryl K. Olson, S.D., Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry, Wang 812, Parkman Street, Boston, MA 02114.
ABSTRACT