Department of Psychology and Communication, Texas A&M International University, 5201 University Blvd., Laredo, TX 78041, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2013 Jan;42(1):109-22. doi: 10.1007/s10964-012-9803-6. Epub 2012 Aug 9.
The United States Supreme Court's recent decision relating to violent video games revealed divisions within the scientific community about the potential for negative effects of such games as well as the need for more, higher quality research. Scholars also have debated the potential for violent games to have positive effects such as on visuospatial cognition or math ability. The current study sought to extend previous literature by using well-validated clinical outcome measures for relevant constructs, which have generally been lacking in past research. Cross-section data on aggression, visuospatial cognition, and math achievement were available for a sample of 333 (51.7 % female) mostly Hispanic youth (mean age = 12.76). Prospective 1-year data on aggression and school GPA were available for 143 (46.2 % female) of those youth. Results from both sets of analysis revealed that exposure to violent game had neither short-term nor long-term predictive influences on either positive or negative outcomes. A developmental analysis of the cross-sectional data revealed that results did not differ across age categories of older children, preadolescents or adolescents. Analysis of effect sizes largely ruled out Type II error as a possible explanation for null results. Suggestions for new directions in the field of video game research are proffered.
美国最高法院最近有关暴力视频游戏的裁决揭示了科学界内部在这些游戏可能产生负面影响以及需要更多、更高质量的研究方面存在分歧。学者们还争论了暴力游戏可能产生积极影响的可能性，例如在视空间认知或数学能力方面。本研究试图通过使用经过充分验证的临床结果测量相关结构来扩展以前的文献，而这在过去的研究中通常是缺乏的。对 333 名（51.7%为女性）主要为西班牙裔青少年（平均年龄=12.76 岁）的攻击性、视空间认知和数学成绩的横断面数据进行了分析。对其中 143 名青少年（46.2%为女性）的前瞻性 1 年攻击性和学校 GPA 数据进行了分析。这两组分析的结果都表明，暴力游戏的接触既没有对积极或消极结果产生短期影响，也没有产生长期影响。对横断面数据的发展分析表明，结果在年龄较大的儿童、青春期前儿童或青少年的年龄类别中没有差异。效应大小的分析在很大程度上排除了第二类错误作为无效结果的可能解释。提出了视频游戏研究领域的新方向的建议。
