Tortolero Susan R, Peskin Melissa F, Baumler Elizabeth R, Cuccaro Paula M, Elliott Marc N, Davies Susan L, Lewis Terri H, Banspach Stephen W, Kanouse David E, Schuster Mark A
1 Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health , Houston, Texas.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2014 Sep;17(9):609-15. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0091. Epub 2014 Jul 9.
Most studies on the impact of playing violent video games on mental health have focused on aggression. Relatively few studies have examined the relationship between playing violent video games and depression, especially among preadolescent youth. In this study, we investigated whether daily violent video game playing over the past year is associated with a greater number of depressive symptoms among preadolescent youth, after controlling for several well-known correlates of depression among youth. We analyzed cross-sectional data collected from 5,147 fifth-grade students and their primary caregivers who participated in Wave I (2004-2006) of Healthy Passages, a community-based longitudinal study conducted in three U.S. cities. Linear regression was conducted to determine the association between violent video game exposure and number of depressive symptoms, while controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, peer victimization, witnessing violence, being threatened with violence, aggression, family structure, and household income level. We found that students who reported playing high-violence video games for ≥2 hours per day had significantly more depressive symptoms than those who reported playing low-violence video games for <2 hours per day (p<0.001). The magnitude of this association was small (Cohen's d=0.16), but this association was consistent across all racial/ethnic subgroups and among boys (Cohen's d values ranged from 0.12 to 0.25). Our findings indicate that there is an association between daily exposure to violent video games and number of depressive symptoms among preadolescent youth. More research is needed to examine this association and, if confirmed, to investigate its causality, persistence over time, underlying mechanisms, and clinical implications.
大多数关于玩暴力电子游戏对心理健康影响的研究都集中在攻击性上。相对较少的研究考察了玩暴力电子游戏与抑郁之间的关系，尤其是在青春期前的青少年中。在本研究中，我们调查了在控制了青少年抑郁的几个已知相关因素后，过去一年每天玩暴力电子游戏是否与青春期前青少年出现更多抑郁症状有关。我们分析了从5147名五年级学生及其主要照顾者那里收集的横断面数据，他们参与了“健康通道”研究的第一波（2004 - 2006年），该研究是在美国三个城市进行的一项基于社区的纵向研究。进行线性回归以确定暴力电子游戏暴露与抑郁症状数量之间的关联，同时控制性别、种族/族裔、同伴受害情况、目睹暴力、受到暴力威胁、攻击性、家庭结构和家庭收入水平。我们发现，报告每天玩高暴力电子游戏≥2小时的学生比报告每天玩低暴力电子游戏<2小时的学生有明显更多的抑郁症状（p<0.001）。这种关联的程度较小（科恩d值 = 0.16），但在所有种族/族裔亚组和男孩中这种关联都是一致的（科恩d值范围从0.12到0.25）。我们的研究结果表明，青春期前青少年每天接触暴力电子游戏与抑郁症状数量之间存在关联。需要更多研究来检验这种关联，如果得到证实，则要调查其因果关系、随时间的持续性、潜在机制和临床意义。
