How to Be Aggressive from Virtual to Reality? Revisiting the Violent Video Games Exposure-Aggression Association and the Mediating Mechanisms

Abstract

Few studies have simultaneously examined the underlying mechanisms of the link between violent video games exposure (VVGE) and aggression (as proposed by different theories) to examine how they explain the relationship between the concepts as independent-dependent variables. This study used a multi-informant design to examine the relationship between VVGE and the functions (proactive and reactive) of aggressive behaviors by comparing three mediating mechanisms: anger, moral disengagement, and cognitive impulsivity. The sample consisted of 2,095 Chinese children and adolescences (48.9 percent girls; M age = 11.12 years, SD = 1.70) and their mothers. After controlling for age, gender, socioeconomic status, child maltreatment, and problematic traits, structural equation modeling indicated that anger and moral disengagement play mediating roles between VVGE and proactive and reactive aggression, but cognitive impulsivity only plays a mediating role between VVGE and reactive aggression. The discussion emphasizes the importance of creating prevention programs for anger, moral disengagement, and cognitive impulsivity to break the VVGE-to-aggression cycle, and provides suggestions for future research.

Video Games Should Not Be Studied as Media That Only Passively Transmit Social Information

“…They found that prosocial game exposure was associated with higher self-reported social satisfaction, more peer support, more prosocial behaviors, and higher well-being, while violent game exposure was associated with more school bullying, lower social satisfaction, and lower prosociality. Other studies that used a similar operational definition found that violent game exposure was linked to more self-reported (adults) or mother-reported (children and adolescents) daily aggressive behaviors (Lee et al, 2021;Teng et al, 2019) via normative beliefs about aggression (Shao & Wang, 2019), anger (Zhao et al, 2021), and hostility (Yao et al, 2019); prosocial video game exposure was positively associated with more prosocial behaviors (Shoshani et al, 2022) through increased empathy (Harrington, 2016).…”