New study stirs debate on video games and aggression in kids

New research suggests that exposure to violent video games can make kids react in aggressive ways, adding fuel to the debate about gaming and children.

Researchers from Iowa State University suggest that repeated exposure to violent video games fundamentally rewires the way kids respond to provocation in the real world.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, looked at more than 3,000 children from Singapore aged 8-17 over a period of three years.

The results found that kids who played more hours of violent video games per week were more likely to show aggressive behaviour and violent tendencies -- such as hitting, shoving and pushing -- compared to those who played fewer hours a week.

"Practicing such aggressive thinking in these games improves the ability of the players to think aggressively," says study co-author Craig Anderson. "In turn, this habitual aggressive thinking increases their aggressiveness in real life."

However, the study is being questioned by other experts in the field who suggest it uses data that has previously been discredited.

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"Given that this data has been out there already, and that there's so many problems, I don't think that's much here for parents or policy makers to take away from it," Christopher Ferguson, chair of the psychology department at Stetson University, tells the Mother Nature Network.

Ferguson notes that past research on the topic does not support the notion that violent video games causes aggression in children.

He says that despite the rise in the popularity of violent games, movies and television shows, it has not been matched by a corresponding rise in youth violent crime.

"If video games really did have this direct, linear affect, we would be able to see it in society, and we're not," he explains.

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Ferguson further suggests that violence in the home, abuse, and mental illness are more significant predictors of aggressive behaviour in children.

Andrew Przybylski, a social scientist at Oxford University, agrees that the study has shortcomings because it does not prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship between playing violent games and increased aggression.

Meanwhile, Anderson urges parents to limit the amount of exposure their children get to violent video games.

"It’s best to understand that this is a moral decision, not a public health decision," he says.

His study falls on the heels of another recent study that suggests mothers who monitor how much time their children spend playing video games tend to have children who weigh less.