Violent video games, violence and related variables: state of the debate

Abstract

Video games are a new form of mass entertainment that more and more people fit into a new form of sport. This review tries to elucidate the state of the debate on the relationship between use of violent video games, violence and related variables. For this purpose, the MEDLINE complete, Psychology and Behavioral Science Collection, Psycinfo, and Sportdiscus databases were reviewed. The total volume of references was 2.000 documents published from 2013 to 2019. Of these, 20 representative works on the subject were selected. The results of these investigations suggested that any violent or similar consequences in the players are due to personal variables (trait anger and age, mainly in adolescence and young adulthood) and contextual variables (competition) mediating between the video game and the problem behavior. It is concluded that it is these moderators that explain the relationship between violent video games, violence and related variables, rather than the content of video games.