Impact of playing violent video games among school going children

Abstract

Introduction: Children who play violent video games may become violent and aggressive. An aggressive, emotional change in their behavior and deviation in academic performance. Aim: To assess the impact of violent video games playing among school-going adolescents. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study conducted among a random sample of 400 adolescents recruited from four selected English medium schools of a City of Northern India by convenient sampling. Each student interviewed by using a self-structured questionnaire which covered demographics, video gaming behaviors, and effects of video game playing on adolescents. Statistical Analysis: Collected data were entered in Microsoft Excel and subjected to suitable statistical tests. Results: The majority (83.75%) of the participants played video games while one-third of the video gamers preferred to play violent games. The majority (72.24%) of the parents did not monitor the video game content of their children. Both boys (58.56%) and girls (17.12%) got aggressive during parent’s interference while playing violent video games. A significant difference in gender found in the reaction of intense video gamers to siblings & friends after losing games. Most of the male (62.07%) but not female (20.83%) players were willing to apply actions of violent video games in real life. Conclusion: Adolescents and their parents must be updated about the negative impact of excessive video game playing on health and psychosocial functioning.