Research Proposal

Running head: VIDEO GAMES INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN CONDUCT 1

VIDEO GAMES INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN CONDUCT 2

Video Games Influence on Children Conduct

Student Name

Institution Affiliation

Video Games Influence on Children Conduct

Introduction

There is the current video game named "Grand Theft Auto," and it is capturing the attention of most kids and there is the need to understand the topic and the moral impacts it has on the children's morality and conduct. The rising case of conduct disorder among children poses a challenge to the community to ascertain the source of the children engaging in activities and behaviors that are against their moral standards. Video game playing has become a popular pastime among children all around the world. Numerous researches have examined the impact of video games on children and adolescents over the last three decades. Most of the research was done in countries with advanced economies. Some research shows that playing violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, furious feelings, physiological arousal, and aggressive acts in the real world. The different video games that children are exposed to determine the behavior they are likely to emulate. There is a need to understand the impact video games have on children and determine possible ways to avoid them if they have a detrimental impact on their health.  Children who play Grand Theft Auto have increased conduct disorder than children who do not play Grand Theft Auto.

Variables

The independent variable is playing video games or not playing video games. On the other hand, the dependent variable is conduct disorder. The measure is directed to the conduct disorder to determine if the video game is playing an impact.

Method

The study is conducted by selecting the participants through their parental consent. Some are provided with video games, specifically "Grand Theft Auto," and the others act as control where they do not play video games. The timing of video gaming is controlled to get significant results. A follow-up on the client is conducted for two months.

Literature

There is evidence by Allahverdipour et al. (2015) that shows that video games, particularly violent video games, are becoming increasingly popular among children and adolescents in low and middle-income nations. Concerns about violent video games' potential detrimental impact on children's aggressive cognitions, attitudes, behaviors, academic performance, and psychological well-being have grown in these nations due to weak or nonexistent copyright rights and the sale of rated video games to minors. The influence of excessive video game playing and non-gaming on mental health status is one element of the findings that merits more discussion. In contrast to moderate players, non-players and heavy gamers both said they had inferior mental health. Compared to kids who don't play video games or use the Internet at all or very high levels, research suggests that excessive video game use may hurt students' GPAs (Allahverdipour et al., 2015). Adolescents should be educated about the potential harms of excessive video game playing on their health and psychosocial functioning using educational, motivational approaches.

According to Kuhn et al. (2019), it demonstrated that there is no significant evidence that supports the fact that Grand Video Auto has a detrimental impact on the conduct of children. The research showed substantial evidence against the commonly debated negative effects of playing violent video games. The research demonstrated that video gaming has no significant impact on the short-term or the long-term impacts of children's conduct behavior (Kuhn et al., 2019).

According to Nordby et al. (2019), procrastination is the main problem associated with the young engaging in more video gaming associated with more of an influence of their conduct and behavior, especially when exposed to a violent related video game Grand Theft Auto. Children experience boredom that requires immediate intervention and avoid solving the problem with video games associated with a possible addiction. The study was conducted using a survey method involving 500 participants. The study's findings indicate that video games are done mostly for entertainment purposes, rewards, or social reasons and not to relieve stress. There is no significant association between video games to procrastination.

According to Prescott et al. (2018), a meta-analysis was conducted targeting quantifying the influence of exposure to violent video games on a child's physical aggression behavior. The study was conducted, and the data was sourced from 24 studies with 17,000 participants and of different ethnic backgrounds. The findings indicated that more studies support the issue that violent videos increase physical aggression. This shows that video games are associated with an increase in physical aggression over time.

According to Smith et al. (2018), conduct disorder in children and youth is experienced when they are subjected to violent video games. The research employed the Avon Longitudinal study that collected the dataset of both parents and children and examined the shooter game impact on criminal conduct disorder in a child and later in the adolescents. The findings indicated that early childhood mental illness and conduct disorders experienced at seven years of age-predicted criminal behavior at 15 years. Finally, the article indicated that the shooter game did not predict conduct disorder or criminal behavior.

Conclusion

Some literature supports that video gaming like the one of "Grand Theft Auto" is known to impact children's conduct significantly. The other literature showed no significant relationship between conduct disorder and violent video games. According to the literature sources, more research supports that violent video games increase physical aggression among children, and it increases with time. There is limited research that is against violent video games being a contributing factor to physical aggression.

References

Allahverdipour, H., Bazargan, M., Farhadinasab, A., & Moeini, B. (2015). Correlates of video games playing among adolescents in an Islamic country. BMC Public Health, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-286

Kühn, S., Kugler, D., Schmalen, K., Weichenberger, M., Witt, C., & Gallinat, J. (2018). Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention study. Molecular Psychiatry, 24(8), 1220-1234. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0031-7

Nordby, K., Løkken, R., & Pfuhl, G. (2019). Playing a video game is more than mere procrastination. BMC Psychology, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-019-0309-9

Prescott, A., Sargent, J., & Hull, J. (2018). Meta-analysis of the relationship between violent video gameplay and physical aggression over time. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, 115(40), 9882-9888. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611617114

Smith, S., Ferguson, C., & Beaver, K. (2018). A longitudinal analysis of shooter games and their relationship with conduct disorder and cself-reported delinquency. International Journal Of Law And Psychiatry, 58, 48-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2018.02.008