Video Games Like Peanut Butter, Researcher Claims, Harmful To A Small Minority
“Violent video games are like peanut butter,” said researcher Christopher J. Ferguson with Texas A&M International University. “They are harmless for the vast majority of kids but are harmful to a small minority with pre-existing personality or mental health problems.”
He also pointed to statistics that show that “as video games have become more popular, children in the United States and Europe are having fewer behavior problems, are less violent and score better on standardized tests”.
His comments and results were published in a special article in the Review of General Pyschology, the journal put out by the American Psychological Association. Other studies were also incorporated in the special article.
A researcher with Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Patrick Markey, studied a group of 118 teenagers and found that if the teen already had some negative personality traits, they were more likely to be hostile or aggressive after exposure to violent video games. Some of these traits include being indifferent to other people’s feelings, depressed or easily upset.
Researchers found that kids who had a tendency to be “highly neurotic, less agreeable, and less conscientious”, are the very kids who should not play these type of video games.
Several postive things can come from video games according to some of the other study results in the piece. T. Atilla Ceranoglu, with MassGeneral in Boston, figured out the video games are a useful tool when performing psychological assessments of teens and children.
Other research has shown that some kids can benefit from playing video games by improving their visual/spatial skills, their social networking capabilities, and the games can even aid in the control of pain. Certain games can even help prevent an asthma attack and aid in diabetes treatment.
The debate on video games won’t go away soon, as there are many that oppose the positive results claimed. There are also a number of studies that show the opposite result. It does show that more research is needed to know for sure.