Violent video games might make children depressed, a new research shows.
It has been widely documented that violent games increase aggression in children and teens and also risk unhealthy behavior in them.
In the current study, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health recruited fifth graders from three cities in the United States and played high-violence video games for 2 or more hours a day. Researchers compared the effects of these games on children with another set of children who played low-violence video games for less than 2 hours a day.
The results showed significantly more depressive symptoms over a year among the participants who played extreme violent games. This was across all racial or ethnic subgroups and mostly among boys, researchers stated.
The study 'Daily Violent Video Game Playing and Depression in Preadolescent Youth' was published in the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.
Previous studies showed that children who played violent games were at risk of aggressive behavior. Moreover, rise in cognitive aggression was also seen among them and empathy did not reduce the effects of playing violent video games on aggression.
In a recent gun violence incident in Colorado, a minor boy confessed to learning shooting through video games. He targeted a 3-year-old girl and shot her, police said.
Researchers from RAND Corporation (Santa Monica, CA), The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA), and Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA) also contributed for the study.
