Prospective Investigation of Video Game Use in Children and Subsequent Conduct Disorder and Depression Using Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

There is increasing public and scientific concern regarding the long-term behavioural effects of video game use in children, but currently little consensus as to the nature of any such relationships. We investigated the relationship between video game use in children, degree of violence in games, and measures of depression and a 6-level banded measure of conduct disorder. Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children were used. A 3-level measure of game use at age 8/9 years was developed, taking into account degree of violence based on game genre. Associations with conduct disorder and depression, measured at age 15, were investigated using ordinal logistic regression, adjusted for a number of potential confounders. Shoot-em-up games were associated with conduct disorder bands, and with a binary measure of conduct disorder, although the strength of evidence for these associations was weak. A sensitivity analysis comparing those who play competitive games to those who play shoot-em-ups found weak evidence supporting the hypothesis that it is violence rather than competitiveness that is associated with conduct disorder. However this analysis was underpowered, and we cannot rule out the possibility that increasing levels of competition in games may be just as likely to account for the observed associations as violent content. Overall game exposure as indicated by number of games in a household was not related to conduct disorder, nor was any association found between shoot-em-up video game use and depression.

"Our results indicate that playing video games that are more likely to include violent content (i.e., shoot-em-ups) in childhood is weakly associated with an increased risk of conduct disorder in late adolescence. There was also weak evidence that individuals who selectively play shoot-em-ups differed in risk to those who selectively play competitive games. However, the absolute risk of developing conduct disorder is small, and the modest effect sizes we observed should be interpreted in this context. Overall game exposure, as indicated by number of games in a household, was not related to conduct disorder, nor was any association found between video game use and depression. While our results are broadly in line with findings suggesting that violent game content is associated with increased aggressive tendencies, the associations we observe (and statistical evidence for these) are modest, and do not seem to be consistent with claims that the effects of playing violent video games on aggressive behaviour are of a sizeable magnitude." (Etchells et al, 2016: 7). "Although there is a weak association between playing shoot-em-ups at a young age and subsequent negative behaviours, the effect is small and the statistical evidence for these associations is weak. Moreover, there was only very weak evidence that individuals who selectively played shoot-em-up games (which we considered in our analysis as the more violent genre) differed in risk from those individuals who selectively played competitive games, suggesting that violent video game content alone may not be a sufficient indicator of risk for later aggressive behaviour. Furthermore, given that in the present study we do not consider the impact of media exposure aside from video games, an assumption that any association between violent game use and aggression is causal [27] is inappropriate here." (Etchells et al, 2016: 8).