Reexamining the Findings of the American Psychological Association’s 2015 Task Force on Violent Media: A Meta-Analysis

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• Technical Report2021

  EN

  The impacts of violent video games from an Australian perspective

  Şiddet İçeren Video Oyunlarının Etkileri: Avustralya Perspektifi

  Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications · Australian Government, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications

  Twelve years after the Attorney-General's review, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications commissioned this follow-up to revisit whether violent video games (VVGs) harm Australian players, this time addressing aggression, attitudes toward women and youth mental health. Synthesising studies from 2009 to 2021 against explicit quality criteria (sample size, design, controls), the report draws three findings: exposure to VVGs is unlikely to meaningfully impact real-world aggressive behaviour; VVGs do not appear to shape attitudes toward women or worsen youth mental-health outcomes; and international evidence from North America, Europe and Asia generalises to the Australian context. The authors note that effect sizes shrink to negligible once gender, prior aggression and other third variables are controlled, and recommend against commissioning further Australian-specific research on these questions because new local studies are unlikely to change the cross-jurisdictional conclusion.

  • Violence & Aggression
  • Behaviour
  • Mental Health
  • Methodology

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• Brief Report2021

  EN

  Exposure to Bullying, Childhood Trauma, and Violence in Video Games Among Perpetrators of Mass Homicides: A Brief Report

  Toplu Cinayet Faillerinde Akran Zorbalığına, Çocukluk Travmasına ve Video Oyunlarındaki Şiddete Maruz Kalma: Kısa Bir Rapor

  Sanchez, E. & Ferguson, C. J. · Stetson University · Journal of Mass Violence Research

  Sanchez and Ferguson tested three childhood-life-event factors that public discourse has long pinned on perpetrators of mass shootings — childhood trauma and abuse, exposure to bullying, and exposure to violent video games — using a preregistered comparison of 169 male firearm mass-homicide perpetrators against existing research samples of same-age, same-gender non-perpetrators. Mass-homicide perpetrators reported substantially higher rates of childhood trauma and abuse than the comparison samples, but no elevation in exposure to bullying. On video games, the perpetrators had played fewer violent games than the matched non-perpetrator samples, contradicting the cultural narrative that violent gameplay is a meaningful risk marker for mass violence. The authors argue that public-policy and prevention efforts should be redirected toward childhood-trauma intervention rather than media-violence regulation.

  • Violence & Aggression
  • Mental Health

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• Meta-analysis2020

  EN

  Do longitudinal studies support long-term relationships between aggressive game play and youth aggressive behaviour? A meta-analytic examination

  Boylamsal çalışmalar, saldırgan oyun oynama ile gençlerde saldırgan davranış arasında uzun vadeli ilişkileri destekliyor mu? Meta-analitik bir inceleme

  Drummond, A., Sauer, J. D., & Ferguson, C. J. · Massey University, University of Tasmania & Stetson University · Royal Society Open Science

  Drummond, Sauer and Ferguson examined whether longitudinal studies — the strongest design for testing causal claims about media effects — actually support a meaningful long-term link between aggressive video game play and youth aggressive behaviour. Their meta-analysis pooled 28 independent samples covering approximately 21,000 young participants and produced an overall effect size of r = 0.059, with no evidence of publication bias. The authors interpret an effect of that magnitude as practically negligible: it falls below conventional thresholds for clinically or socially meaningful effects, and is small enough to be plausibly explained by minor methodological artefacts such as shared-method variance. They conclude that the longitudinal evidence base does not justify framing violent gameplay as a substantive risk factor for youth aggression.

  • Violence & Aggression
  • Children & Adolescents
  • Methodology

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