Family conflict and violent electronic media use in school-aged children

Publication Type  Journal Article
Year of Publication  2005
Authors  Vandewater, E. A.; Lee, J. H.; Shim, M. S.
Journal Title  Media Psychology
Volume  7
Pagination  73-86
ISBN Number  1521-3269
Accession Number  ISI:000226801100004
Key Words  television violence; video games; behavior; discord
Abstract  

Using a national sample of children aged 6 to 12 (N = 1,075), this study examined the relative merits of 3 theoretical perspectives on the relation between family conflict and children's use of electronic media (television and electronic games with violent content): (a) the family context hypothesis, whereby family conflict is positively related to violent electronic media use because family tensions will be reflected in children's interest in media with violent content; (b) the reaction hypothesis, whereby family conflict is positively related to nonviolent media use because children seek out nonviolent media content as a reaction against conflict in their family environment; and (c) the escape hypothesis, whereby family conflict is positively related to total electronic media use because children use media to escape family conflict regardless of content. Results supported the family context hypothesis. There was no support for the reaction and escape hypotheses.


0

Free Registration

Registered users have the added benefit of being able to:

  • Search/filter the bibliography to find just the article you are looking for. You can search the computer games research bibliography by author, year, keyword, title or publication type.
  • Export references from the video games bibliography to a format suitable for your own work. Options currently include tagged and XML for Endnote users and BibTex for the rest of the world.
  • Post comments to discuss the paper or alert fellow researchers to other resources.
  • Add their own references using the 'create content' -> 'biblio' option in the block on the left.
  • NEW: Use the Biblio Search box located on the right hand of the page.
  • NEW: Browse by journal title, book title, author or keyword using the new Faceted Search tool.