Effects Of Prosocial Video Games On Kindergartners’ Aggressive Cognitions And Aggressive Behaviors

The relationship between video games and children’s aggressive behavior has been a hot topic in the field of child developmental psychology for the past several decades.However,many studies have focused on the effects of violent video games and children’s aggression,and less on the short-term effects of prosocial video games on children’s aggressive behaviors.With the rise of positive psychology,led by Seligman,many researchers have been examining the positive effects of prosocial media on children’s social psychology and behavior,and prosocial video games are one of them.To date,most experimental studies on prosocial video games have been conducted mainly in Western cultures,and there is a lack of experimental studies on the effects of prosocial video games on the prosocial psychology and behavior of young children in China.Based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory,mass media is an important context for young children’s social behavior acquisition and provides a rich behavioral schema for individual social development.Based on Anderson’s general learning model,individual and contextual variables affect individuals’external behavior by changing their internal states,and the influence of media on individuals depends mainly on the nature of media content.Using general learning theory and social cognitive theory as the theoretical framework,this study focused on examining the short-term effects of pro-social video games on aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior of 4-6-year-old children,and further testing whether prosocial video games affect aggressive behavior through aggressive cognition and then,aiming to provide research references for the prevention and intervention of young children’s aggressive behavior.A 2（game type:prosocial vs.neutral）×2（gender:male vs.female）between-group experimental design was used to examine the effects of prosocial video games and gender on aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior.First,10 prosocial video games and 5 neutral video games were selected from the 4399 online mini-game website,and 20 preschool graduate students and 20 preschool undergraduate students were invited to rate the content of the 10 prosocial video games,and after complete experience of the games,a five-point Likert scale was used to score the games in terms of familiarity,pleasantness,prosocial content,prosocial scenes,fun,difficulty,and the final rating was"Engine Repair Main","Dora’s Baby Sister","Dora’s rescue of stray dogs","Baby Fluttershy Day Care",and"Dora’s Puppy Adventure".We invited 20preschool graduate students and 20 preschool undergraduates to evaluate the content of the five neutral video games.The seven dimensions of familiarity,pleasure,prosocial content,prosocial scenes,fun,difficulty,and action range were used to evaluate"Coloring Book My Little Pong","Little Bear Baba Coloring Board","Baby Hippo Learning Colors","Magical Drawing Board"and"My Coloring Book"were evaluated as neutral video games.Second,240 children aged 4-6 years who showed aggressive behaviors in their daily lives(male=123,M_age=4.81,SD=0.75)were selected as experimental subjects’alternatives through teacher nomination and peer nomination in two kindergartens under the jurisdiction of Chongqing city.All parents of the subjects were informed in advance of the purpose of the experiment and experimental precautions,and informed consent forms were signed with the assistance of the experimental assistants.95%of the subjects agreed to the experiment,and children who did not give consent were not used as experimental subjects.To ensure the same number of subjects in the experimental and control groups and the same sex ratio within the group,208 children(50%female,M_age=5.01,SD=2.75)were selected as the final experimental sample,104 in the experimental group（50%female）and 104 in the control group（50%female）.The experiment used a picture decision task and a competing reaction-time task to measure subjects’aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior,respectively.In the picture decision making experimental paradigm,subjects responded to the aggressive and neutral pictures separately with rapid keystroke discrimination,and the difference between when the children responded to the aggressive and neutral pictures(aggressive cognition=RT _{neutral picture}-RT _{aggressive picture})was used as a measure of aggressive cognition,with larger differences representing higher levels of aggressive cognition and vice versa.In the competitive response-time experimental paradigm,the mean value of noise intensity set by the subjects for the virtual opponent was used as a measure of aggressive behavior,with higher mean values of noise intensity representing higher levels of aggressive behavior and vice versa.In the pre-test phase of the experiment,all 208 children completed the picture decision-making task and the competitive reaction-time task to obtain the initial pre-experimental baseline levels of aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior.Subsequently,104 subjects were randomly assigned to the pro-social video game group（experimental group）to play the prosocial video game for 15 minutes per day for 5days,and 104 subjects were randomly assigned to the neutral video game group（control group）to play the neutral video game for 15 minutes per day for 5 days.On the fifth day,subjects in the experimental and control groups again completed the picture decision-making task and the competitive reaction-time task to obtain posttest levels of aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior.All subjects completed all experimental procedures,and no subject dropped out of the experiment in the middle.Finally,descriptive statistical analysis,analysis of variance,and mediation analysis were conducted to measure the effects of prosocial video games on young children’s aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior.The conclusions are the following:firstly,manipulating pro-social video games significantly reduced young children’s aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors;secondly,boys’aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors in prosocial video game situations were significantly lower than girls’;and thirdly,aggressive cognitions partially mediated the relationship between prosocial video games and aggressive behaviors,especially in boys.And the educational recommendations are as follows:firstly,preschool child educators can use prosocial video games as an effective intervention means for children’s aggressive behavior;secondly,preschool child educators should grasp the gender difference in the influence of prosocial video game intervention on aggressive behavior,and take boys as the key group;and thirdly,in the context of prosocial video games,preschool child educators can reduce aggressive behavior by suppressing aggressive cognition.Game developers need to step up development of prosocial video games,and grasp the different gender preference for video games,development and meet the demand of different gender of prosocial video games.To sum up,by examining the effects of repeated exposure to prosocial video games on aggressive behavior in young children with aggressive tendencies,this study demonstrates that prosocial video games may be an effective means of preventing and intervening in young children’s aggressive behavior.