SPECIAL FEATURE | Debate over violent video games deepens (Part 1 of 3)
Recent studies continue to report associations between violent video game exposure and aggression, emotional problems, bullying and reduced empathy.
PART 1 OF 3
For more than three decades, violent video games have occupied a contentious place in public discourse. Following high-profile mass shootings in the United States during the late 1990s and early 2000s, politicians, educators and parents frequently blamed violent games for fostering aggression among young people. Researchers responded with hundreds of studies attempting to determine whether repeated exposure to digital violence influences real-world behavior.
Today, despite thousands of published papers, the question remains one of the most hotly debated topics in psychology, neuroscience and public health. Recent studies continue to report associations between violent video game exposure and aggression, emotional problems, bullying and reduced empathy. Yet researchers also caution that the relationship is neither simple nor universal. Family environment, peer influence, personality, mental health, genetics and broader social conditions all interact with media exposure, making it difficult to isolate the effects of violent games alone.
Three recent peer-reviewed papers illustrate both the progress made in understanding the issue and the scientific disagreements that continue to surround it. A large empirical study published in 2022 examined more than 2,100 Chinese children and adolescents. A systematic review published in 2023 evaluated evidence from studies conducted primarily in the Arab world. Most recently, a 2025 narrative review synthesized findings from more than two decades of international research, including longitudinal studies, meta-analyses and experimental investigations.
Rather than reaching identical conclusions, the three papers converge on one important point: violent video games may contribute to aggressive thoughts and behaviors in certain circumstances, but they represent only one factor within a much broader network of biological, psychological and social influences.
A debate spanning more than 30 years
Scientific concern over media violence predates modern video games. Early research focused on television, films and cartoons before expanding to interactive entertainment as gaming became increasingly sophisticated during the 1990s.
Unlike television, video games require players to participate directly in virtual violence. Players do not merely observe violent acts; they make decisions, perform attacks, receive rewards and repeatedly practice behaviors that may influence emotional and cognitive responses.
The 2025 review published in Psychology International notes that violent video games (VVGs) have become one of the dominant forms of entertainment worldwide, particularly among adolescents. Drawing upon more than 100 previous studies, the review examines how violent gameplay may influence aggression, empathy, bullying, internet gaming disorder, mental health and even biological systems associated with emotional regulation.
The review does not claim that violent games automatically produce violent people. Instead, it evaluates competing theories explaining why some individuals may be more susceptible than others.
According to authors Alejandro Borrego-Ruiz and Juan J. Borrego, “While there is evidence suggesting that exposure to VVGs is associated with increased adolescent aggression, discrepancies in the literature highlight the need for further research aimed at improving our understanding of this phenomenon.”
That caution reflects an increasingly nuanced scientific position. Earlier debates often framed the issue as a simple question of whether violent games cause violence. Contemporary researchers instead examine how violent games interact with numerous developmental and environmental factors.
The largest study focuses on children and adolescents
Among the newest empirical studies is a 2022 investigation published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health by Mingchen Wei, Yanling Liu and Shuai Chen.
Unlike laboratory experiments involving relatively small samples, the researchers surveyed 2,118 students aged 9 to 17 from elementary, junior high and senior high schools in southwest China. The study sought to determine whether violent video game exposure predicted behavioral problems and whether peer relationships helped explain that relationship.
The researchers measured each participant’s exposure by asking students to identify the violent games they had recently played and rate both the frequency and violent content of those games. They also evaluated participants’ emotional and behavioral adjustment as well as their association with peers exhibiting destructive behaviors such as truancy, theft, smoking, drinking and internet addiction.
The authors explained why the issue deserves attention.
“Problem behavior (PB) is one of the most prevalent and persistent forms of maladjustment among children and adolescents,” they wrote, noting that such behaviors have been associated with poor academic performance, substance abuse, adjustment difficulties and criminal behavior later in life.
After analyzing the data, the researchers reported a statistically significant relationship between violent game exposure and behavioral problems.
They concluded: “Exposure to violent video games significantly positively predicted problem behaviors, and deviant peer affiliation played a mediating role.”
This distinction is important.
Rather than arguing that violent games alone directly produce aggression, the researchers found that adolescents exposed to violent games were also more likely to associate with peers displaying problematic behaviors. Those peer relationships, in turn, contributed to increases in behavioral problems.
Their conclusion emphasized this indirect pathway: “Deviant peer affiliation significantly mediates the relationship between exposure to violent games and PBs among children and adolescents.”
Why peers matter
The Chinese researchers argue that video games influence more than individual psychology.
Gaming has increasingly become a social activity. Online multiplayer games create friendships, communities and social networks extending beyond school and home.
According to the study, adolescents chronically exposed to violent games may gradually associate with peers exhibiting similar interests and behaviors.
The researchers explain this through two complementary mechanisms known as selection and socialization.
Selection occurs when adolescents actively choose friends who share similar attitudes and behaviors.
Socialization occurs when continued interaction with those peers reinforces those same behaviors over time.
As the authors explain, “Children and adolescents who play games select peers with behavioral problems, and interactions with undesirable peers increase their own problem behaviors.”
This finding challenges the common assumption that violent games operate independently.
Instead, the study suggests that social environment significantly amplifies or moderates their influence.
More than aggression alone
The researchers also emphasize that problem behaviors extend well beyond physical aggression.
Their study distinguishes between externalizing problems, such as aggression, impulsivity and conduct disorders, and internalizing problems, including anxiety, depression, emotional distress and social withdrawal.
According to the paper, previous research has shown that prolonged exposure to violent games has been associated with anxiety, mood disorders, attention difficulties, hyperactivity, poorer social adjustment and emotional problems in addition to aggressive behavior.
The authors summarize decades of earlier work by noting that multiple meta-analyses have found violent video games to have “significantly adversely affected aggressive behavior, aggressive affect, violent desensitization, and mental health.”
Their own findings broadly support those earlier observations while adding a more detailed explanation of how peer relationships contribute to behavioral outcomes.
Differences between boys and girls
The study also identified notable demographic differences.
Boys reported substantially greater exposure to violent games than girls.
Older adolescents also exhibited more externalizing behavioral problems than younger children.
According to the researchers, these findings are consistent with previous studies suggesting that adolescent antisocial behavior generally increases during the teenage years before declining in adulthood.
However, the authors caution that developmental differences should not be interpreted as evidence that violent games affect every adolescent in the same way.
Instead, gender, age, peer environment and other developmental factors appear to modify how gaming influences behavior.
Evidence beyond China
Although the Chinese study focused on one population, its conclusions align with findings summarized in the broader international literature.
The 2025 Psychology International review examined studies conducted across North America, Europe, Asia and other regions.
Among the longitudinal studies discussed is research by Ybarra and colleagues involving 1,586 American children aged 10 to 15, which found that higher exposure to violent media during youth was associated with an increased risk of serious violent behavior later in adolescence and adulthood.
The review also discusses a 2024 Chinese study involving more than 9,200 adolescents, which reported significant associations between violent game exposure, internet gaming disorder, psychological distress and aggression. Participants experiencing more severe gaming problems also exhibited higher levels of aggressive behavior.
Yet not every study reached the same conclusion.
Research conducted in the Czech Republic found that although adolescents exposed to violent games displayed higher levels of aggression overall, increasing violent game exposure over time did not itself increase aggression within individuals. Instead, adolescents who became more physically aggressive tended to consume more violent games, suggesting that aggressive personalities may seek violent content rather than being created by it.
These conflicting findings have become one of the defining features of contemporary research.
Rather than supporting simple conclusions, they increasingly point toward a dynamic interaction between media exposure, personality, mental health and social environment.
END OF PART 1
EDITOR’S NOTE: This feature is based on peer-reviewed studies published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2022), Acta Biomedica (2023), and Psychology International (2025), together with the earlier longitudinal studies, meta-analyses and systematic reviews synthesized within those publications.
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