Violent Video Games and Their Relation to Aggressive Behaviour in Late Childhood in Pakistan

Introduction

Considerable research has explained that playing violent video games can increase aggressive behaviour in children and adolcents(Anderson et al 2010). For studying the association between playing violent video games and aggressive behaviour in children, Bandura’s social learning theory has received support from researchers (Paik & Comstock, 1994; Wilson et al, 1997). Bandura and colleagues conducted an experiment in 1961 with 73 preschool children and suggested that children learn behaviour by observing models. Children who observed a man kicking, hitting and pulling a Bobo doll exhibited more aggressive behaviour towards the Bobo doll in comparison to those children who had not observed that aggressive behaviour. They replicated the findings in 1963 and proposed limiting children’s exposure to violent media content (Bandura, 1973, 1986). Since then this debate has continued in academia (Konijn et al., 2007). Children are often involved in playing games (outdoors and indoors) but due to the shift in trends towards playing video games, especially fighting video games, the chances of learning aggressive behaviour have increased (Krish, 2002). Therefore, presumably, if children play violent themed video games they may exhibit aggressive behaviour in real-life situations.