Emotions in Social Computer Games: Relations with Bullying, Aggression, and School Belonging

Abstract

This article explores the set of emotions expressed by middle school youth n = 96 when participating in a social computer game. In this article, we present the design of the game, the instruments used to assess bullying in the physical world, and the analysis of the emotions expressed during gameplay and their association with aggressive behaviors. Participants completed surveys on bullying experiences prior to playing the game. The game required participants to form teams and answer two sets of trivia questions, in competitive and cooperative stages. Results show a relation between the roles that participants have in their physical social environment and how they play the virtual game, in terms of the type of emotions they display.