Violent video gaming among French adolescents: Impact on mental health by gender.

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, video games are very popular among teenagers. This popularity generates concerns, whether in the media, among families or among the scientific community, who wonder about their potential harmful effects. The aim of this study was to assess the association between different types of use of video games (absence of use, use of violent video games, use of non-violent video games) and mental health and aggression.

Methods: Data was drawn from a French cross-sectional study entitled "Portrait d'Adolescents" which included 15,235 adolescents using anonymous self-administered questionnaires. We defined three groups of use of video games (absence of use, use of violent video games, use of non-violent video games) and explored the association with mental health indicators among boys and girls.

Results: The group categorized as "non-gamers" consisted of 1288 adolescents (8.5%), while the "non-violent video gamers" group comprised 8380 adolescents (55.5%) and the "violent video gamers" group included 5430 participants (36%). Among adolescent boys, there was no observed association between responses to mental health-related questions and the type of video game playing. However, in the "violent video gamers" group, a higher percentage of boys (6.8%) reported engaging in self-harm behaviors (p=0.001). In contrast, in the "non-violent video gamers" group, a lower proportion of boys (9.4%) reported participating in dangerous games (p<0.0001). For girls, the "violent video gamers" group exhibited a higher proportion of responses indicating poorer mental health across all explored items: 22.8% reported a history of suicide attempts (p<0.0001), 22.3% reported depression (p<0.0001), 17.8% reported self harm (p<0.0001), and 11.2% reported participating in dangerous game (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: Violent video games appear to be associated with varying behaviors depending on the gender of adolescents, and notably contribute to much poorer mental health among adolescent girls.