Towards the development of prosocial behavior in students through the use of video games

Abstract

Currently, in the information and knowledge society in which we live, the use of video games has become widespread among children and adolescent students. Given this reality, we wonder to what extent the use of video games helps to develop the prosocial behavior of students, so as to encourage Solidarity and Help Response, Perspective Taking, Altruism and Assistance among students.  The objective of the research is to measure the efficacy of the treatment given through video games in the prosocial behavior of students in Regular Basic Education.  The methodology applied is quasi-experimental through the application of the video game Sandbox Minecraft in students, a pre-test and post-test was applied that considers a Prosocial Skills Scale for Adolescents (EHP-A): Solidarity and Help Response, Perspective Taking, Altruism and Assistance among students. It allowed to measure the students' prosocial behavior. Five game sessions were developed with personalized dynamics in the Sandbox Minecraft video game in its multiplayer mode. The results show that the dynamics applied through the five game sessions were able to improve and increase solidarity and Help Response, Perspective Taking, Altruism and Assistance among the students. In conclusion, the short-term effectiveness of the use of the Sandbox Minecraft video game to improve prosocial behavior in students is demonstrated. Keywords: Video game, Sandbox, Minecraft, behavior, prosocial, education, learning