Running Head: Video Game Influences Thedison 1
A longitudinal test of video game violence influences on dating and aggression: A 3-year
longitudinal study of adolescents
Adoley Thedison
Georgian Court University
Video Game Influences Thedison 2
A longitudinal test of video game violence influences on dating and aggression: A 3-year
longitudinal study of adolescents
There has been debate about, if media violence causes aggression in children. Many say
yes and many say no, some may even say it depends. Ferguson and his associates decided to
conduct a study in 2011, to see if violence in video games would cause aggression and dating
violence. In the study, they observed 165 Hispanic children. Since this was a longitudinal study
the subjects were between the ages of 9-12 and after the three years they were between 12-15.
The experiment was divided into three time testing. The subjects first had to pick three of their
favorite video games and the games were then rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings
Board by age appropriate content. They were observing three different things, aggression,
depression, and dating violence. The experiment involved three types of evaluation, and the
