V

VIDEO GAMES

Some early video games, as well as many recent ones,
were and are self-consciously educational and proso-
cial. Most would agree that video games of the 1970s,
such as Pong, carried little more developmental risk
than a game of table-tennis. The primary criticism at
the time was that they fostered sedentary behavior in
children. Many surveys of video games of the 1990s,
however, tend to reveal both violent and sexist con-
tent. More serious criticisms include the promotion of
short-term and long-term aggressive behavior
through exposure to on-screen violence and the for-
mation of negative gender stereotypes through expo-
sure to passive, sexualized, and/or victimized female
characters. Other research suggests that children’s
prosocial behavior may be reduced by playing video
games. Technology improvements have allowed pho-
torealistic effects, which lend credence to the view
that negative effects found for television viewing may
be true for playing video games as well. Nevertheless,
findings for long-term developmental effects are not
consistent. The conservative assessment is that more
study is needed.

See also: INTERNET; TELEVISION; VIOLENCE

Bibliography
Cesarone, Bernard. ‘‘Video Games and Children.’’ In ERIC Digest
[web site]. Urbana, Illinois, 1994. Available from http://
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ ERIC_Digests/ed365477.html; IN-
TERNET
Dietz, T. L. ‘‘An Examination of Violence and Gender Role Por-
trayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization
and Aggressive Behavior.’’ Sex Roles 38 (1998):425–442.

Van Schie, E. G. M., and O. Wiegman. ‘‘Children and Video

Games: Leisure Activities, Aggression, Social Integration, and

School Performance.’’ Journal of Applied Social Psychology 27

(1997):1174–1194.

Derrald W. Vaughn

Heather Kelly

VIOLENCE

Violence in the United States is widely viewed, by poli-

cymakers and researchers, as an epidemic and a

major public-health problem. Particularly in the wake

of high-profile school shootings that occurred in the

late twentieth century, the American public has shown

increasing concern about violent adolescents and the

harmful effects that exposure to violence has on chil-

dren and adolescents. While high rates of lethal vio-

lence warrant attention, many more youth are

exposed to chronic, nonlethal violence and aggres-

sion in their homes, schools, and communities. Vio-

lence rates generally follow economic trends and

affect all youth, although poor, urban, and minority

youth are most at risk. This article provides an over-

view of the incidence of violence, including suicide

and homicide, among children and adolescents and

its effects on them, and briefly reviews the effective-

ness of intervention and prevention approaches to

mitigating violence and its effects.

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