La violencia en las escuelas se ha convertido en algo de todos los días.  Abrimos los periódicos y encontramos como niños y jóvenes se enfrentan diariamente a un mundo cada día más violento.  En el portal de tendenciapr.com se reseña claramente  la cantidad de delitos cometidos en las escuelas de Puerto Rico durante el 1999-2005.  Los delitos se derivan desde violaciones, actos lascivos, robos, drogas, armas y otros.

Lo más irónico es que muchos se preguntan ¿el por qué de tanta violencia? No se han puesto a pensar por un momento a que tipo de tecnología exponemos a nuestros niños. 

Meditemos por un momento en estos hallazgos:

La industria de los video juegos y sus ingresos:  

1. San Francisco Chronicle publicó en diciembre de 2004- que la industria de los video juegos generó un total de 10 billones de dólares sobre pasando las ganancias de la industria cinematografica en Hollywood.

“The $10 billion video game industry, which generates more revenue than Hollywood…In November, sales of video games rose to $849 million, an 11 percent increase from the same month last year and up 77 percent from October, according to the industry research firm NPD Funworld.”

2. Study: Online-game revenue to skyrocket | CNET News.com- reportó

“Revenue from online games will grow threefold to $1.1 billion by 2008, helping the nascent industry corner 10 percent of the global video game market, according to a new study by The Yankee Group”

3. ABI Research informó

“The video game market is entering an unprecedented time of change. The console market is seeing a new generation of hardware. Online gaming is becoming the key mechanism for gameplay and delivery to the game-playing community. Mobile and handheld gaming/media platforms are expanding the market, and ABI Research sees the overall game hardware, software and services market growing to $66 billion by 2011.”

4. Nintendo portable game revenue- este reportaje ilustra las ganancias por tipo de consola de video juego entiendase Xbox, DS, otras.

Lo que dicen los estudiosos….

1. Anderson y Bushman (2001) “Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: a meta-analytic review of the scientific literature” Psychological science, 2001 Sep;12(5):353-9.

“Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. A metaanalytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior.”

2. Carnagey y Anderson (2005) “The effects of reward and punishment in violent video games on aggressive affect, cognition, and behavior” Psychological science, 2005 Nov;16(11):882-9

“Three experiments examined the effects of rewarding and punishing violent actions in video games on later aggression-related variables. Participants played one of three versions of the same race-car video game: (a) a version in which all violence was rewarded, (b) a version in which all violence was punished, and (c) a nonviolent version. Participants were then measured for aggressive affect (Experiment 1), aggressive cognition (Experiment 2), and aggressive behavior (Experiment 3). Rewarding violent game actions increased hostile emotion, aggressive thinking, and aggressive behavior. Punishing violent actions increased hostile emotion, but did not increase aggressive thinking or aggressive behavior. Results suggest that games that reward violent actions can increase aggressive behavior by increasing aggressive thinking.”

3. Anderson  y Dill (2000) “Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life” Journal of personality and social psychology, 2000 Apr;78(4):772-90

“Two studies examined violent video game effects on aggression-related variables. Study 1 found that real-life violent video game play was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency. The relation was stronger for individuals who are characteristically aggressive and for men. Academic achievement was negatively related to overall amount of time spent playing video games. In Study 2, laboratory exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior. In both studies, men had a more hostile view of the world than did women. The results from both studies are consistent with the General Affective Aggression Model, which predicts that exposure to violent video games will increase aggressive behavior in both the short term (e.g., laboratory aggression) and the long term (e.g., delinquency).”

4. Bartholow , Sestir, Davis (2005) “Correlates and consequences of exposure to video game violence: hostile personality, empathy, and aggressive behavior” Personality and social psychology bulletin, 2005 Nov;31(11):1573-86.

“Research has shown that exposure to violent video games causes increases in aggression, but the mechanisms of this effect have remained elusive. Also, potential differences in short-term and long-term exposure are not well understood. An initial correlational study shows that video game violence exposure (VVE) is positively correlated with self-reports of aggressive behavior and that this relation is robust to controlling for multiple aspects of personality. A lab experiment showed that individuals low in VVE behave more aggressively after playing a violent video game than after a nonviolent game but that those high in VVE display relatively high levels of aggression regardless of game content. Mediational analyses show that trait hostility, empathy, and hostile perceptions partially account for the VVE effect on aggression. These findings suggest that repeated exposure to video game violence increases aggressive behavior in part via changes in cognitive and personality factors associated with desensitization.”

5. Uhlmann y Swanson (2004) “Exposure to violent video games increases automatic aggressiveness” International journal of adolescence and youth, 2004 Feb;27(1):41-52

“The effects of exposure to violent video games on automatic associations wit
h the self were investigated in a sample of 121 students. Playing the violent video game Doom led participants to associate themselves with aggressive traits and actions on the Implicit Association Test. In addition, self-reported prior exposure to violent video games predicted automatic aggressive self-concept, above and beyond self-reported aggression. Results suggest that playing violent video games can lead to the automatic learning of aggressive self-views.”

6. Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh (2004) “The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance.” International journal of adolescence and youth 2004 Feb;27(1):5-22

“Video games have become one of the favorite activities of American children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors. The first goal of this study was to document the video games habits of adolescents and the level of parental monitoring of adolescent video game use. The second goal was to examine associations among violent video game exposure, hostility, arguments with teachers, school grades, and physical fights. In addition, path analyses were conducted to test mediational pathways from video game habits to outcomes. Six hundred and seven 8th- and 9th-grade students from four schools participated. Adolescents who expose themselves to greater amounts of video game violence were more hostile, reported getting into arguments with teachers more frequently, were more likely to be involved in physical fights, and performed more poorly in school. Mediational pathways were found such that hostility mediated the relationship between violent video game exposure and outcomes. Results are interpreted within and support the framework of the General Aggression Model.”

7.  Craig A. Anderson (2003)  escribió un artículo títulado “Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions”, Volume 16: No. 5, October 2003, en ese artículo se reseñan los mitos y los hechos sobre la violencia en los video juegos y su relación con los compartamientos agresivos en los adolecentes. Ver artículo >> 

8. Jeffrey Goldstein  DOES PLAYING VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES CAUSE AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR?- este artículo muestra un experimento que intenta establecer que jugar video juegos violentos causa un comportamiento agresivo.  Ver artículo>>

9. David Walsh  Video Game Violence and Public Policy-Ver artículo>>

10. Derrick Janushewski y Myna Truong-publicaron un estudio en el que reseñan la historia de los video juegos, el grado de violencia de acuerdo al juego estudiado, los efectos por género, edad y nivel socioeconómico de los participantes.  Entre los resultados que reportaron se encuentran:

“…shows a possible relationship between activities when young and their consequences on adult behavior. Further studies on the long-term effects of video game violence and its users are need.

The observational studies looking at children’s free play tended to show that children do become more aggressive after either playing or observing a violent video game.” Ver estudio>>

11. Henry Jenkins profesor de MIT reportó un ensayo sobre “Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked” Ver artículo>>>

12. De la página Video Games Voters Network encontramos un serie de artículos y estadísticas sobre estudios realizados acerca del tema de la violencia.  Este portal es importate ya que orienta a los votantes sobre las legislaciones y regulaciones federales acerca de la industria de los video juegos.

Por último me llamó la atención un recurso diseñado por el New York Times llamado “Student Violence in America’s Schools“   el cual tiene una serie de planes de lección para llevar a cabo discusiones saludables en los salones de clase.

Creo que este tipo de recurso es necesario para orientar a los padres y a los jóvenes sobre estos temas tan importantes en esta sociedad.  Por otro lado creo que como padres debemos ser más cuidadosos a la hora de comprr un video juego.  Debemos estar pendientes sobre los niveles de violencia de los juegos y la frecuencia con las que se juega el video juego.

Pronto estaremos discutiendo algunas “orejitas” o consejos, para los padres, sobre las estregias de compra de estos juegos.