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The debate over how video game playing can affect outcome behaviours has been vociferous and often full of polarizing rhetoric (Gentile, 2011, Olson, Kutner, & Warner, 2008). The traditional focus has surrounded violent video games; with research attempting to show that exposure to violent content in gaming can lead to a tangible increase in violent behaviours and conduct (Anderson et al., 2010, Bensley & van Eenwyck, 2001). Using the notion of Social Learning theory as its foundation (Bandura 1973), this research equates exposure to violent gaming content with exposure to other negative real life stressors (Anderson & Bushman 2002). The suggestion is that behaviours are learnt from exposure to the social environment, and that negative influences will directly impact subsequent learnt behaviours (Gentile, 2011).
However more recent research has challenged this position (Ferguson 2011; Olson 2010, Sherry 2007). In particular, it has been suggested that the effects of video gaming on human behaviour should be considered in the context of life stress (Ferguson & Dyck 2012). Moving away from a focus on genre type, emphasis has been placed on the positive qualities within gaming (of all genres), which give users control, a space for competition and reward and an opportunity for teamwork and achievement (Przybylski, Ryan & Rigby 2009; Colwell 2007). Building on work that suggests that cumulative life stress lies at the foundation of aggressive externalising behaviours in adolescence, it has been suggested that game play could in fact generate positive behavioural outcomes by improving mood and reducing the effects of external stress (Peng, Lin, Pfeiffer & Winn, 2012).
This research will test the two dominant models proposed in video game research. In particular, we will investigate whether video gaming, when considered in the context of stress, could in fact have a moderating role in reducing adolescent externalising behavioural outcomes.