Review of the literature

There are many studies conducted to study the relationship between depression and playing video
games some of them are presented below :-

A study was conducted by Gentile, A.D., et. al.(2004) on the topic “The effects of violent video
game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance”. In the
study it was found that 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.

A study was conducted by Uhlmann, E., et. al.(2004) on the topic “Exposure to violent video
games increases automatic aggressiveness.” In the study it was found that the effects of
exposure to violent video games on automatic association with the self were investigated in a
sample of 121 students. Playing the violent video games 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 violent video games can lead to the
automatic learning of aggressive self-views.

A study was conducted by Barlett, P.C., et. al.(2008) on the topic “The effect of amount of
blood in violent video game on aggression hostility and arousal”. In the study researcher used
a video game(Mortal Combat: Deadly Alliance) which has different blood settings(maximum,
medium, low & off) . Simple effects analyses showed that those in the maximum blood and
medium blood conditions had a significant increase in hostility and physiological arousal, while
those in the low blood and no blood conditions did not have such an increase in arousal and
hostility. Further analyses indicated that those in the maximum and medium blood conditions
used the character’s weapon significantly more often than those in the low and blood absent
conditions.

A Study was conducted by Choo, H., et. al. (2010) on the topic “Pathological video-gaming
among Singaporean youth” Of all the study participants, 8.7% were classified as pathological
players with more boys reporting more pathological symptoms than girls. All variables, including
impulse control problem, social competence, hostility, academic performance, and damages to
social functioning, tested for construct validity, were significantly associated with pathological
status, providing good evidence for the construct validity of the instrument used.
A study by Tortolero, S. R., et. al.(2014) was conducted on the topic of “Daily violent game
playing and depression in preadolescent youth”. In the study it was found that students who
reported playing video games for more than 2 hours. a day had more depressive symptoms than
those who played video games for less than 2 hours a day.

A study was conducted by Ahmadi, J, et. al. (2014) was conducted on the topic “Prevalence of
Addiction to the Internet, Computer Games, DVD, and Video and Its Relationship to
Anxiety and Depression in a Sample of Iranian High School Students”. The study was
conducted on 1020 high school students. The prevalence of anxiety was significantly higher in
females than males. Out of 1020 students only 5 students were found to be internet dependent.

A study was conducted by Scott, B.G., et. al.(2014) on the topic “Is video gaming, or video
game addiction, associated with depression, academic achievement, heavy episodic drinking,
or conduct problems?”
In the study it was found that spending time playing video games does not involve negative
consequences, but adolescents who experience problems related to video games are likely to also
experience problems in other facets of life.

A study was conducted by Poppelaars, M., et. al. (2018) on the topic “The impact of explicit
mental health messages in video games on player’s motivation and affect”. In this study,
undergraduate students (n = 146) played a cooperative commercial video game in pairs following
a mental health or an entertainment-focused introduction message. Results showed that intrinsic
motivation was high and similar across conditions, but autonomy was lower in the mental health
condition. Furthermore, players higher in depressive symptoms experienced more relatedness, a
stronger improvement in mood but also, in the mental health condition, less competence. These
results indicate that some caution is necessary in explicitly stating mental health aims of video
games, although it is not necessarily detrimental to motivation.
 Refrences

1- Douglas A Gentile, Paul J Lynch, Jennifer Ruh Linder & David A Walsh, Journal of
Adolescence, 27(1), (2004)
2- Eric Uhlmann & Jane Swanson , Journal of Adolescence, 27(1), (2004)
3- Christopher P. Barlett, Richard J. Harris & Callie Bruey, Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology, 44(3),(2008), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2007.10.003
4- Hyekyung Choo, Douglas A Gentile, Timothy Sim, Dongdong Li, Angeline Khoo &
Albert K Liau, Annals Academy of Medicine, 39(11),(2010), 822-829, Academy of
Medicines, Singapore
5- Susan R. Tortolero, Melissa F. Peskin, Elizabeth R. Baumler, Paula M. Cuccaro, Marc N.
Elliott, P Susan L. Davies, Terri H. Lewis, Stephen W. Banspach, David E. Kanouse, &
Mark A. Schuster, CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING 17( 9),
(2014), DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0091
6- Jamshid Ahmadi, Amin Amiri, Ahmad Ghanizadeh, Mitra Khademalhosseini, Zeinab
Khademalhosseini, Zeinab Gholami & Maryam Sharifian, Iranian Journal of psychiatry
and behavioral sciences 8(2), 2014, PMCID: PMC4105607
7- Brunborg Geir Scott, Mentzoni Rune Aune, Froyland Lars Roar, Journal of behavioral
addictions 3(1), 2014, https://doi.org/10.1556/JBA.3.2014.002
8- Marlou Poppelaars, Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff, Marloes Kleinjan & Isabela Granic, Computers in
Human Behaviour 83,(2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.019