Abstract
Drawing on the cognitive information–processing model of aggression and the general aggression model, we explored why adolescents become addicted to online games and how their immersion in online games affects school violence perpetration (SVP). For this purpose, we conducted statistical analyses on 1,775 elementary and middle school students who resided in northern districts of Seoul, South Korea. The results validated the proposed structural equation model and confirmed the statistical significance of the structural paths from the variables; that is, the paths from child abuse and self-esteem to SVP were significant. The levels of self-esteem and child abuse victimization affected SVP, and this effect was mediated by online game addiction (OGA). Furthermore, a multigroup path analysis showed significant gender differences in the path coefficients of the proposed model, indicating that gender exerted differential effects on adolescents’ OGA and SVP. Based on these results, prevention and intervention methods to curb violence in schools have been proposed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3205-3225 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Journal of Interpersonal Violence |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 21 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 Nov 1 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We conducted this study by using data collected from the School Violence Free Zone Program, which is administered by the Social Welfare Research Center at Yonsei University and funded by the Seodaemoon District Office in Seoul, South Korea. The School Violence Free Zone is a community-based pilot program that seeks to design proper measures to tackle recent issues encountered by adolescents, such as school violence, suicide, substance abuse, and maladjustment at school. By stationing a social worker in each selected school, diverse interventions including individual and group counseling, preventive education, parental education, teacher education, and cultural activities are implemented to enhance the development of school-aged children. The participants of the survey were 1,775 students selected from 6 elementary schools (fifth and sixth grades) and 4 middle schools (eighth grade). Among the 10 schools surveyed in this study, 4 schools (2 elementary and 2 middle schools) were participating in the School Violence Free Zone Program in Seodaemoon district, and these 4 schools comprised our experimental group. However, the remaining 6 schools comprised 4 elementary and 2 middle schools, and quota sampling was used to ensure that the number of students selected from these schools matched the ratio of elementary and middle school students (i.e., 6:4) and the ratio of upper-class elementary and middle school students (i.e., 1:1). We conducted the survey when the implementation of the program had just begun, that is, in April 2010. From among the participants of the initial survey, we excluded the data of 107 respondents as their questionnaires were incomplete. Consequently, we used the data of 1,654 students (50.4% elementary school students and 48.6% middle school students) in our data analysis.
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, South Korea. The project numbers are 2011-8-0831 and 2011-8-0832.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Clinical Psychology
- Applied Psychology
