In response to my question, ‘What factors contribute to storm and stress in adolescence?’ One participant responded:
“I used to do a lot of work around risk assessment and our example was violent video games causing violence in children. We need to look at the context:
If a child or adolescent is only playing violent video games for 10-hours per day and is not exposed to other healthy social interactions and sports activities, arts, or whatever it might be, then they’re more likely at risk because if you look at a child or an adolescent as a vessel, and we’re filling them up fully, mainly with risk factors, then they’re probably going to be more likely to be susceptible to being at risk for violence.
Whereas if you have a child or adolescent who does play violent video games, but they also are really involved in soccer or whatever- I’m just using that as an example or the arts- and they have healthy friendships, and they’re spending time with their family, or they’re connected at their school, then in my experience the violent video games are not likely to have as much of a significant impact in terms of risk. So I think it’s contextual. What are they being filled up with, and how much of it in comparison to other things?”
