{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T00:56:17Z","timestamp":1776387377799,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,15]],"date-time":"2022-08-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1660521600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"SABIC Psychological Health Research and Applications Chair, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Deanship of Post Graduate teaching, King Saud University"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Video gaming is a popular source of entertainment among children and adolescents. Although the Middle East is home to one of the fastest growing communities of video game users, most of the research established on this topic has been carried out through small scale studies. Our aim in this study is to assess the prevalence of video game use and its association with aggressive behaviors among adolescents in Saudi Arabia. This is a cross-sectional study involving boys and girls (aged 15\u201318 years) in both private and public secondary high schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Each participant completed a self-administered modified version of the aggression questionnaire, which consisted of 29 items scored on a 5-point Likert scale. This questionnaire assessed aggressive behaviors domains: physical aggression, anger, hostility, and verbal aggression and types of videogames and time of use. A total of 485 students were included in this study. The mean age of participants was 16.5 \u00b1 0.9 years; 48% were boys. Adolescents who participated in action games had higher mean verbal (p &lt; 0.01) and physical aggression (p &lt; 0.01) scores. Adventure game players had significantly higher mean scores in all four types of aggressive behavior (p &lt; 0.01). Participants who played simulation games had higher mean verbal aggressiveness (p &lt; 0.01). Adolescents who participated in sports games had greater mean levels of anger (p = 0.01) and physical aggression (p = 0.01). Those who played strategy\/puzzle games reported significantly higher mean scores of anger (p &lt; 0.01), hostility (p = 0.01), and verbal aggression (p = 0.01). Females were more likely to show higher mean anger (p &lt; 0.01) scores, whereas males were more likely to show higher mean physical aggression scores (p &lt; 0.01). Conclusions: Our results do suggest that playing video games increases adolescent aggressive behaviors, which has been supported by other studies. We recommend educating parents on the pros and cons of playing video games and that parents schedule and limit the time their children spend playing video games.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs12080289","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,15]],"date-time":"2022-08-15T20:58:08Z","timestamp":1660597088000},"page":"289","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["The Association between Video Game Type and Aggressive Behaviors in Saudi Youth: A Pilot Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Majid A.","family":"Aleissa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Family Safety Program, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, King Abdullah Specialized Children\u2019s Hospital, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 11481, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7049-0960","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shuliweeh","family":"Alenezi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"SABIC Psychological Health Research and Applications Chair (SPHRAC), College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 12372, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hassan N.","family":"Saleheen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Family Safety Program, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sumayyah R.","family":"Bin Talib","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Family Safety Program, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Altaf H.","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 11481, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shatha A.","family":"Altassan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Family Safety Program, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2152-210X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ahmed S.","family":"Alyahya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, Eradah Complex for Mental Health, Riyadh 12571, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Allahverdipour, H., Bazargan, M., Farhadinasab, A., and Moeini, B. 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