A one-year longitudinal study with 324 German third and fourth
graders was conducted in order to find out whether a preference
for violent electronic games socializes children to become more aggressive
or whether aggressive individuals tend to select this type of
game. Cross-lagged panel analyses suggest that children who were
rated as openly aggressive at Time 1 intensified their preference for
violent electronic games over time. We determined that it could be
ruled out that this selection effect was due to a number of underlying
variables ranging from ecological variables (neighborhood)
to family variables (migration status, older brother) and child
variables (gender, self-esteem, level of achievement). Discussion
focuses on the emerging preference for violent electronic games
among children.