Video Game Motivations in Youth with Disruptive Behavior Disorders

The IU school of Medicine’s Media and Development Lab, is focused on the intersection of digital media use and brain development, including understanding the positive and negative influences of media use in children. I am helping with a study that examines the use of virtual reality to improve social perspective taking in youth (9-12 years old) with disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs). Children and adolescents with DBDs typically have challenges with social perspective taking, or their ability to understand a different point of view, which can contribute to behaviors such as aggression and empathy. My role in the lab is to check and organize data, advertise, preview videos, shadow professionals and lastly, test and provide feedback for virtual reality programs. As part of this study, our participants complete multiple surveys about their media use and motivations for playing video games. For my own small project, I decided to examine the relationships between responses on two surveys: UPPS impulsivity survey, which measures different facets of impulsivity, and the Video game Motivation and Desires survey, which measures different gaming attitudes, motives and experiences. I am examining whether certain impulsivity factors are connected to certain motivations of children with DBDs to play video games.

Supervisor: Tom Hummer
Department: Psychiatry