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Do Video Games Have an Effect on the Self Esteem of the Player?

Gracie Mathis

Department of Psychological Science, Kennesaw State University

PSYC 2500: Research Methods

Dr. Elicia Lair

November 18, 2021

Abstract
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This study aims to determine if there is any correlation between the use of video games and the

effect it has on the self-esteem of the players. 200 video game players were randomly assigned to

two groups of differing gameplay - those who play with others they know and those who play

with others they do not know. Before the first round of gameplay, the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem

scale is administered to receive a base-line knowledge of the self-esteem of the player. The scale

is then administered again after the first round of gameplay, and then again after they switch

gameplay groups. Results showed that, overall, women showed a larger decrease in self esteem

in both gameplay groups compared to men. The results concluded that while the self-esteem of

both male and female players are affected by gameplay, females tend to be affected moreso.

Keywords: Self-Esteem, Gender, Video Games, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale

Do Video Games Have an Effect on the Self Esteem of the Player?

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As popular as video games are in this time and age, there are many questions as to how

playing them affects the emotional, cognitive, and physical health of players. Having an online

presence and using media have been the basis of socialization of youth for many of the past two

decades, it has also come with many concerns for the safety of those online. Parents are worried

about aggression and how playing violent video games can contribute to that emotion; some are

even worried that video games are inhibiting the growth and development of childrens’ social

development. There have been studies where a relationship between aggression and violent video

games have been found, so does that mean there could be a correlation between video games and

the onset of other emotions? (You et al, 2015) If there is a correlation, to what extent are players

affected and does this change between gender? It is important to study situations like this

because cyber-bullying, online safety, and just general self esteem online can heavily impact the

mind during adolescence and it is important to . The purpose of this study is to measure if there

are any correlations of people who played video games and their self-esteem and if playing those

games had any way of altering it.

Literature Review

Self-Esteem

Not only is this study focusing on the self esteem of the players, but it is also focusing on

how these games can affect the way they view parts of the real-life world. One study in particular

looked at how the use of sexualized female characters in video games and how that can affect

both men and women and how they view women in real life and how they view themselves. The

study found men who played games with sexualized female main characters tended to have a

more negative view or more judgmental view of women in real life. Women that played games

with sexualized female main characters tended to have a harsher view of themselves and tended
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to have a more critical self-image. (Morawitz & Mastro 2009) If video game characters can alter

the perspective players have on people in the real world, there are other aspects of the players

mind that those video games can alter as well.

Gender and Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is defined as the “sense of self-worth and self-respect” people have and it is

crucial for understanding their well-being and success. (Monteiro et al. 2021) With self-esteem

being something that everyone monitors on their own and fluctuates depending on mood, it is

interesting to see different activities that can have an effect on it. It has already been found that,

typically, men have higher self-esteem than women. (Carducci et al. 2020) This being said, this

study predicts that women will have a lower self esteem during both sections of the study and

will have an overall lower level of self-esteem recorded.

Current Work

As mentioned above, it is predicted that the men in the study will record a higher self-

esteem at the end of the study and the women will record a lower self-esteem at the end of the

study. This study will be used to contribute to the idea that there is a correlation between playing

video games and the games altering the self-esteem of the player. There are different studies

stating that video games can have an impact on self-esteem and other parts of our perception of

ourselves and the world around us. (Ingram et al. 2019) This study will bring together

information gathered to uncover the correlation between video games and self-esteem.

Materials and Method

Participants and design

The study aims to recruit 200 video game players, 100 men and 100 women. Volunteers

must be over the age of 18 and they will be randomly assigned to play games with an open lobby
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of people they know and people they do not know. While there is no way to guarantee that the

lobbies the groups play in are going to put the players in the situation we are looking for, we will

send them through a few different trials to make sure they experience the environment we need

them to experience to get the results we are researching. The proposed study will use a 2 x 2

within-subjects repeated measures factorial design, with gender (male x female) as a quasi-

experimental factor, and self-esteem level (based on the scales given) as an experimental factor.

The dependent variable is the self-esteem level after the game lobbies and their experiences

while playing the game.

Self Esteem

Self esteem is the dependent variable in this study. For the study, the Rosenberg’s Self

Esteem Scale, which is a “widely used self-report instrument for evaluating individual self-

esteem”, will be administered to the participants in order for them to describe how they feel

about themselves. The scale is a set of 10 questions asked to the participants where they answer

the questions with one of four answer choices: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly

Disagree. The scale ranges from 0-30 with scores ranging between 15-25 are within a normal

range and scores that are below 15 suggest low self esteem.

Procedure

In the study, a selection of 200 volunteers, 100 women and 100 men, will be gathered and

randomly selected to two different groups: those who play with people they know or are

comfortable with and those playing with people they do not know which will most likely foster a

more hostile play group. Before they play any games, the Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale will be

administered in order to get baseline knowledge of the individual’s self esteem before the study

begins and that there is something to compare the results to. After they play a certain number of
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matches to establish their change in self esteem, the Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale will be

administered to all of them. After that, they will switch groups and repeat the process,

concluding with another Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale. After this, we will look at the results of

the Rosenberg’s scales and compare them from before the study began and after they play in

each group.

Predicted Results

We will plan to conduct a two-way repeated measure factorial ANOVA test in order to

analyze the data collected from the Self Esteem scales. It is hypothesized that there will be an

interaction between the factors of the study. The hypothesized outcome is that women tend to

have a lower self esteem after playing in game lobbies that are more harsh environments and that

the overall self esteem score will go down for each gender after either losing matches or playing

in bad lobbies as well. It is predicted that men will have the least amount of change between the

three scores from the Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale and the women will show the most change,

with there being a decrease in self esteem when playing in certain lobbies, as mentioned above.

Discussion

The goal of this study is to determine whether or not there is a viable correlation between

the playing of video games and the self esteem of the player and whether or not those video

games can cause a change in self-esteem. The results indicated that there is a difference between

male and female general self-esteem and that the playing of video games can alter those initial

self-esteem ratings. More significantly, it was found that females tended to respond more

negatively with lower self-esteem ratings than males did throughout the study, but more so if

they played in a troublesome game lobby. This would support the study performed by Teng et al

(2020) in that Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) does have a negative connotation with self-
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esteem. With Teng et al’s study finding that there is a correlation, a negative one at that, and this

study also finding that there is a correlation between self-esteem and the playing of video games,

a strong conclusion can be drawn that video games do have the ability to alter the way players

perceive themselves.

Upon analyzing the data collected from the study, it can be concluded that there is a

negative correlation between the playing of video games and self-esteem, primarily for women

players. One limitation for this study would be that there is no predetermined knowledge of the

participants self-esteem. A player can start the study with an already low self-esteem and skew

the results, or they can start with a significantly high self-esteem and the tests throughout the

study do not have an effect on them. Another limitation is the random lobbies of the second

group. While this is also a strength of the study since there will be little to no bias present, it also

can prove to not work in the favor of the studier in that the results posited from that lobby may

be exceedingly different than the others. Those certain participants may work extremely well

with people they may not know and it have a positive affect on their self-esteem.

In conclusion, to further research the correlation between self-esteem and the playing of

video games will give a great deal of insight as to how playing video games can alter our

perception of ourselves and the world around us. In the future, researchers can expand to

monitoring other emotions and aspects of our brains to see just how much video games can alter

perception. Games already have the ability of changing the players’ perception of real-world

dangers and aspects of ourselves, so this is something that would be very beneficial to monitor

and study. (Williams 2006)

References:
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Behm-Morawitz, E., & Mastro, D. (2009). The effects of the sexualization of female videogame

characters on gender stereotyping and female self-concept. Sex Roles: A Journal of

Research, 61(11-12), 808-823. https://doi-org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/10.1007/s11199-009-

9683

Cabras, C., Cubadda, M. L., & Sechi, C. (2019). Relationships among violent and non-violent

video games, anxiety, self-esteem, and aggression in female and male gamers.

International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 11(3), 15-37.

https://doi-org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/10.4018/IJGCMS.2019070102

Teng, Z., Pontes, H. M., Nie, Q., Xiang, G., Griffiths, M. D., & Guo, C. (2020). Internet gaming

disorder and psychosocial well-being: A longitudinal study of older-aged adolescents and

emerging adults. Addictive Behaviors, 110. https://doi-

org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106530

You, S., Kim, E., & No, U. (2015). Impact of violent video games on the social behaviors of

adolescents: The mediating role of emotional competence. School Psychology

International, 36(1), 94-111. https://doi-

org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/10.11770/0143034314562921

Goh, C., Jones, C., & Copello, A. (2019). A further test of the impact of online gaming on

psychological wellbeing and the role of play motivations and problematic use.

Psychiatric Quarterly, 90(4), 747-760. https://doi-

org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/10.1007/s11126-019-10656

Monteiro, R. P., Coelho, G. L. de H., Hanel, P. H. P., de Medeiros, E. D., & da Silva, P. D. G.

(2021). The efficient assessment of self-esteem: Proposing the brief Rosenberg Self-
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Esteem scale. Applied Research in Quality of Life. https://doi-

org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/10.1007/s11482-021-09936-4

Williams, D. (2006). Virtual Cultivation: Online worlds, offline perceptions. Journal of

Communication, 56(1), 69-87. https://doi-org.proxy.kennesaw.edu/10.1111/j.1460-

2466.2006.00004.x

Carducci, B. J., Nave, C. S., Di Fabio, A., Saklofske, D. H., Stough, C. (2020). Gender

Differences in Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence.

https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118970843.ch208

Ingram, J., & Cangemi, J. (2019). Video Games: Motivation, effects, and clinical implications on

self-esteem. College Student Journal, 53(1), 1-12.