Exploring the use of video games in resolving sibling rivalry:
A qualitative study among Chinese parents and children
By
Siyuan Liu
Siyuan Liu 11109009 Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication
Master’s programme Communication Science Track: Entertainment Communication
Thesis Supervisor: Rinaldo Kühne 03/02/2017
1 ABSTRACT
In a society that is full of media products and a special social-cultural background in which the second-child policy just replaced the one-child policy, the current study employs the research question: how do video games in parental intervention influence sibling rivalry in China? A series of in-depth interviews held online with seven groups of family members (one parent and two children per group). In conclusion, Chinese parents perceive video games to be effective on reducing sibling rivalry no matter they use video games as a parenting too to deal with it or not, and this effect are believed consistent in all kinds of scenarios. Parents use video games as a distraction and relief for the children’s anger and bad mood when the conflict becomes too intense or any of the children become seriously
mentally or psychologically hurt. They believe co-playing, pro-social games, common game goal and social context in the game will make video games more effective on reducing sibling rivalry. Chinese children also think video games are effective for reducing sibling rivalry by brighten up their mood and distract them, but the effect is largely dependent on the games and game results. Playing alone, playing the games that they usually like, common game goal and social context are perceived more effective for reducing sibling rivalry by them. Neither parents nor would children think that time distribution influence the effect. Limitations of the study and future research directions were discussed in the end.
2 Introduction
Remember when you were eight years old and had fights with your brothers/sisters every day? The reasons could be he occupied your Gameboy for too long or she told your mother that it was you who broke the perfume bottle. Sibling rivalry is quite common and an inevitable issue of family life, and the sibling relationship is often the most enduring
relationship across the life span (Cicirelli, 1995). Sibling rivalry is a frequently reported issue for most individuals (Caspi, 2012; Skinner & Kowalski, 2013; Tucker, Finkelhor, Turner, & Shattuck, 2013) and it has negative consequences for psychological and mental health as well as anti-social behavior (Finkelhor, Turner, & Ormrod, 2006; Salmon & Hehman, 2014; Tucker, Finkelhor, Turner, & Shattuck, 2013). China, well-known for ages because of the one-child policy, has just launched the second child policy for a short time. This policy was made open to the whole country in 2015. Although there are already some families with multiple children in the country, the sibling-related issues will become more common and the challenge for parents will increase to a substantial level resulting from the large population.
Kids nowadays are surrounded by digital devices and an abundance of media content, among which games are playing an important role. In social scientific studies, the most discussed factor related to sibling rivalry is inter-family relationship or other forms of media use (Mazurek & Wenstrup, 2013; Davies & Gentile, 2012; Bagley, Salmon, & Crawford, 2006). As website Common Sense listed in the selection “apps and games that help stop sibling rivalry”, there are games designed to help with this issue. Given the fact that siblings do play games together (Verhoff, 2014) and there are already researches showing that video games may affect sibling rivalry (Coyen, Jensen, Smith & Erickson, 2016), whether and how video games work with this issue still needs to be researched. From this angle, this study will explore whether and when parents use games to help intervene conflict, and how parents perceive the effect on resolving sibling rivalry.
3 Although there are plenty of studies in regard to video games and sibling relationships, they are mostly based on an American or European background, in which the inter-family relationship is very much different from a China context. Therefore, the current research will bring the research question to China, and the research question is: how do video games in parental intervention influence sibling rivalry in China?
In the following sections, more literature and existing studies will be discussed, from which the sub-questions will be developed. The present study will explore how video games are used as a parenting tool to reduce sibling rivalry in Chinese families. It is essential to firstly introduce the issue sibling rivalry, its consequences and factors that may influence it. Then the link between video games and sibling rivalry can be discussed in details. The sub-questions will be introduced along with literature. Next, the research method will be explained, including study design, participants, ethical approval, procedure and analysis of the data. Then the results will be explained under five topics, research questions will be answered. The last part is conclusion and discussion, discussion about the results, limitations of the study and future implications will be provided.
Literature Framework
Sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry is commonly defined as “the competitive relationship between brothers and sisters” (Avloniti, Iatridou, Kaloupsis & Vozikis, 2014). Young children are usually demanding and possessive towards their parents (Edward, 2011). One child may want to possess their parents, for instance their mother, all by him or herself without any other people, such as their siblings or the other parent standing in the way(Edward, 2011). The problems often arise right after the birth of the second child. According to Edward, (2011), with a new baby joining the family, the older child always feels not only displaced such as gaining less
4 attention, but also replaced, such as feeling totally neglected. Seeing the mother holding, feeding, patting the new baby for most of the time in a day can be frustrating. And they may doubt themselves as being neglected by the parents in the family. This kind of feeling causes severe threats for the older kid, and thus the desire to fight against the new born arises
(Edward, 2011). However, it is not only the older kids who experience such threats. When the new babies start to realize that they are not the only child in the family, they also suffer from crisis. The conflict between siblings can come from many ways. According to Arnold (1990), Thomas and Roberts (2009), there are several typical sibling conflict conditions: (1)
disagreement over household items, either shareable items such as TV, or non-shareable items such as the computer; (2) acting without compliance, which means doing something without the other sibling’s compliance, including request to use sibling’s possession, to enter their room, to play or instruction to perform adult-required work; (3) sibling violates game rule; (4) verbally teasing; (5) physically teasing and physically aggression.
Possible effects of sibling rivalry
There are some positive consequences of sibling rivalry. Edward (2011) stated several positive effects in his previous research: the children are provided with a chance to learn to hold both the positive and negative emotions towards a same person, and jealousy can sometimes help children on adaptive and developmental purposes if they achieve some envied characteristics from the other sibling. The beginning of identity formation can also benefit from it as children may start to think about what kind of person they want to be, they could either model after siblings or try to be different from them.
Although people regard it as normal or not that serious compared to conflicts between adults or older youth (Finkelhor, Turner, & Ormrod, 2006; Skinner & Kowalski, 2013), Skinner and Kowaslski (2013) also suggested that even among sibling pairs the norm of
5 accepting sibling rivalry still has a deep root, it should generate greater concern since sibling relationship is influential throughout people’s whole life span (Cicirelli, 1995; Finkelhor et al., 2006; Edward, 2011) and researches have also identified negative consequences of sibling rivalry. According to Skinner and Kowalski (2013), 78% of studied adolescents reported being bullied by their siblings and 85% bullied their siblings during their childhood, which is much higher than most of the published statistics. And sibling rivalry is likely to be a chronic condition, younger children are more likely to suffer from chronic sibling violence (Finkelhor et al., 2006). Physically, the injury possibility are just similar to adults, children’s fighting with each other or getting hit by an object can easily cause injury, and chronic sibling violence was found significantly associated with higher trauma symptom levels, which was used to measure children’s mental health (Finkelhor et al., 2006). Psychologically, holding a negative attitude towards siblings can lead to a lifelong disruptive force, which will cause sadness and anger, higher level of stress, lower self-esteem and self-control (Edward, 2011). Sibling aggression was also found predicting worse mental health (Tucker, Finkelhor, Turner & Shattuck, 2013).The hostility may also result in a spread of violence in the whole society, either individually or collective (Edward, 2011). Although sibling rivalry can be a common phenomenon, and it does have some positive effects, its negative effects are more prevalent than the positive ones. Therefore in the current study we want to explore the possible effective method to reduce sibling rivalry. In the next section the factors influencing sibling rivalry will then be discussed to find out what is the possible method to deal with sibling rivalry.
Factors influencing sibling rivalry
Caspi (2012) named some factors that contribute to or maintain sibling conflicts in his book, including parental different treatment, labeling of children, one or more sibling’s limited empathy, birth order, age spacing and gender. The developmental context also
6 influences how the children react to each other (Edward, 2011). Whether sibling relationship improves or becomes worse is associated with a series of factors. Among these factors we will mainly discuss about inter-family relationships and media use in this study.
Inter-family relationships
Interfamily-relationships will be firstly discussed. Firstly, children’s way of
interaction has an effect on sibling rivalry. The older child is often the teacher and the helper of the younger one (Tucker & Kazura, 2013). But this is not always the case. Whiteman and McHale (2007) identified two paths of sibling influence, one is observational learning, children may model after their siblings, and the other is sibling deidentification, children try to find a way to differentiate themselves from their siblings. Observational learning was found associated to competition and rivalry, while deidentification reduces competition and rivalry. When the younger kids chose to have as distant relationship with the older, he/she does not appear to use the older sibling as referents to model after them (Whiteman, McHale & Crouter, 2007). Thus the exclusiveness and the specialness of each child largely remains and stands out in the family, the conflicts are therefore less.
Secondly, parents-children relationship also affects sibling relationships. This kind of influence starts even before the younger child joins the family. In general, unusual close relationship with the mother compared to an ordinary level will make the child more
intensely hostile towards the new baby. How parents treat and respond to each of the children contribute to shaping the feelings and behaviors (Edward, 2011). Different parenting styles also matter. Milevsky, Schlecheter and Machlev (2011) found that an authoritative or permissive parenting style was more associated with sibling support and closeness than an authoritarian and neglectful style. They also found that sibling warmth was positively associated with parent-child warmth. Interestingly, there were also proof that the mother’s
7 depression and tiredness after delivering the new baby will lead to closer sibling relationship (Edward, 2011).
When the conflict between siblings arises, children’s and parents’ skills to solve the problem have large effect. The children are directly involved in sibling rivalry and they are the first to attempt to deal with it. According to Thomas and Roberts (2009) and Arnold (1990), verbal reasoning, appropriate assertiveness and acceptance skills are proved to be positively effective to solve sibling conflict. But the conflict could also become worse if children choose verbal harassment, angry yelling or physical aggression (Nakaha, Grimes, Nadler & Roberts, 2016). When the children don't have the adequate skills to solve the problem or when the conflict happens in front of the parents, the parents will be involved in managing it. Tucker and Kazura (2013) summarized three typical strategies that parents usually apply to solve sibling rivalry: (1) non-intervention strategy (ignore the conflict, try not to pay attention); (2) child centered strategy (help children to negotiate, teach them and explain the other child’s feelings); and (3) sanction of physical aggression strategy
(encourage and tell children that it is normal to kick, hit, bite etc. their siblings). They found out that parents tend to use a child centered strategy mostly and least often use the sanction of physical aggression strategy. The former strategy was found associated with higher child psychological and physical well-being as well as better sibling relationships, while the latter can lead to a possible antecedent of childhood aggression. However, when parents do use the sanction of physical aggression strategy, they think that physical aggression towards siblings is normal, and this strategy is mostly used when the age gap between siblings is small. Although non-intervention was not related to the quality of sibling relationships, it was associated with larger quantity of conflicts and the older child’s worse psychological and physical well-being.
8 Sibling relationship and media use were found influencing each other by many studies (Redmond, 2010; Davies & Gentile, 2012). Family structure and media use were found importantly associated (Bagley, Salmon & Crawford, 2005; 2012, Redmond, 2010; Davies & Gentile). Families with siblings constantly report more physical activities than television viewing time, more healthy media habits, but greater vulnerability to media effects compared to families with only one child(Bagley, Salmon & Crawford, 2005; Davies & Gentile, 2012). The greater vulnerability to media effects is possibly caused by three mechanisms. Firstly, siblings provide each other an additional social modeling influence, when the younger child model after the older child for media behaviors, they are more easily affected. Secondly, parents with multiple children may be not as anxious about their children as parents with only one child. Their control and intervention are therefore less. Lastly, the family communication patterns are also different for family with siblings, children tend to keep “same” with siblings, and alignments with common values may be more important to them, therefore the children rely on media to acknowledge social behavior and norms. Because of the greater vulnerability to media effects, a reasonable prediction is that video games would also have larger effect on siblings, and if parents use media to intervene sibling rivalry, the effect could be larger.
Moreover, Zabriskie and McCormick (2001) built the Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning. They identify the core family leisure as the greatest contributor to the overall family functioning, because core family leisure activities can provide regular leisure experiences, and these experiences in turn make the activities predictable and can improve closeness between family members. It is usually used to reinforce familiarity and stability in the family. Video games, which is catalogued under core family leisure (Zabriskie & McCormick, 2011), may be used on reducing sibling rivalry since solving sibling rivalry is a form of building and reinforce family stability. Above all, playing video games as media use can be expected to contribute to reducing sibling rivalry.
9 Video games and sibling rivalry
From the last section we have already known that video games may contribute to reducing sibling rivalry, but first of all, if video games really used by Chinese parents for this aim? Therefore research question 1 was developed to get to know whether and under what circumstances Chinese parents would use video games to deal with sibling rivalry. The answers for these questions will provide a background before we move forward to the perception of the effect and more detailed research questions:
RQ1a. Whether Chinese parents use video games as a parenting tool to help reducing sibling rivalry?
RQ1b. When would Chinese parents use video games as a parenting tool to help reducing sibling rivalry?
General perception of video game effects on sibling rivalry
Video game has been a controversial research subject. Previous studies have researched a lot on its possible effects. Children’s affection, communication, aggression, empathy and are all included, and sibling rivalry is also affected by video games (Osswald, 2010; Redmond, 2010; Gentile, 2011; Mazurek & Wenstrup, 2012; Velez, Mahood,
Ewoldsen & Moyer-Gusé, 2012; Greitemeyer, 2013; Coyne, Jensen, Smith & Erickson, 2015). Although there are already proof that video games may affect sibling rivalry, the parents’ perception of whether video games is effective on helping reduce sibling rivalry or not. Thus the second research question was developed to gain the general perception of the effect:
RQ2: RQ2: How do Chinese parents perceive video games’ effects on solving sibling rivalry?
10 Moreover, the effect of video games is not always consistent. Gentile (2011)
identified five several dimensions of video game effects: time distribution, content of game, game context, game structure and game mechanics, and video games’ effects are positive or negative is largely dependent on these mechanisms, of which the details will be explained later. There is also evidence that whether children co-play video games will also have effect on sibling rivalry (Coyen et al., 2015). Before the research goes into these detailed
dimensions, we need to know if parents are aware of this kind of inconsistency- do they think the effect of video games on sibling rivalry is homogeneous or not? So the third research question was developed.
RQ3: Do Chinese parents perceive video games’ effects on solving sibling rivalry to be homogeneous regardless of different mechanisms of playing video games?
These two research questions was developed aiming to gain a general impression of parents’ perception of video games’ effect on reducing sibling rivalry, with the answers of these two questions, we can move forward to the specified dimensions.
Effects in regard to different dimensions
As mentioned above, previous studies have identified several dimensions that could bring differences to video games effects. In the present study four dimensions were chosen to be discussed, namely game content, time distribution, game context (Gentile, 2011), and co-playing (Coyen et al., 2015). The reason is that in parental intervention, these four
dimensions are controllable for the parents when they let children play video games. And the other two aspects in Gentile’s (2011) work are less related to the topic and thus are left out. Although these are empirical findings on the effects of video games on sibling rivalry, these studies were all conducted in western world. With the special social-cultural situation in
11 China, we cannot build hypothesis directly with these findings, thus qualitative research questions will be developed instead. Research question 4 will be developed in this section.
Firstly, how do children play video games is important. Co-playing video games was associated with higher levels of sibling affection (Coyne et al., 2015), cooperative team play can foster consideration for others, increase empathy and helping behavior (Velez et al., 2012; Greitemeyer, 2013), so it may reduce sibling rivalry in a way. Co-playing also tends to be an activity for a same gender as well, and boys were found play more with siblings since they play more games (Coyne et al., 2015). Therefore research question 4a was developed to get to know how Chinese parents perceive the effect of co-playing on sibling rivalry:
RQ4a. How do Chinese parents perceive the effect on solving sibling rivalry when children co-play video games?
The game content also matters. Violent video games in particular were studied. Playing violent video games was found related to a decrease of sibling communication (Redmond, 2010). But playing a violent video game with a brother was related to lower level of sibling conflict (Coyne et al., 2015). On the other hand, a pro-social video game can activate the accessibility of pro-social thoughts, and in turn promotes pro-social behavior (Gentile et al., 2009; Osswald, 2010). Which kind of games are parents using and how do they perceive the effect of each kind of video games need to be discussed and therefore the game content was chosen to form part of the present study and forms research question 4b:
RQ4b. How do Chinese parents perceive the effect on solving sibling rivalry when children play violent/prosocial video games?
Time distribution, which means how the video game time is distributed, is another important factor (Gentile, 2011). Anderson (1983) found out that distributing overtime is
12 better for as long time learning than putting in a lot of time all at one, known as massed practice, and Gentile (2011) argued that the way of distributing video game playing time can also influence the outcomes of video games such as aggression. In other words, if a children play video games for 20 minutes three times, he/she will receive larger effect than when he/she plays 60 minutes in one sit. Base on social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), exposure to a game could have larger effects mentioned in the previous two dimensions if children distribute the time than playing for long at once. Therefore, we need to know which kind of video games time distribution plan was employed by the parents and how the effect of each plan was perceived, and the research question 4c is:
RQ4c. How do Chinese parents perceive the effect on solving sibling rivalry in regard to the video games time spent?
Game context is the least researched dimension (Gentile, 2011), of which the
importance is however great. Gentile (2011) identified two important aspects of game context. On one hand, the goal of the game can influence the effect, which means either the children are sharing the same enemy or playing against each other, could moderate the effects. Siblings may team up and share the same enemy, or they can fight against each other in a battle. On the other hand, Gentile (2011) also argued that the social context, for instance the social aspect in World of Warcraft, is also a moderator. There are games with a social context while other games don’t. Therefore, in the present study, we also need to know if game context is influencing the perceived effect of video games on solving sibling rivalry, and the research 4d is developed:
RQ4d. How do Chinese parents perceive the effect on solving sibling rivalry in regard to the video game context?
13 In summary, the effect of video games on reducing sibling rivalry in the present study will be discussed together with four dimensions, namely co-playing, time distribution, game content and game context.
Children’s perspectives
Respectively, the study could not be one-sided. To improve the reliability and internal validity of the research, children’s perspective is also essential. And the research questions in regard to the children’s perception were developed. Research question 5 and research
question 6 was developed to gain a general impression of the effect of video games on sibling rivalry perceived by the children:
RQ5: How do Chinese children perceive the video games’ effect on reducing conflicts with siblings?
RQ6. Do Chinese children perceive video games’ effects on solving rivalry with siblings to be homogeneous regardless of different mechanisms of playing video games?
In regard to the different dimensions of video games, research question 7 was developed to figure out how children perceive video games’ effects on sibling rivalry when they co-play the games, play a violent/pro-social game, distribute the gaming time differently and play in different game context, and the sub-research-questions are:
RQ7a. How do Chinese children perceive the video games’ effect on reducing conflicts with siblings when they co-play video games?
RQ7b. How do Chinese children perceive the video games’ effect on reducing conflicts with siblings when they play violent/prosocial video games?
14 RQ7c. How do Chinese children perceive the video games’ effect on reducing
conflicts with siblings when they play video games in regard to time spent?
RQ7d. How do Chinese children perceive the video games’ effect on reducing conflicts with siblings when they play video games in regard to the game context?
To sum up, the research question 1 asks whether and when would Chinese parents use video games to reduce sibling rivalry; then research question 2 and 3 give an impression about the general perceived effect of video games on sibling rivalry by the parents, research question 5 and 6 provide children’s perspectives; lastly the research question 4 and 7 provides the perception of parents and children in regard to different dimensions of video games and the effect on sibling rivalry.
Method Research design
In the current study, to get the insight and explore the role of the video games in resolving sibling rivalry, qualitative research is well suited. Although there are already studies about video games and sibling rivalry in western world, the situation in China could be largely different. Due to the population explosion, Chinese government carried out the only-child policy in 1979, and this policy was promoted and enforced for more than 30 years (Jiao, Ji & Jing, 1996; Li, Chen, Cao, Li, Zuo & Yan, 2013). This policy not only controlled the population growth (Festini & de Martino, 2004), but also brought huge differences for family environment and the only-child groups, previous studies has found out that children who are the only child in the family are different from children with siblings in terms of brain structural development, personality, characteristics, cognition and behaviors (Feng, 1992; Hao & Feng, 2002; Li et al., 2013; Yang, Hou, Wei, Wang, Li & Qiu, 2016). For years most
15 of the Chinese families are familiar with the only-child phenomenon, which may lead to a series of very special inter-family relationships when sibling rivalry arises. It was believed that a context specific qualitative study can capture the special conditions that influence the participants’ narratives, it could identity the complicated relationships between what participants do/ think and how/where they live (Patton, Hong, Patel & Kral, 2015).
Consequently, an inductive approach is appropriate for this study to explore how the video games are used in parents’ intervention of sibling rivalry in the context of China. In-depth interviews were chosen to be used in this study. By doing interviews, interviewers can ask leading questions and use a series of following questions to know the experiences and the deepest feelings from interviewees, with a minimized influence from outer factors.
Participants
Considering the cultural context and the specific social development, the sample were families with multiple children in china only. First of all, parents are the ones who need to control sibling rivalry when it arises, their perspectives are very valuable. Therefore, parents will be the first group of participants. And since children have their own opinions and often only the children know what happens between them, so the children are also chosen to be participants. The age limit of the participating children was 7-13. This certain age group is what scholars call “tweens”, which is a special age group as their brain is more developed compared to younger children so they may have more developed language and
communication skills (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2000). Decentration, which means paying attention to multiple aspects of a situation, becomes possible during this time, which makes multiple topics easier to process (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2000). More importantly, this is a time when children begin to understand others’ perspectives (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2000), which is essential since we are researching on their relationships with siblings. On the other hand, in order to ensure variety and obtain diversified viewpoints, the sample of parents
16 consists of different educational level, age, gender and social economic status. With at least one parent and two children per family, we had seven groups, which consist of seven parents and fourteen children, as valid participants. Table 1 shows the composition of the participants regarding age and gender.
Table 1. Composition of participants regarding age and gender
Parents (n=7) Children (n=14) Age 31-40 3 7-10 5 41-50 4 11-13 9 Gender Male 2 6 Female 5 8 Ethical considerations
Since the research is be related to children and interviews will be also held with children, ethical statement from University of Amsterdam were firstly acquired. A fact sheet and an informed consent form were sent to the participating parents beforehand. The consent forms include consent for participation for both the parents and the children. However, at the start of every interview with children, the children were informed about the research and then asked again if they still want to participate. The interviews were completed under the
permission of both the university and the participants.
Procedure and data collection
The participants were approached online via several social media platforms. Upon the agreement in joining the study, the fact sheet and informed consent form were sent to parents via Sojump, an online survey website similar to Qualtrics. The reason for this choice was that
17 the internet restrictions may make the participants not be able to access Qualtrics. The parents will sign the consent form digitally by typing their own and the children’s names.
Before each interview, the procedure of the study was explained and participants were asked again if they still want to participate. Firstly, parents were interviewed. The procedure lasted for approximately 45 minutes. Then the children were interviewed separately, each interview took up to 20 minutes. Two interview guides were used, and were designed
separately for parents and children. The one for the parents is divided into four main sections, which is also called “topics”, including general reaction towards sibling rivalry as a warm-up, the use of video games as a parenting tool to deal with sibling rivalry, the perception of the effectiveness of video games on sibling rivalry, and the perceptions of effects of different dimensions of video games. The interview guide for the children consists of three main topics, the first is the warm-up topic about their playing video games, the second is the perceived effects of playing video games on sibling rivalry, and the last is the perceptions of effects of different dimensions of video games. Appendix A and B will provide more detailed
information about the interview guides.
All the interviews were held via Skype. All the participants were interviewed
individually without a third-person’s presence. And the interviews were audio-taped and fully transcribed.
Analysis
All interview data was transcribed verbatim. The transcription is in Chinese since the interviews are finished in only Chinese language. Data was analyzed based on the
18 The computer software Atlas.ti (version 7) was used for the coding process, and a systematic coding with an interative, grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) was conducted. Transcripts were firstly divided into subsets and open coding was done. Thematic or summary codes were given according to words or sentences in the subsets, and all the subsets were open coded. The coding list was made in English for further analysis. Next, words and sentences were put together based on the concepts that arose in the open coding process, the ones with the same meaning, stating the same issue, or describe the same concepts were put together, forming a series of sub-categories. These sub-categories lead to several themes, namely generic category. In this study the generic categories include the use of video games, general perception, effect consistency, and perception regarding different dimensions of video games. And then the associations between concepts and categories were defined. Finally, in the process of the selective coding, previous concepts and generic
categories were put together, further developed, leading to the core concept and answers to the main research topic. Figure 1 provides a clear view of the process.
Figure 1. The organization of the coding process
C or e c onc ept: de sc riptio n of the re se ar ch topic
The use of video games words/sentences
General perception words/sentences
Effect consistency words/sentences
Video game dimensions words/sentences Sub-categories Main category Generic categories
19 Responses base on the categories were described and illustrative quotes by
participants will be used as examples form the original data. And links between categories, concepts and other possible issues that arise will be described in the following session.
Results
The research question of the current study is how video games in parental intervention influence sibling rivalry in China. The course of the interviews with parents was and children were divided into five main topics. In the following section, each topic will be discussed, and quotations (translated into English from Chinese) from the interviews will be used to support the results. The first two topics serve as the background and stepping stone to later
discussions of the research questions, and therefore will be shortly discussed on the basis of the previous literature to give an impression. Then the last three topics will be discussed in more details.
Topic 1: parents’ general reaction pattern towards sibling rivalry
According to the participants, Chinese parents tend to use a non-intervention or child-centered strategy, while no one mentioned sanction of physical aggression. Most of the parents gave a direct answer of “leave it to themselves” without hesitation. One parent who is participating in some professional parental courses also mentioned that the immediate
parental intervention such as judging could make the conflict even worse. However, when the conflict become more severe, which means any of the children gets serious psychologically hurt, or when the children start to use physical aggression, parents would separate the children, ask them to do some other things to distract them, and then try to explain the other one’s feelings and help them to forgive each other. Children reported their parents using a
20 child-centered strategy (Tucker & Kazura, 2013) mostly, and it is similar to what the parents said. An interesting fact additional to the literature is that according to the interviews, the parental coaching on sibling rivalry has a younger-male tendency. When the parents get involved in the conflict, in most occasions they tell the boys to understand and make some concessions to the girls or ask the younger child to behave and don't annoy the older child. And both the parents and children think such coaching tendency is normative and appropriate, consequently it is effective in solving sibling rivalry.
Topic 2: the situation of children playing video games
Most children do play video games, but playing video game is generously highly restricted in every family. The school-aged children in China have a life full of classes and homework, and homework always comes first. And one family even reported no video games at all, the reason is the children are always busy and don't have time for video games since they were young, therefore they don't have any interest in it. Children have three main motivations for playing a game: their own interest, boredom, and to maintaining
synchronization with their friends and classmates. In the tween age, they start to care more about their peers and maintaining peer relationships is an important daily task for them (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2013).
Topic 3: the use of video games in parental intervention towards sibling rivalry
Choice of using or not
For the research question 1a, whether the parents use video games as a parenting too to deal with sibling rivalry, the participants divided into two camps. Four out of seven parents do use video games to help resolve sibling conflicts. They indicated that they occasionally asked their children to play video games when they are having conflicts. They noticed
21 through daily observation that the video games can be a good distraction for the children to help them forget about the disputes, relieve the bad mood and calm down.
- Sometimes I do use media products. Such as let the younger brother play video games for a while, to change the subject in his mind and separate them temporarily. Because my son is very fond of video games and will get happy because of those games. So I just follow his thoughts, I understand him. I just use this method to let him relieve his anger and mood. [Parent 1, female, 45]
-Yeah sometimes we do. Just give them the IPad and our phones and put them back to their own rooms. If it's the weekend or holidays then they can play video games. They’ll be happy very very quickly. [Parent 7, male, 43]
The function discussed here is consistent with the literature. As Zabriskie and McCormick (2001) defined, video games are used as a tool for familiarity and stability. It is predictable according to the regular experiences that the children likes video games and will forget about the conflict and become happy because of video games. Parents use video games to help the children relieve their anger and mood, and consequently resolve the conflicts.
However, there is the other camp with three parents who do not use video games ever when children are having conflicts. The main reason is that video games are perceived mainly harmful for the children by these parents. Vision is an important factor. Parents limit
children’s screen time as little as possible in order to protect their vision, and if the children are already nearsighted, parents would be even stricter. The other factor is the perceived general effect of video games. These parents heard from the news, the internet or their friends, about various examples of how video games negatively influenced a child or a teenager’s personality and school performance. They believe that video games will have negative effect
22 on children’s study, so when they can take charge, they would not use video games to solve sibling rivalry.
- I hardly let them watch TV, neither the video games. They are nearsighted so badly. I would rather ask them to play outside for a while. [Parent 5, female, 37]
- I’m not supporting it. They are currently in a stage of studying, video games interfere their study too much. One of my friend has a son at the same age as my daughters, his school records hugely backwards because he was secretly playing Wangzherongyao for months, and when his parents finally found out it was because of the game, it was a shock to all of us. So I’m not supporting video games at all not mentioning use it to deal with their disputes. [Parent 6, female, 38]
In this session, we obtained the answers for research question 1a: in order to resolve sibling rivalry, some Chinese parents choose to use video games as a parenting too to
intervene the issue. It allows children to be distracted and relieve their negative mood. Some other parents who perceive video games to be mainly negative for the children do not ever use video games as a parenting too solve sibling rivalry.
Circumstances
The four parents who use video games to help resolve sibling rivalry indicated two typical circumstances in which they would use this method. Two parents reported that they choose to use video games when the conflict becomes too intense and out of control to some extent. Generally this represents the start of physical aggression. When the children start to push, hit, fight against each other, parents will use video games to separate them immediately and calm them down. The other circumstance is reported by one parent. When any of the children get serious mentally or psychologically offended or hurt, parents will use video
23 games to distract and comfort this child in order to relieve his/her bad mood, usually followed by a gentle individual talk afterwards.
- For example the younger brother is seriously angry, has an extremely bad mood, like if they have disputes his older sister might have said something too intense too much, he feels too upset then I will tell him go play your games, go relieve it! Because he will get some sense of satisfaction, then he will get better. [Parent 1, female, 45]
- I’ll ignore them if they just have small disputes or yell at each other, but if I see they start to fight, that is when I judge their behavior is dangerous and may cause injuries, then I will go stop them, separate them and ask them to go back to their rooms. They do their own stuff, but sometimes I let my son play video games, he will act normal without any attitude or bad mood soon. [Parent 4, female, 48]
Thus the answer for research question 1b is: Chinese parents use video games as a parenting tool to deal with sibling rivalry when the conflict becomes too intense and involved with physical aggression, or when any of the children is seriously mentally or psychologically hurt.
Topic 4: the perceived effect of video games on sibling rivalry
Parents’ perception
Generally, parents reported positive perception of video games’ effect on reducing sibling rivalry, no matter they use this method or not. Six out of seven parents indicated that the video games must be helpful for resolving children’s conflict to some extent. There are three main reasons. Firstly, some children like video games themselves. They can acquire a sense of achievement and satisfaction in the games, and thus will gain a better mood.
24 - I think it is effective. Eh, some games, such as he can level up or win in the process of fighting, he can become a winner, then he will have a sense of achievement. [Parent 1, female, 45]
- It should be effective. If they both starts to play video games since they were very young, they have this common interest, then they might play video games and it will be helpful for solving their disputes. [Parent 2, male, 39]
Secondly, video games can distract children from the conflicts. To parents’ thoughts, distraction is actually the biggest function of video games in regard to resolve sibling rivalry.
-He will be, just suddenly enlightened. And because of the better mood, he would not care so much about the things around, also his sister. All will be replaced by the games (laugh). [Parent 1, female, 45]
- His attention will be distracted by video games so he won’t stick to what happened just now any more. According to my observation he would focus on video games and they just don’t show any bad mood, they would act just like nothing happened. [Parent 4, female, 48]
Lastly, children may be able to relieve their anger and bad mood through video games. This could be done by victory, accomplishing certain missions, leveling up or gaining
precious items in the games.
- I would talk with him a little bit and ask him what his mood is like. He would say “oh I have so much sense of achievement!” or “I leveled up again!” or something similar. [Parent 1, female, 45]
25 On the other hand, there were opinions that video games do not work at all for sibling rivalry from one participated parent. The main reason is that the parent believes the children do not usually play video games nor are they interested in video games.
-They don’t really play games. They don’t have time for any digital devices actually. I think it would not be effective. [Parent 6, female, 38]
And the children’s personality may also be a factor. When the children are believed more strong-minded and obstinate, parents don't think they would simply get over the conflict because of the video games.
- For these two girls I think it’s useless. They are both bad-tempered and obstinate, they just stick to their opinions when they get angry. If I ask them to do anything they won't even listen to me. They just go back to their rooms and shut their doors. [Parent 6, female, 38]
Therefore we have the answer for research question 2: Chinese parents mostly perceive video games to be effective on solving sibling rivalry due to the function of
distraction and children’s interests, a part of parents think it would not be effective because of children’s lack of interests in video games and their personality.
We also obtained the answer for research question 3: Chinese parents think that the effect of video games on resolving sibling rivalry is always consistent. They believe such method would either work or not work at all, this kind of perceived consistency was reported by all the parents. They didn’t mention any exceptions for their opinions when asked if the effect could only exist in some situations before the last topic about certain aspects of video games were brought up by the researcher.
26 In line with the parents, children reported mainly positive perception about video games’ effect on their sibling relationships. Eight children indicated that video games work as a distraction and a way to vent. However, they don't think video games and sibling
relationship has a direct association. They think they may get a good mood after play video games, and when they see their siblings again, they may think their sibling not so annoying anymore. So whether the effect exist or not largely depend on whether that game can make them happy again. Therefore, three of the elder children stressed that there is no influence of video games on sibling relationship at all, it just influence their mood. But they also admit their mood might eventually help them to forget the conflict and reconcile with siblings. For the quotations below, a pair of siblings will be marked as 1a and 1b, etc.
- Once my attention gets distracted I will leave out all my anger. But I won't like her or hate her, just go back to normal, like before our disputes. [Child 1a, male, 11]
- It depends on my mood. There is no direct relationship between playing video games and me being annoyed by my sister. It’s totally two different things. When I’m playing games I’m thinking of performing well and my skills, being angry at her is just
warning her not to touch my stuff. But if I win in the game I’ll be so excited – but just for one second. Video games can not affect my real life. Then we will be like, nothing happened. [Child 7a, male, 13]
A large difference to be noted from the parents’ interviews is that eight children don’t think the effect of video games on their mood and sibling relationships is always consistent. It depends largely on the games and more importantly, the game results. If they are playing a game they are really interested in and if they win the game or get reward is two very important issues.
27 - It (Clash Royale) will give you some gift and some cards of different levels. If you get good cards then you’ll be happy! [Child 1a, male, 11]
- Well, actually the conflict with my brother…… I don’t care too much. Although we have disputes, but if I can calm down then it would be ok. If I win in the games,
anyways my mood will be good, but I might pretend that I won't talk to him. [Child 3a, female, 13]
- This question gives me a headache. I think maybe I’ll like my sister more after I play games. If I win I’ll treat her better, but if I lose I’ll just act normal. I don't dare to be more upset or angry, my mom would take back the computer right away! [Child 4a, male, 13]
In sum, the answers for research question 5 and 6 were acquired in this session. For research question 5: Chinese children perceive video games effective on resolving sibling rivalry, but this effect is indirect, their mood is described a link to video games and sibling rivalry. And the answer for research question 6 is: Chinese children do not think that the effect of video games on sibling rivalry is homogeneous, the games and the game results influence the effect enormously.
Topic 5: different aspects of playing video games
In order to get more in-depth opinions about the effect of video games on resolving sibling rivalry, we moved forward from the general effect to different dimensions of playing video games. Four aspects were included, namely co-play, game content, time distribution and game context, each lead to one sub-question for both parents and children.
28 All the parents preferred the children to co-play video games. Five mentioned that they think that children may have more communication when they are playing video games together, and such little talks, instructions and cooperation may build up to a better sibling relationship, and therefore they will get over the conflict more quickly.
- I prefer them to play together. They have some common communications and as they play the game they will be good again. [Parent 3, female, 41]
Moreover, according to two parents, due to the different interest and gender of the children, their game choice may be milder if they have to play together, and it could prevent any of the children to be addict to “negative” games, such as shooting games.
- Together. In this way, it will be more comprehensive. The older brother likes games that is more intense and fierce, he likes to fight, if the younger sister is there then they can find something more appropriate. [Parent 4, female, 48]
So the answer for research question 4a is: Chinses parents think that co-playing will benefit the effect of video games on sibling rivalry.
However, children reported more willingness to play video games alone when they have conflicts. Nine of them reported this opinion. The first reason is that they originally don't like to play games together due to different interests, gender, age gaps, which is typical for tweens since they start to have clear gender role and stat to form self-identity (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2013), and therefore their favorite games are different.
- I like to play alone. Our age is different! Her games are too boring. I get sleepy as I play those boring games. [Child 4a, male, 13]
29 The second is the different levels of gaming skills, indicated by four of the children. Who are better at a certain game do not want the other one to drag him/her down, while the other can't get taught how to play the game properly and they lose interest in it soon.
- I don't like play Minecraft with my sister. She’s too bad at it, she does not know how to play it! [Child 1a, male,11]
- I use to want to play Minecraft with my brother, but I didn’t know how to play actually. Then I asked him to teach me, but he didn’t want to teach me, so…… I don't usually play games, he knows more skills and ways to play around, but he didn't want to teach me so it just didn't continue. [Child 1b, female, 13]
The third is the children just want to be alone after the conflict and do not really want to see the other child, they need private time and space to calm down. Interestingly, four of the younger children sometime showed that they actually wanted to play together with the older one, but due to their failure experiences they finally gave in to the fact that it is better if they just play alone.
- I only ask her to play together when she’s in good mood. It is more interesting to play with her, our cooperation is good. But if we just had disputes, then no. [Child 3b ,9]
- Of course by myself! If you don't know the rest four people then you’ll be less angry if you lose the battle (indicating Wangzherongyao). [Child 3a, 13]
So the answer for research question 7a is: Chinese children think that playing video games alone would be more effective to reduce sibling rivalry.
30 Game content
Although the concepts of violent game and pro-social game are explained to parents without mentioning the name or judging, parents all voted for pro-social games over violent games. The reason is either the violent games are too intense and may be harmful for their development, or children get more easily addicted to violent video games. Researcher noticed that when asked about game content, parents seemed to break away a little bit from the sibling rivalry scenario. They gave more general answers about their attitude towards the game content for their children under all circumstances, and sibling rivalry is also included.
- Not violent games for sure. I think violent games will affect people’s mind right? Like there are so many teenage crimes are related to violent games. [Parent 3, female, 41]
- I'd prefer the latter (pro-social games). Because he always seems more addicted to those battle games. If you talk to him while he’s playing, he’ll be impatient and annoyed. He’s more willing to focus on the game, a little bit too addicted. [Parent 7, male, 43]
So the answer for research question 4b is: Chinses parents think that pro-social games are better for reducing sibling rivalry.
The children again gave researcher very different answers. Seven out of 14 children who originally like to play games choose violent games, while the others, including those who play but not really like video games and whose who do not usually play video games, tend to choose pro-social games. Once again this is not just to help sibling relationships, they simply chose what they generally liked, and it can apply to the situation when they are having conflicts as well.
31 - Neither will be helpful for our relationship. Because he’s a boy and I’m a girl, we don’t like same things. I play those puzzle games but he plays Clash of Clans. [Child 4b, female, 9]
- I’m fonder of games like Crossfire. Those games can make me in a better mood. [Child 5-b, male, 12]
So the answer for research question 7b is: Chinses children think that the type of games they usually like will be more effective to resolve sibling rivalry, whether violent games or pro-social games.
Time distribution
How to distribute the video game time was found not affective on resolving sibling rivalry, neither for the parents or the children. Six parents indicated that they did not see any difference to play one hour in a row or to play 20 minutes for three times. Their main concern is the children’s study and vision. So if the total time spent on the game is still reasonable and is within their control, they think either way is ok, they will just let the children decide by themselves.
- I usually let them to choose by themselves. I won't make decisions for them to play how long and how many times. I usually don’t. He might be happier with longer time but also may be happier with more times. [Parent 1, female, 45]
- Hmm. Actually I do it this way. If it is video games then just 20 minutes, if it’s TV series then just one episode, then they have to play outside. They’re so nearsighted. But you can’t prevent them from these products. So I must control the time. If they still listen to me then I think both ways is ok. [Parent 5, female, 37]
32 So the answer for research question 4c is: Chinses parents do not think different time distribution would affect the effect of video games on solving sibling rivalry as long as the time is under control.
The children gave very different answers. Seven children think it is better to play for multiple times so that they can last for a whole day, but there are also four children think that it is more satisfying to play for a longer time. But none of them think it is important for their mood or sibling relationship, they don't really care about how the time is distributed. As mentioned above, their video game time is strictly guided by the parents and school works, as long as they can play, they will be happy. For those who do not really like video games, time distribution is almost an unrelated topic.
- I choose to play it once for longer. But it’s only because of the game itself, you need 30 minutes for a battle! [Child, 3a, 13]
- I’d prefer play shorter but three times. Because it is more entertaining. How will you survive the rest of the day if you spend the time all at once! [Child 4a, male, 13]
- This…… is totally irrelevant. [Child 7a, 13]
So the answer for research question 7c is: Chinese children think that time distribution would not influence the effect of video games on reducing sibling rivalry.
Game context
Goal of the game
Six parents indicated a preference for the children to team up and share the same goal over playing against each other when they play together. They believe that teaming up would
33 benefit sibling relationship by improve their closeness and therefore will contribute to
resolving sibling rivalry.
- Teaming up will be better. It’s simple, you hate your enemy and protect your team. [Parent 3, female, 41]
- It could be good if they team up. Such way to promote teamwork, it should be good. [Parent 6, female, 38]
Children mostly reported willingness to team up for battle games. Six children mentioned that their preferences were also linked to their performance in the game. Teaming up could bring them better game results since they can cooperate. And the better game result in turn will bring them good mood and consequently better sibling relationship. For simpler games such as Temple Run, there is not a choice like teaming up but only racing and getting higher scores. For these games five children reported that they enjoyed the process more than the results. In other words they don't care about win or lose the other for these games, simply playing together will be interesting and pleasant.
- Sometimes we play some games that require your movement speed, I can’t follow my sister so she wins every time. But if it's a game like Gold Miner, I love to play with her. We can be a team! [child 1, male, 11]
- (In Temple Run) if one dies then we switch to the other person. We compare our scores. But it won't affect our relationship. We laugh a lot. Then just a while later we are good again. [Child 2b, female, 12]
Social context
As for social context, parents hold a more conservative yet understanding opinion, reported by five parents. Although they are concerned about not being able to control whom
34 the children are playing with in the games, and children may receive negative influences or become too addicted to the game, they do know that playing in a community with real people will be more interesting and helpful for relieving bad moods, and it may benefit children’s communication skills. Therefore, to deal with sibling rivalry, parents think that social context would be effective.
-I think, through what he told me, it seems playing with others like Wangzherongyao is more useful for him to relieve his mood. [Parent 1, female, 45]
-I wish my children could communicate more with people. I do worry about them but I don’t think a closed environment would benefit the kids. [Parent 3, female, 41]
Children, same as parents predicted, thought that playing with other people in a community would be more interesting. Their description was pretty limited, but this increasing interest would bring them better mood and they will be less easily bored. As a distraction from the conflict, the video games should be as interesting as possible.
-Although there’s a risk that you may get angry because of your weak teammate, and you can’t say anything to them, but if you play single game – they are interesting – you get bored soon. So I still prefer to play with other people. [Child 3a, female, 13]
-It’s always better to have other people than there is no one. [Child 4a, male, 13]
So the answer for research question 4d is: Chinese parents think that playing game in a community and sharing a same goal with sibling in the games would benefit the effect on reducing sibling rivalry.
35 The current study employs the research question: how do video games in parental intervention influence sibling rivalry in China? And under this research question we further developed seven sub-questions. The answer to all the research questions was acquired through a series of in-depth interviews held with parents and their children. In conclusion, Chinese parents perceive video games to be effective and homogeneous on reducing sibling rivalry no matter they use video games as a parenting too to deal with it or not. Parents use video games as a distraction and relief for the children’s anger and bad mood when the conflict becomes too intense or any of the children become seriously mentally or
psychologically hurt. They believe co-playing, pro-social games, common game goal and social context in the game will make video games more effective on reducing sibling rivalry. Chinese children also think video games are effective for reducing sibling rivalry by brighten up their mood and distract them, but the effect is largely dependent on the games and game results. Playing alone, playing the games that they usually like, common game goal and social context are perceived more effective for reducing sibling rivalry by them. Neither parents nor children think that time distribution would influence the effect, the reason may be that according to Anderson (1983) and Gentile (2011), distributing overtime is more effective than putting a lot of time all at one, but this is for learning process, which is a long-term effect. When we talk about resolving sibling conflicts, we mainly talk about the short-term effect. Overall, the findings provided a view from a totally different culture background. With the second-child policy being carried out, increasing numbers of Chinese families are having multiple children nowadays. Through uses and gratification theory (West & Turner, 2010), people consume certain media products to meet their certain needs. If children can relieve their negative mood through video games and get distracted from the conflict, then parents should think of using video games sometimes reasonably while applying parental control such as game content and moderate the way of children playing video games. Taking
36 children’s developmental characteristics, their cognitive and emotional status and the games themselves all into account, to choose a way to make the best use of media products to deal with problems such as sibling rivalry is beneficial for not only the family, but can also
provide some implications for clinical usage, such as psychological therapy for the victims of severe sibling rivalry which the parents may not be able to control.
Being a qualitative study, there are several limitations that should be mentioned. Firstly, the sample size was limited. We could only have seven groups of valid participants, a total number of 21 people, which is quite small that may cause a reduction of external
validity. An extension to the sample size should be ideal. Secondly, this study focused on families with tween age children. Since children develop and change fast and enormously through different stages, the findings can only apply to children with siblings in this age group. Other age groups are still under research. For instance, when children are younger like preschoolers, they have not yet developed their gender role (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2000), and therefore the boys and girls may like the same kind of games, and co-playing is therefore more likely to happen. Thirdly, being interviewed individually, participants, especially the parents, were likely to report a social-desired answer although autonomy was ensured Although individual interviewing is not the best choice, it is still better than focus groups or group interviews with regard to social desirability . Lastly, inconsistency arises in the last topic. When the interviews went into the fifth topic about different aspects of video games, participants, both parents and children, tend to escape from the setting of sibling rivalry, they tend to give an answer that fits their personal interest or expectations. But when the
interviewer stressed sibling rivalry scenario, some of the participants changed their answer to some of the questions. For example, when the researcher asked the question about the which game content is preferred to solve sibling rivalry, one parent said she always did not want his son to play violent video games, but when asked again what if children are having conflicts,
37 she changed her answer in to “oh then it may be helpful in a way.” This could be problematic since it is hard to tell if the change was made because of their real thoughts or is it because they think it was because they answered the question wrong that the interviewer asked them again.
Finally, this qualitative study has provided a view of the use of video games in parental intervention to sibling rivalry in China, with the unique findings of this study, quantitative research about this topic possible in the context of China is therefore possible. Future research should try to use other research methods to explore the effect of video games on sibling rivalry, for example based on the differential susceptibility to media effects model (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013), it would be interesting to explore what kind of factors are serving as predictors of using video games to deal with sibling rivalry, what factors are response status that moderate the effects. Experiments, or cross-sectional studies should be applicable. For instance, future researches should extend the sample size of the study, on one hand to enlarge the number of participants, on the other hand to include other age groups of children is also essential. Infants and toddlers, preschoolers and teenagers all need to be researched. There should also be more research about how different video games influence the effect on reducing sibling rivalry since the nature of video games largely affects the outcome of video games. The four dimensions discussed in the study is rather general, more details should be researched. For example, the mechanism of violent/pro-social games which affects sibling rivalry are not studied in detail. Besides the four aspects chosen in the current study, there is still other dimensions still need more research. Finally, since the effect of time distribution was not found in this study, and as mentioned above the reason could be that this study mainly stresses short-term effects, it would also be interesting to do a longitudinal study about the relationship between video game time distribution and long-term sibling relationships.
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