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Although digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGBVL) has received increasing attention in the past two decades, the impacts of DGBVL on the depth of word knowledge are still not well understood, especially in regard to productive vocabulary learning and DGBVL's long-term efficacy. This study leverages a quasiexperimental research design to investigate DGBVL's long-term effects on receptive vocabulary (RV) and productive vocabulary (PV). Forty-eight Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) university students, assigned to the experimental and control groups, were instructed by a DGBVL approach and PowerPoint (PPT) lecturing, respectively, over the course of 18 weeks. Specifically, a mixed 2×2 repeated measures experimental design was conducted by adopting instruction type (DGBVL and PPT lecturing) and testing time (pretest and posttest) as the independent variables, with RV and PV proficiency as the respective dependent variables. The results suggest that instruction type and teaching time have significant effects on participants' RV and PV learning achievements. However, teaching time's effect size outweighs instruction type. The findings are highly encouraging for the use of DGBVL in the EFL classroom, as it may serve as an effective and long-lasting pedagogical tool within this context.

This study investigates how video game play influences gamers' formal education through perceptions of their 'gamer' and 'learner' identities. Based on identity foundation in symbolic interactionism, we take gamer and learner identities as meaning structures with both dynamic and stable dimensions. The basis of this gamer identity perspective is identity has a crucial role in investigating learning. Applying a life history approach, we interviewed 10 participants in one-to-one interviews, with three interviews for each participant. Applying the narrative portrait, we analysed participant data. We found that gamer identity construction from video game playing, as a vital meaning structure, has four main aspects, namely in-game identification, social community expansion, restorative effect and meaning recognition, providing gamers with expansive ways to build learner and personal identity as that can benefit their formal education.

This study applies Activity Theory to describe and analyze an out-of-school project in which eight Chinese university students utilized a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) to learn English. Based on data collected through questionnaires, gaming journals, gaming recordings and interviews, thematic analysis was performed to identify the recurrent themes, which were then mapped onto the activity system. Four contradictions were identified in the process. Temporary contradictions dominated the early phase of the project and were easily resolved. However, inherent contradictions, mainly manifesting themselves through inadequate competence and learner variation, remained unresolved. Efforts to overcome these tensions resulted in the evolvement of the activity system. In terms of the actual outcomes, there was evidence for the development and exercise of autonomy. Learners also reported enhanced confidence and gains in vocabulary, listening and oral fluency. The study contributes new knowledge to the field by revealing how non-gamers make use of digital gaming for language learning in an informal setting. Pedagogical implications for digital game-based language learning are discussed and suggestions for future research are also provided.

Researchers have found that violent online game addiction has become a serious global problem that negatively affects younger people. This study used a cross-sectional research design to examine the effects of violent online game contact on individuals' academic procrastination. We further explored the mediating role of emotional self-regulation and the moderating role of peer communication in the link between violent online game contact and academic procrastination. A sample of 1132 students completed self-reported questionnaires regarding violent online game contact, emotional self-regulation, peer communication, and academic procrastination. Participants were randomly selected from Guangdong Province, China. Results indicated that violent online game contact was positively correlated with academic procrastination, while emotional self-regulation indirectly affected the relationship. Peer communication played a moderating role in the indirect effect between emotional self-regulation and academic procrastination. The general pattern of this mechanism illustrates that as peer communication increased, the effects of emotional self-regulation on academic procrastination decreased. The findings elucidate how and for whom violent online game exposure is related to academic procrastination. This research demonstrates that violent game contact is an important factor affecting academic procrastination, clarifies the role of peer communication and emotional self-regulation, and provides practical suggestions for preventing academic procrastination in the field of school psychology.

Despite the wide usage of screen media among young children, less is known about the relationships between children's screen time and their social competence development as impacted by family-related factors. Here, we investigated parents' engagement, children's screen time, and their social competence among Taiwanese Chinese children's families at three time points as the children aged (Time 1: N = 2,037, including 991 girls, M = 3.00 years; Time 2: N = 1,785, including 868 girls, M = 4.00 years; Time 3: N = 1,749, including 842 girls, M = 5.01 years). "Research Findings": From ages 3 to 5 years, parental engagement positively predicted children's social competence, whereas children's screen time negatively predicted their social competence. Examination of the mechanism underlying these longitudinal relationships suggested that when parents engaged less frequently in interacting with children, their children tended to spend more time on screen media, and then developed a lower level of social competence during the early years. "Practice or Policy": Our findings indicate that young children's time spent on screen media should be monitored and restricted. Instead of keeping children occupied with screen media, parents and educators should engage more actively in interacting with children to promote their social competence.

This study investigated the longitudinal trajectories of peer rejection and their predictive effects on Internet gaming addiction among Chinese children. The sample comprised 818 students from Grades 1 to 3 (M = 8.30, SD = 1.11, 51.3% boys). Peer rejection was assessed using peer nominations in five waves over a period of 2.5 years, and Internet gaming addiction was measured using the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale--Short Form in the fifth wave. We used a growth mixture model to explore the developmental trajectory of peer rejection and identified four heterogeneous developmental trajectories: low-drop, moderate-drop, moderate-rise, and high-rise rejection. The trajectory categories of peer rejection significantly predicted Internet gaming addiction. In particular, the prediction in the moderate-rise rejection group was higher than that in the low-drop rejection group. This study indicates that exploring the prediction of trajectory categories on Internet gaming addiction is necessary and that it is essential for families and schools to help children establish good interpersonal relationships and to reduce the development of addictive behaviors associated with Internet gaming.

Smart phones have permeated every part of people's lives in the mobile internet era and are virtually taken for granted on a daily basis. Chinese primary school students are facing a serious problem with mobile gaming addiction as a result of their easy access to cell phones. The excessive usage of mobile games has negative impacts on children's academic performance, physical health, and mental health, and may possibly have severe, irreversible implications. It is crucial for educators and the general public to address the issue of mobile game addiction in primary school students. This article examined the current state of mobile gaming among primary school students and the negative effects of mobile game addiction on schoolchildren, looked at the contributing factors from the perspectives of students, parents, schools, and society, and suggested some coping mechanisms.

Changes in physical activity levels and increases in screen time across different cohorts may affect young children's motor skill development (MSD). This study examined cohort differences in MSD in China. Four-year-olds living in Shanghai and in Guizhou province were assessed, in individual sessions, in 2013 (n = 230) and in 2017 (n = 446). Controlling for age, parental education, gender, height, weight, and overall development, children's MSD scores were significantly lower in 2017 than in 2013 in both Shanghai and Guizhou. Parental education moderated these differences. Declines in MSD scores may be due to increased screen time, higher levels of air pollution, and decreased access to safe, outdoor spaces. The overall decline in motor skills across both regions suggests that appropriate and timely interventions are needed to support young Chinese children's MSD.

At present, environmental issues are of concern to all countries, especially for developing countries, and education on waste sorting is urgent. However, it remains a challenge to improve students' learning achievement and engagement in environmental education. Researchers have pointed out the potential of digital games for promoting students' learning motivation. In addition, the two-tier testing mechanism has been recognized as an effective tool for correcting students' misconceptions and promoting their in-depth thinking. Therefore, this study proposed a two-tier testing-based digital gaming approach. To verify the effectiveness of the approach, a digital game was developed and a quasi-experiment was conducted. The participants were two classes of fifth graders, with one class as the experimental group using the two-tier test-based digital game and the other class as the control group learning with the conventional digital game. The results showed that the digital game-based learning with two-tier testing model was conducive to students' improved academic performance compared with the conventional digital game-based learning model, especially for students in the low-level group, who were able to make greater progress. In addition, the approach was effective in terms of reducing students' cognitive load and improving their flow experience.

Technological progress has enhanced classroom gamification in a number of learning contexts. Kahoot! as a digital game-based learning platform is being increasingly integrated into teaching environments to facilitate effective classroom learning. The research focused on Chinese students' perceptions of using Kahoot! in classroom teaching in order to ascertain whether games can contribute to students' classroom learning and how it works. Eighty freshmen students from an international university in mainland China participated in this research. All of them completed an anonymous questionnaire and thirteen students were selected for a face-to-face interview. The results indicated that Chinese students perceive Kahoot! as a useful game-based application that can enhance learning motivation, classroom engagement, learning effectiveness and classroom interaction. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers may use Kahoot! as a facilitator to support learners' EFL learning. The findings of the study are of relevance to the teaching pedagogy not only in the Chinese higher education context but also in extended circumstances where learners tend to sit and listen rather than interact and communicate.

In recent years, game-based learning has attracted much attention in education; however, the effectiveness of game-based learning is still not solidly confirmed. In the present research, a game-based learning in the physics domain with guides provided direct and immediate feedback. The research was conducted among three different groups: the traditional group, the educational video group, and the game-based learning group. The result showed that the game-based learning group performed the best among the three groups, followed by the educational video group, and the traditional group performed the worst. Students in the game-based learning group were enrolled into an interview to study which types of guides enhanced students' game-based learning. From the interview, the prompts and the interactive characteristic of the game-based learning environment took the first two places. In addition, students benefited from the features of game-based learning including task requirements for execution, the tip prompt function, the feedback mechanism, and the story settings. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate applicable guides into the design of game-based learning according to students' perspectives for providing engaging learning experience.

The study of video games can be fun, and it is interesting to see what players can explore inside video games. This paper explores public policy practice and its political content or aspects in video games. The very idea itself may sound vague and unclear; can such a thing be found inside a mere video game? To strengthen the argument of what kind of political aspects can be found in video games, the authors use a comparative case study, comparing two games: "Animal Crossing": "New Horizon" and "Genshin Impact." By comparing the two games, this paper forms an understanding of how political aspects are found inside each game and their influence on affairs and issues in certain countries. The result of this research shows that video games have become an election-winning strategic political marketing and communication policy. Video games have also used procedural rhetoric, which reveals how game producers promote certain ideologies through legislation and rules in their games.

Social media web 2.0 technologies can be adopted as an inclusive method to assist children in enhancing their quality of education for the Sustainable Development Goals (e.g. SDGs 4 and 17). Social media technologies have been documented as low-cost, synchronous, and convenient methods to assist young children, parents, and early childhood (EC) teachers in communication and collaboration. However, few researchers have explored the potential usage of social media tools in enhancing children's physical activities in the early years, particularly during the pandemic period. This article uses the example of WeChat Sports, one of the most famous children's games supported by social media web 2.0, to explore the benefits, challenges, and potentialities of using them in ECE. This research uses semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the attitudes and perspectives of EC teachers and parents on the potential usage of social media technologies in supporting children's physical activities. The results reveal that most participants had a good understanding of using scientific methods to assist children's physical development, however, they expressed concerns on children's health, privacy, and formal learning in terms of overexposure to social media technologies. Suggestions and implications are also provided for both social media application developers and educators in future research studies.

This study tested potential mediating effects of household screen media experience (HSME) on the relationship between SES and six aspects of preschooler's sociality: social cognition, independence, aggression, social adaptivity, peer relationship and emotional control. A total of 471 parents of 3- to 6-year-old children completed an online questionnaire on SES, household screen media experience and social behaviours of children. Our results revealed that the effects of SES on Social Cognition, Independence and Aggression were partly mediated by HSME. Specifically, higher SES predicted lower HSME scores, which predicted better Social Cognition, higher Independence and lower Aggression. HSME did not appear to mediate the effects of SES on Social Adaptivity, Peer Relationship, and Emotional Control. This study affords novel insights into the role of screen use in children's sociality development.

This study sought an answer to the question whether the digitalization of play is technological mutation or digital evolution. To this end, 14 studies published over the last five years were reviewed and discussed under four themes, namely digital technology and children, parents', and teachers' perceptions of digital technology, screen effects, and digital-based learning. The review showed that digital technologies had entered children's daily lives and digital applications had become an important part of early childhood education programmes. Although digital technologies offer positive contributions to children's learning and improve some skills (creativity, problem-solving, and even motor development), it seems as a potential danger to reduce children's play process only to the use of digital games. If this happens, the evolutionary and genetic origin of play, which has an older history than humanity, will be seriously devastated.

This article develops insights and generates new lines of inquiry into young children's digital lives in China and Australia. It brings to dialogue findings from a national study of young children's digital media use in urban settings in China with findings from studies in Australia. This is not presented as a direct comparison, but rather as an opportunity to shed light on children's digital lives in two countries and to account for the impact of context in relatively different social and cultural circumstances. The article outlines findings from a study of 1,171 preschool-aged children (3 to 7-year-olds) in six provinces in China, including the frequency of their use of television, early education digital devices, computers, tablet computers and smartphones, music players, e-readers and games consoles. It also focuses on various activities such as watching cartoons, using educational apps, playing games and participating in video chat. Methods included a multistage sampling process, random selection of kindergartens, a weighted sampling process, the generation of descriptive data and the use of linear regression analysis, and a chi-square test. The study demonstrates the significance of a range of factors that influence the amount of time spent with digital media. The contrast with Australian studies produces new insights and generates new research questions.

This paper reports on a project that draws upon the framework of the community of inquiry to support game-based language learning outside classroom. Case study design was employed to collect and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data, with a view to investigating the participants' language development, participation, and perception. This study spanned a 6-week period and involved 11 intermediate English learners in China. The volunteer participants played an interactive adventure game in an out-of-class setting, with the instructor present and scaffolds available online. Results showed that the participants gained statistically significant vocabulary development and believed they made progress in listening and reading. Moreover, it is found that the participants were the most active in the first two and final weeks. The findings also showed general satisfaction and improved learning autonomy, highlighting the pivotal role of the instructor. The paper concludes by discussing its limitations and identifying future research directions.

Aim/Purpose: The purpose is a bibliographic review that seeks to offer a clearer vision of the impact of technological tools on the implementation of the flipped classroom model. Background: This document reviews the flipped classroom and secondary education literature to analyze what technological tools are used to implement this model in secondary education settings and their impact on students. Methodology: For the review, an analysis of 61 articles found in SCOPUS and WOS was carried out, processed with a scientometric tool, where the implementation of the inverted classroom model in high school is evident, and, according to these, an in-depth analysis was carried out on which tools are most used and in which contexts they are applied. Contribution: This document offers new researchers a more unobstructed view of what type of technological tools have been implemented in the flipped classroom model in the context of high school and how students perceive them. Findings: This review analyzes the following aspects: (1) Analysis of the leading countries where the flipped classroom model is applied in secondary education; (2) Analysis of the subjects where the flipped classroom model has been implemented; and (3) It offers an analysis of the most used technological tools and in which contexts they are applied (online or offline). Impact on Society: This document helps new researchers make a conscious decision about the type of tool to implement to support the flipped classroom model and shows the importance of developing technological tools that are not limited by the use of the internet so that they can reach a more significant number of people. Future Research: Carry out research that focuses on applications that support low connectivity contexts, in order to improve the implementation of the flipped classroom model.

Although adolescents around the world play video games, little is known about their longitudinal effects on adolescents from Eastern countries. This large longitudinal violent video game study has 4 strengths. First, it is the first longitudinal study conducted with Chinese adolescents. Second, it examines moral disengagement as a possible mediating variable. Because violent video games reward immoral behaviors (e.g., stealing cars, killing characters), they might lead players to believe immoral behaviors are "no big deal." These moral disengagement beliefs might "bleed over" from the virtual world to the real world after the game is turned off, by increasing subsequent aggression. Third, it tests the hypothesis that violent video game effects are stronger for early adolescents than for late adolescents, and for males than for females. Fourth, it separates between-person effects from within-person effects. The theoretical foundation for the study is Social Cognitive Theory, which proposes that 3 interacting components determine what events result in observational learning: (a) context (i.e., violent video game exposure), (b) personal cognition (i.e., moral disengagement), and (c) behavioral outcome (i.e., aggression). Participants in this 3-wave (each wave was 6 months apart) longitudinal study were 1,340 Chinese adolescents (45.1% boys) 12- to 19-years-old (M = 14.86, SD = 1.50). Moral disengagement was a significant mediator of the longitudinal relationship between violent game exposure and aggression in the cross-lagged panel and between-person analyses, but not in the within-person analysis. As expected, effects were stronger for early adolescents than for late adolescents, especially between persons. However, gender did not moderate the effects.

While career and technical education (CTE) has been an important part of the U.S. education system for decades, other countries have been slower to adopt and develop similar types of training. Realizing that CTE is crucial to developing homegrown talent capable of competing in a 21st century economy, countries like China are reaching out to career-focused schools in the United States to assist them in developing CTE programs in order to introduce, grow and sustain industries that are new or have limited presence in certain Chinese provinces. This article describes how the Chinese government, in seeking to develop and grow a domestic video game industry, reached out to Kaplan University to learn how career-focused schools in the United States train students to work in this highly technical and growing field.

Cyberbullying (CB) is an important issue that has received a fair amount of attention in the past decade. However, little attention has been paid to exploring young people's Internet usage and CB behaviors and the relationships between the two. The purpose of this study was to research these two types of behaviors and how they are related. For this purpose, 2327 Chinese youths aged 9-22 years (the mean age was 14.6) were invited to participate in our study. The participants answered a youth Internet usage behavior questionnaire and completed a cyberbullying questionnaire. Based on the surveys, we found that of the technology we surveyed, the participants mainly used mobile phones (72.07%); the most popular social platform among the participants was QQ (78.1%); they spent most of their time online watching movies and cartoons (28.1%), and mobile phone games were their favorite type of game (38.4%). In terms of CB, 6.2% of the participants were bullies, and the proportion of boys (69.9%) was higher than that of girls (30.1%). Our results also showed that the participants who used the Renren social network platform, participated in celebrity forums and played online games more frequently engaged in CB. In contrast, participants who used the Sina microblog, watched video news and read online magazines were less likely to engage in CB. Based on our results, several implications and suggestions for future research are presented.

This article reports the potential of online role-playing games to be a powerful tool for English as a second language (ESL) learning. When Professor Edd Schneider and game designer Kai Zheng suggested to attendees gathered in San Francisco last spring for the annual Game Developers Conference that massively multiplayer online role-playing games, better known as MMORPGs, could help Asian teens acquire English language skills, the two men generated considerable buzz. Their message threw a spotlight on a relatively new area of investigation in the evolving relationship between education and computer games--namely, whether an MMORPG might serve as a pedagogical tool for students learning ESL. Schneider, an associate professor in the Department of Information & Communication Technology at The State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam, has been researching games and teaching game design and development for more than 10 years. Zheng, a student in the department, is a Chinese software developer who has written for videogame magazines in China. In their presentation, Schneider and Zheng argued that the internationally popular MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) could be marketed more effectively in China, Korea, and Japan if it were run on ESL servers, which are accessible to players in Asia and the United States. Schneider believes that running the game on joint ESL servers could remove one of the greatest roadblocks to sales in that part of the world: parents. Beyond marketing considerations, Schneider believes that MMORPGs have great potential as tools for ESL programs in US schools.

Gender swapping—selecting a different gender for an avatar in a game than the one assigned to the player in real life—is common, especially in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Such swapping enables a livable transsexual experience. This experience is challenging and dangerous in the real world, which is dominated by gender dimorphism and heteronormative values. Building upon Terry Lovell's (2003) critique of Judith Butler's (1990, 2004) concepts of gender performance and performativity, this article identifies different gender swapping practices and their cultural and political implications in contemporary China. Through digital ethnography and in-depth interviews with 31 interviewees, we identified two distinct types of in-game gender swapping: in-game performance and in-game performance of performativity. Regarding in-game performance, heterosexual gamers choose an opposite gender to achieve better outcomes, to avoid sexual harassment, and to fulfill heterosexual- and homosexual-gazing desires. Lesbians' and gay men's in-game performance of performativity highlights the newly emerging practice of queer dating and socializing in MMORPGs, displaying a productive process of nonconforming identity creation. However, due to the extensive online censorship and an increasingly hostile environment towards queer culture, the performativity of in-game gender-swapping—which has the potential to disrupt the social order both within and outside the gaming sphere—cannot be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence has shown that video game play is significantly associated with children's psychological well-being. However, the findings are mixed. To what extent that different levels of video game use are associated with different dimensions of psychosocial well-being is unclear among Chinese children. This study examined the association between video game time and children's internalizing and externalizing problems as well as their prosocial behavior, and investigated the mediating role of self-esteem in these relationships. We conducted school-based surveys in M district of Shanghai among 1237 pairs of child-parent, using convenience sampling strategy. We employed the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to measure the psychosocial well-being and self-esteem of children, respectively. Mediation model with bootstrapping was used to estimate the magnitude and the respective bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals of the indirect effects of video game use on three outcomes through self-esteem. 47.9%, 8.1% and 6.1% children spent less than one hour, 1–2 h, and more than two hours per day on video game use respectively. Compared to children without playing video game, those spending more time on video game showed more externalizing problems, poorer prosocial behavior, and lower self-esteem. The mediating role of self-esteem was discovered between the relationship of moderate- and high-levels of video game use and children's psychosocial well-being. This study underlined the importance of improving self-esteem of young video game players who suffered from psychosocial problems. More evidence-based studies are needed to provide empirical evidence for the introduction of more effective and targeted policies. Highlights: This study examined the association between video game use and children's psychosocial well-being and the mediating role of self-esteem in these relationships. Self-esteem mediated the relationship between the moderate and higher levels of video game use and psychosocial well-being. Moderate and high levels of video game use were associated with more external problems and worse prosocial behavior. High self-esteem was significantly associated with improved psychosocial well-being. This study underlined the importance of improving self-esteem of young video game players who suffered from psychosocial problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Digital game‐based learning (DGBL) has the potential to provide a gender inclusive learning environment for children. Objective: The present study aimed to explore gendered differences among primary school learners in grades three, four, and five within the context of game‐based fraction learning from cognitive, motivational and emotional perspectives. Methods: Two hundred and sixty‐nine participants completed a pre‐test and post‐test on fraction conceptual knowledge and surveys in math anxiety, intrinsic motivation and self‐efficacy. In addition, facial expression detection technology was employed to evaluate emotional states. Results: In general, within the DGBL environment, boys and girls exhibited similar performance in both their understanding of fraction concepts and their motivational aspects. However, gender differences were identified and manifested uniquely across different grade levels. Specifically, third‐grade girls exhibited significantly lower self‐efficacy than boys, but after DGBL intervention, the gender gap in self‐efficacy was no longer significant. Additionally, third‐grade girls achieved significant improvements in both the competence and interest dimensions of their intrinsic motivation, while boys did not show significant improvements. In the fourth grade, girls exhibited a significantly higher frequency of angry expressions compared to boys during gameplay. Fifth‐grade girls' cognitive performance appeared to be less correlated with motivational factors compared to boys. Conclusions: The results suggest that DGBL may help narrow the gender difference in math learning, with girls potentially benefiting more from DGBL than boys. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Gendered differences in math learning include historical advantages for boys, diminishing achievement gaps, persistent math anxiety with gender variations, and gender‐related disparities in intrinsic motivation and self‐efficacy, highlighting the need for targeted support for girls, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.Studies on digital game‐based learning (DGBL) indicate varying effects on academic performance, with some showing improvement in girls, minimal gendered differences, and potential differential impacts on emotional states by gender.Fraction knowledge plays a pivotal role in math learning, DGBL emerges as an effective and gender‐inclusive tool to enhance conceptual understanding of fractions. What this paper adds: The game‐based fraction learning could effectively enhance conceptual understanding of fractions for third to fifth‐grade students, revealing consistent positive outcomes for both boys and girls across different grade levels, particularly in tasks related to measurement interpretation.The game‐based fraction learning significantly improves motivational experiences, particularly enhancing competence, interest, and self‐efficacy for third‐grade beginner girls, with less pronounced effects observed in fourth and fifth‐grade students.Fourth‐grade girls displayed a significantly higher proportion of angry faces compared to boys, suggesting potential differences in cognitive load, stress, and emotional engagement in digital game‐based learning.After game‐based intervention, fifth‐grade girls' cognitive outcomes were less influenced by motivational factors, while boys still demonstrated a strong correlation between motivational factors and cognitive scores. Implications for practice: Educational practitioners are encouraged to integrate game‐based learning into early childhood math education, as demonstrated by this study, which highlights the significant contribution of early exposure to game‐based learning in fostering girls' positive attitudes towards mathematics.Game designers should incorporate relevant intelligent technologies for monitoring emotions and different gameplay modes, and when learners experience negative emotions, various strategies should be employed to provide a gender‐inclusive and supportive learning environment.For girls facing challenges in mathematics, their underperformance may be associated with lower motivation levels and emotional states, and game developers can address this issue by offering positive reinforcement, personalized feedback, and challenges tailored to individual learning needs to foster competence in learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The COVID-19 epidemic has caused risk and uncertainty. This study answers whether and how psychological distress and digital sports influence willingness to take the vaccine and precautionary savings. Subject and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with an online survey sample of 1016 Shanghai residents who live and work there and are aged between 16–60. All of them experienced the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai. We used logistic regressions to examine the relationships between the variables of interest. Results: Three findings were demonstrated. First, psychologically distressed individuals are less inclined to take the vaccine. Second, those engaged in fitness activities via digital media platforms are more willing to get vaccinated. Third, psychologically distressed individuals and digital video-based physical exercisers are more likely to precautionary save. Conclusions: This study contributes to the literature by documenting how people changed their life from the perspective of finance and health during the lockdown and providing practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely known controversies about the results of violent video game increase aggression. However, the role of competitive video games, has received less research attention, and the underlying mechanisms of their influence are unknown. This study aimed to expand the existing literature by systematically exploring the effects of competitive video game exposure on adolescent aggression and the mediating role of impulsivity. In so doing, three types of studies (collectively N = 2919, mean age varied from 13.75 to 15.44 years, with a balanced gender) combining cross-sectional, experimental, and longitudinal approaches, were conducted. The findings consistently show that competitive video game exposure increased adolescents' aggression and impulsivity. Also, impulsivity mediated the correlation and long-term effect of competitive video game exposure on aggression. However, the experimental study did not confirm the short-term mediating effect of impulsivity, which may be related to the type of aggression measured in the study. The results indicate that competitive video game exposure is an important antecedent factor for adolescent aggression, and impulsivity is the key underlying mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing concerns regarding the development of gaming disorder symptoms among adolescents, the longitudinal relationship between school factors and gaming disorder symptoms remains far from being fully understood. This two-year longitudinal study examined the relationship between school climate perceptions, academic achievement, and gaming disorder symptoms among three distinct demographic cohorts: preadolescents (n = 1513; 46.9% girls, Mage = 10.64 years, SD = 0.56), early adolescents (n = 1771; 48.3% girls, Mage = 13.54 years, SD = 0.70), and late adolescents (n = 2385; 50.1% girls, Mage = 16.41 years, SD = 0.59). A four-wave study was conducted (six months apart) using random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) to separate the within-person (state level) from the between-person (trait level) effects. The results obtained from the RI-CLPMs indicated that fluctuations in school climate perceptions negatively predicted subsequent changes in gaming disorder symptoms among preadolescents at the within-person level, but not among early and late adolescents. Fluctuations relating to gaming disorder symptoms also negatively predicted subsequent changes regarding academic achievement in late adolescents, but not in preadolescents and early adolescents. The effect of school-related factors on gaming disorder symptoms varies across different developmental stages. While preadolescents may represent a particularly susceptible subgroup for gaming disorder in terms of being predicted by their school environment, late adolescents appear to be more vulnerable to predictors of gaming disorder symptoms. The current study also discusses the implications of school-wide programs aimed at improving school climate and preventing the development of gaming disorder symptoms during key developmental periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early 2020, the spread of COVID-19 resulted in the wide use of online classes in China. Drawing on Foucault’s disciplinary power and De Certeau’s strategy-tactic dialectic, this paper explores the online learning practice of students in a rural junior middle school at Yu Town in Central China during the pandemic, through interviewing the students, teachers, and parents. The findings show that the teachers and the students engaged in a power game in online education and employed a series of strategies and tactics to realize the control and resistance through the creative use of media technologies. The study reveals the paradox that the rural students’ agency and resistance, enabled by the media technologies, may result in negative consequences for their learning and further broaden the gap between rural and urban students, thus reproducing the system that they are dissatisfied with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent studies have revealed a negative relationship between children's digital media use and social–emotional development. However, few studies distinguish between different digital devices and the different functions they provide that may lead to different outcomes. Methods: This study explored the relationship between young children's time spent on various digital devices and their social–emotional delay based on a survey of 1182 preschoolers (3 to 6 years old) in rural China. Children's social–emotional delay was assessed through a validated screening tool (ASQ‐SE II). Results: Children's time spent on television, computers, tablets, or smartphones was not associated with their social–emotional delay. However, their risk of social–emotional delay increased as their time spent on game consoles increased. This relationship was reflected in five of the seven behavioural areas of children's social–emotional development (i.e., self‐regulation, compliance, affect, social communications, and interactions with people). Moreover, it did not vary between children with different socioeconomic statuses. Conclusions: This study suggests a possible relationship between children's social–emotional delay and video games, which might need to be paid more attention to than other media types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this nonconfirmatory qualitative study, we pursued a range of hypotheses regarding how gaming operates in the lives and psychosocial wellbeing of those who actively play videogames during a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Informed by an explorative survey (N = 793), interpretive phenomenological analysis was applied to interview data from actively gaming Chinese (n = 10) and Finnish (n = 10) participants. Our findings demonstrate how the general increase of pandemic-time gaming did not manifest in all player groups, but in some life contexts gaming activity rather decreased along with reformations in subjective meaning hierarchies and values. Ultimately, eight subordinate themes were refined into testable hypotheses. The study encourages policies that promote socially supportive gaming during pandemic-like situations to consider including personally meaningful solitary play in their recommendations and highlighting context-specificity over generalization. Finally, as almost all our data points echoing experiences of decreasing gaming activity came from China, we stress the importance of culturally diverse samples in the psychological study of global phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature has suggested that victimization is linked to low self-esteem and increases the symptoms of gaming disorder. However, little is known about the intra-individual processes, and the temporal dynamics of cyber-victimization, self-esteem, and gaming disorder symptoms. To address this gap, a three-year longitudinal study was performed using data collected at six different time points from 4206 Chinese adolescents (aged 12–17 years; 50.4% boys). Results of random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) indicated that at the within-person level, the fluctuation in self-esteem weakly predicted late cyber-victimization, and the fluctuation of cyber-victimization also weakly predicted late self-esteem. Additionally, the current study identified an interactive effect between self-esteem and gaming disorder symptoms at the within-person level. Fluctuations in self-esteem negatively predicted late gaming disorder symptoms, and vice versa. However, when combining the three variables (i.e., cyber-victimization, self-esteem, and gaming disorder symptoms) into one RI-CLPM, the results did not support the mediation of self-esteem in the relationship between cyber-victimization and gaming disorder symptoms at the within-person level. Moreover, fluctuations in self-esteem negatively predicted late gaming disorder symptoms and cyber-victimization at the within-person level in the RI-CLPM. These findings emphasize the protective role of self-esteem developed against cyber-victimization and gaming disorder symptoms among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to China's criminal law, the production and sale of online game cheating programs are often charged of "providing special programs specially used for intruding into computer information system". And they are also sometimes charged of "deliberately creates or propagates computer virus and other destructive programs". Some types of game cheating programs such as "injection game cheating program" meet the criterion of "intruding into computer information system" in the Criminal Law, while other types of game cheating programs such as "offline game cheating program" do not. The "Destructiveness" of game cheating programs should be analyzed according to specific game cheating program and the legal interests it embodied in computer information systems. It should be determined on the basis of legislator's intention, rather than directly use the criterion of evaluating the "destructiveness" of programs in computer science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological maltreatment is a concern linked to a variety of psychosocial and developmental adjustment problems among Chinese youth. The current study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify profiles of Chinese college students with differing patterns of childhood psychological maltreatment experience (i.e., abuse & neglect). We identified five profiles with varying degrees of maltreatment relative to one another: (1) Low Maltreatment (low abuse, low neglect), (2) Moderately Low Maltreatment (moderately low abuse, moderately low neglect), (3) Neglect (low abuse, moderately high neglect), (4) Moderate Maltreatment (moderate abuse, moderate neglect), and (5) High Maltreatment (high abuse, high neglect). Memberships in the Low Maltreatment and Neglect profile groups were associated with sex, parental education, and family income but no differences were found between the other profiles. These findings suggest that sociodemographic information alone is inadequate for accurately discriminating between moderately and highly maltreated Chinese youth and young adults. Profiles characterized by relatively high psychological maltreatment exhibited greater addiction to online gaming and cyberbullying perpetration. This presents findings relevant to how youths and young adults may seek virtual outlets to cope with their childhood maltreatment experiences amid recent government-mandated internet gaming curfews. Interventions aimed at fostering proper coping skills during critical developmental periods should be considered. Highlights: Five profiles of psychological maltreatment were found for college students in China. Low psychological maltreatment was the most common profile while high psychological maltreatment was the most uncommon. The majority of students reported experiencing some form of psychological maltreatment. Moderate to high psychological maltreatment profiles also reported higher online gaming addiction and cyberbullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses China's ban of the hit Japanese video game Animal Crossing: New Horizon. Situating the ban in the context of Chinese digital economy, this paper investigates the politics of fun as it intersects with censorship and popular nationalism in China today. Drawing on user-generated content and social media discussions of the game and its ban, the paper discusses two outcomes deriving from China's precarious environment for gameplay, where fun could be easily confiscated by authorities: the first is the emergence of participatory censorship where netizens voluntarily and collectively set the limit for self-expression in an effort to depoliticize gameplay; the second is the convergence between fun and nationalism, which transforms gameplay into a vessel for expressing and strengthening official ideology. In doing so, the paper reconsiders the thesis of digital democratization by shedding light on the regulated processes of digital self-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After its global popularity and commercial success, Genshin Impact, a Chinese-developed, Japanese anime-style mobile game, provokes online discussions on whether such a game of cultural hybridity exemplifies "authentic Chineseness." Based on online ethnography in the fan communities, this article investigates a two-year debate on whether GI should be considered a symbol of China's "cultural export" to other countries. It reveals that players construct multiple meanings of authentic Chineseness, including GI's integration of Chinese cultural elements, telling "the China story," and its patriotism and "political correctness" in China. This article contributes to the project of de-westernizing cultural studies by revealing how the meanings of cultural authenticity are constructed in a Global South context. Moreover, players situate "Chineseness" in the power relations among China, Japan, and the West, and associate cultural appropriation in the increasing hybridization process with global soft power competition. It reveals that the construction of cultural authenticity as a relational concept is shaped by others defined in a contingent, contextual, and multilateral way, and that the construction process is conditioned by domestic and international power relations, thus contributing to the project of going beyond dichotomous thinking in cultural studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do leaders of organizations cooperate with players with whom they may never transact again? Such transactions can involve the incentives to exploit the other party because these interactions are not recurrent or embedded in networks. Yet, in a market economy, organizational actors learn to cooperate with strangers; otherwise, they risk closure from new ideas and business opportunities outside of their local community. With a large random sample of CEOs of manufacturing firms in the Yangzi River Delta region of China, we measured social norms using vignettes that describe hypothetical situations illustrating the social mechanisms of norm enforcement in respondents' local communities. Several years later, in a laboratory-in-the-field experiment, we asked the same participants to play a one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) game with a complete stranger. Our findings suggest that belief in the reliability of robust norm enforcement is positively associated with a higher probability of cooperation with strangers. To our knowledge, this mixed-method study is the first to explore the relationship between social norms and cooperation with strangers using a large sample of leaders of organizations outside the environment of the laboratory. Finally, to explore the generalizability of our behavioral findings, we experimentally manipulated norm vignettes and study the PD game in online experiments with managers in the Yangzi River Delta region. History: This paper has been accepted for the Organization Science Special Issue on Experiments in Organizational Theory. Funding: V. Nee gratefully acknowledges funding for research from the John Templeton Foundation (2005-2009 and 2015-2018), and from the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. H. Holm thanks the Jan Wallander's and Tom Hedelius' Foundation for funding lab-in-the-field behavioral game. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1521. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims, Design and Setting: The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of the integrated cognitive--behavioral therapy with a strength-based motivational approach [integrated cognitive--behavioral therapy (ICBT)] intervention to change gaming disorder (GD) symptoms and other outcomes and to study the therapeutic mechanism. A two-arm parallel randomized waiting-list controlled trial with 3- and 6-month follow-ups were conducted in a secondary vocational school in mainland China. Participants: Participants comprised 77 Chinese adolescents with GD symptoms with a mean age of 16.36 years [standard deviation (SD) = 0.93]; 88.3% were male Interventions: Participants were randomized into an ICBT group (n = 38) and a waiting-list control (WLC, n = 39) group. ICBT intervention comprised eight weekly sessions to encourage participants to identify their interests and strengths and set goals for developing personally meaningful real-life activities. Measurements and Findings: The outcomes were measured at pre-treatment (t0), post-treatment (t1), 3-month (t2) and 6-month (t3) follow-ups. The primary outcome was GD symptoms at t3. Secondary outcomes included GD symptoms at t1 and t2, and gaming motivation, maladaptive gaming cognition, depression and anxiety symptoms at t1, t2 and t3. With the intention-to-treat principle, the GD scores at t3 were significantly different between the CBT and WLC groups [mean difference 62.08 (SD = 10.48) versus 73.64 (SD = 11.70); Hedges' g = 1.15, 95% confidence interval = 0.67-1.62]. Linear mixed-effects modeling showed significant group x time interaction for the secondary outcomes (P < 0.01), with a moderate to strong between-group effect size in the reduction in depression symptoms (g = 0.67-0.84) and anxiety symptoms (g = 0.6--0.64). Path analysis shows ICBT leads to GD reduction through reducing gaming motivation and maladaptive gaming cognition. Conclusions: An integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy with strength-based motivational approach intervention reduced gaming disorder symptoms and time spent gaming over a 6-month period by decreasing maladaptive gaming motivation and cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many studies have investigated the influencing factors of adolescents' Internet gaming addiction, few have investigated the influence factor of exposure to domestic violence, and even fewer have used the General Strain Theory to explain the influence path of exposure to domestic violence on adolescents' Internet gaming addiction. Based on the GST, this study sought to uncover further insights into the effect of exposure to family violence on adolescents' Internet gaming addiction, and the mediating role of social control--specifically, parental attachment--and self-control in the association between exposure to family violence and adolescents' Internet gaming addiction. Adopting a multi-stage cluster random sampling method, we conducted this study with 2,110 adolescents from Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, China. The results suggest that adolescents' exposure to domestic violence directly affects their addiction to Internet games and indirectly affects it by decreasing social control and self-control. The study not only supplements and improves the explanatory framework of General Strain Theory, but makes a significant contribution to research on the causes of Internet gaming addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies have shown that people with internet gaming disorder (IGD) exhibit impaired executive control of gaming cravings; however, the neural mechanisms underlying this process remain unknown. In addition, these conclusions were based on the hypothesis that brain networks are temporally static, neglecting dynamic changes in cognitive processes. Methods: Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 402 subjects [162 subjects with IGD and 240 recreational game users (RGUs)]. The community structure (recruitment and integration) of the executive control network (ECN) and the basal ganglia network (BGN), which represents the reward network, of patients with IGD and RGUs were compared. Mediation effects among the different networks were analyzed. Results: Compared to RGUs, subjects with IGD had a lower recruitment coefficient within the right ECN. Further analysis showed that only male subjects had a lower recruitment coefficient. Mediation analysis showed that the integration coefficient of the right ECN mediated the relationship between the recruitment coefficients of both the right ECN and the BGN in RGUs. Conclusions: Male subjects with IGD had a lower recruitment coefficient than RGUs, which impairing their impulse control. The mediation results suggest that top-down executive control of the ECN is absent in subjects with IGD. Together, these findings could explain why subjects with IGD exhibit impaired executive control of gaming cravings; these results have important therapeutic implications for developing effective interventions for IGD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross‐sectional study explored the relationship between violent video game exposure (VVGE) and aggression in left‐behind adolescents (LBAs) in China, taking into account the effects of moral sensitivity and father presence. A cluster sampling design was applied in this study; we recruited 615 adolescents (45.85% male, age range 12–18 years, Mage = 14.70 years, SD = 1.66) from China. The results by using SPSS 25.0 and the PROCESS macro showed that VVGE was positively associated with LBAs' trait aggression and its items, and moral sensitivity played a partial mediating role in these relationships. Moreover, father presence moderated VVGE and LBAs' trait aggression, verbal aggression and hostility. Specifically, at a high level of father presence, the direct effect of VVGE on trait aggression was significantly moderated by increasing the level of father presence, whereas this moderating effect was not significant at a low level of father presence. The results were similar for verbal aggression and hostility. Thus, moral sensitivity and father presence should be considered in prevention and intervention strategies aimed at reducing LBAs' aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]