What Do I Want to Research???

November 2019

The questions I had were endless, overwhelming, and at the same time, I didn't have a clue.  I was concerned about a lot of things: young kids playing violent video games, school shootings, the amount of time kids were spending in front of screens, kids' attention spans, and many kids' inability to be patient or just "be" for a little bit without being entertained.  Also, did we have so much gun violence in the US because of our lax gun laws compared to other countries?  Do parents in other countries let their children play these violent video games?  Is there a link between the violence in our society and the video games and/or gun laws?  What does research REALLY say on the matter?  I knew I was not alone in these concerns.  Lots of other teachers and parents had these concerns, as did doctors- the AAP released a statement on screen time a few years ago.  The gun control debate has been going strong for about a decade.  Was any of this valid?  It sure seemed like it to me.  So, what do I study?  What do I choose?  And how do I go about it?

My mentor- an Early Childhood Ed professor I met back in 2005 when I began my Masters program- suggested I just start typing.  She said to write everything down that I was thinking, and then we'd go from there.  It worked!  I wrote a few (ok maybe more than a few) pages about all my thoughts.  I sent it to her.  We talked it over and narrowed down my ideas to a possible starting point.  From there, I wrote my Prospectus.  I sent it to UCO, who approved it and sent it to Swansea, who approved it and matched me with professors who wanted to help me tackle my ideas.

When I got to Wales and met with my primary advisor, I immediately liked him.  He is young (same age as me!) and clearly very knowledgeable.  He has a computer science background and does lots of work with local schools and the community to integrate STEM.  I was unsure if he was going to be the right person to help me, but it quickly became clear that a technology advisor is exactly who I needed!  He immediately challenged my assumptions about media, technology, violence and the detrimental effects it had on children.  He led me to research and loaned me books to read.  I read more in those 2 weeks than I had all summer, and I'd read quite a bit getting prepared for my Swansea visit.

Since that visit, my job has been to find even more current research, read, and write.  It's taken months, but I've finally narrowed down my research topic to include young children (ages 5-8) who play non-violent and violent (i.e. first-person shooter) video games (anything on a digital platform).  All of my questions stem from one thing: do these young children understand that these games are not real, and do they act accordingly?  What I mean is, many of these children believe in Santa Claus, their Elf on the Shelf, the Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy.  At this age, young developing brains are still trying to reconcile what is real and what is fantasy.  They are trying to fit what they see and believe into what they already know.

There was a study in the 90s that asked children if popular TV characters were real or pretend.  The youngest children (3-4) had a very hard time determining what was real and what was not.  The next group of young children (5-6) were more accurate but unsure.  They tried to fit characteristics of the characters into their existing schemas about what makes things real (birds are real, things that actually have a mouth are real and can talk, etc.).  Try as they might, they got confused.  The 7-8 year olds could more easily tell the difference, but they had difficulty explaining WHY certain characters were real or pretend.  For example, they thought they could see zippers on the "costumes" of cartoon characters, proving they weren't real.

My idea is to replicate this study with screenshots from popular video games.  I want to know if the children truly understand that they are 100% pretend scenarios.  Then, I will ask them questions relating the screenshots to things in real life.  I will ask them "what if" questions and *hopefully* observe them at play to see how they problem-solve and interact with peers.  Do they mimic what they see?  Do they propose to solve problems with violence like they do on the screen, or can they differentiate between digital pretend play and real-life interactions with peers?  I will need to survey parents ahead of time, and possibly their children and children's teachers as well.  I will also do this in both countries (the US & the UK) to have a more valid study.  I also think it would be interesting if there were differences between the two countries.  There's so much further research that can come from this initial study!  I am geeking out over the future possibilities.

There are a lot of details to be worked out, and I am still reading and writing every day.  (Soon, all the Starbucks baristas and All About Cha workers in town will know me...) I feel like I have a direction now, though!  I will Skype again with all 3 of my advisors (2 in Swansea and 1 here in OK) next week.  I shared with them my newest 7-page "brain dump" and asked if I am on the right path.  We'll see what they say and where I go next!  I have to have my first piece of writing and ethics committee questions/approval by January 1st, so hopefully I'm headed in the right direction.