From the Couch to the Sports Field: The Longitudinal Associations Between Sports Video Game Play, Self-Esteem, and Involvement in Sports

The majority of research on video games has focused on negative outcomes such as aggression, at the expense of research on positive outcomes. Recently, however, research on the link between video game play and positive outcomes has been increasing. Importantly, a potential positive outcome of sports video game play among adolescents that has been unexplored is greater involvement in real-life sports. Given that sports attrition increases during adolescence, it is critical to identify predictors of increased involvement in sports during this developmental period. In the present study, we examined this question by testing the bidirectional association between sports video game play and involvement in sports with 1492 adolescents over 4 years. In addition, we investigated whether self-esteem was an underlying mechanism of the predictive effect of sports video game play on involvement in sports. The results indicated a bidirectional association between sports video game play and involvement in sports, in that sports video game play predicted greater involvement in sports over time, and that adolescents who played sports more frequently were more likely to play sports video games than adolescents who played sports less frequently. In addition, we found evidence that self-esteem may be an underlying mechanism of the predictive effect of sports video game play on involvement in sports. These novel findings suggest that sports video games may be an effective tool to promote self-esteem as well as participation in sports among adolescents.