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“Video games for boys and chatting for girls?”: Gender, screen time activities and academic achievement in high school

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Abstract

Using national longitudinal data of students during their 9th and 11th grades, we address popular concerns over screen time activities distracting students’ academic pursuits. We examine gender differences in the types of screen time use, expecting the skill-based activity of video gaming to be more common among boys and the socially oriented activity of chatting online to be more common among girls. Following the displacement effect theory we hypothesize that screen time may displace educational activities, limiting time spent on math homework and lowering subsequent math test scores. Results confirm the gendered nature video gaming for boys, while the gendered nature of chatting online is less clear. Despite popular concerns, findings show no appreciable relationship of video gaming and online chatting with hours spent doing math homework. A very weak, negative association was detected between both screen activities and math test scores two years later, being strongest for the videogaming time of female students. Further research is needed on the full spectrum of screen time activities to determine any potential effects during this developmental stage.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed in the current study are available through public use files of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS-09), sponsored by NCES, U.S. Department of Education.

Change history

  • 14 June 2023

    Added data in the Declaration of interest statement has been removed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Institutional Research, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Sangdong Tak

  2. Queens College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Sophia Catsambis

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  1. Sangdong Tak
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Correspondence to Sangdong Tak.

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Appendix 1: Weighted Descriptive Statistics for Variables Used in the Analyses of Relationship between Video Gaming/ Online Chatting and Academic Achievement

Appendix 1: Weighted Descriptive Statistics for Variables Used in the Analyses of Relationship between Video Gaming/ Online Chatting and Academic Achievement

Variable

N

Mean

SD

Range

Dependent Variables

Hours spent doing math homework/ study in 9th grade (1 = less than one hour to 6 = more than five hours)

3,974

1.55

0.82

1–6

Math test score in 11th grade

4,233

64.44

18.95

25.01–115.10

Demographic Variable

Male

4,563

0.50

0.50

0–1

Asian

4,563

0.04

0.18

0–1

Black

4,563

0.14

0.34

0–1

Hispanic

4,563

0.22

0.42

0–1

Others

4,563

0.09

0.29

0–1

White

4,563

0.52

0.50

0–1

SES

4,563

− 0.07

0.75

-1.93–2.88

Urbanicity

(1 = City to 4 = Rural)

4,563

2.26

1.14

1–4

9th grade Variables

Math class taken in 8th grade

(1 = Pre-Algebra to 3 = Above Algebra)

4,494

1.42

0.60

1–3

Hours spent playing video game

4,266

1.85

1.45

1–6

Hours spent chatting online

4,339

2.41

1.60

1–6

Hours spent doing science homework

3,618

1.51

0.78

1–6

Hours spent working for pay

4,229

1.59

1.18

1–6

Hours spent watching TV

4,379

2.48

1.53

1–6

Hours spent with family

4,368

3.55

1.82

1–6

Hours spent with friends

4,372

3.24

1.76

1–6

Scale of school engagement

4,437

0.00

1.00

-3.38–1.39

Students’ educational expectation

3,573

6.56

2.85

1–10

Math test score

4,563

38.85

11.91

15.85–69.93

11th grade Variables

Students’ educational expectation

3,784

7.78

3.04

1–12

Hours spent doing math homework/ study (1 = less than half hour to 7 = more than nine hours)

3,711

2.55

1.44

1–7

Participation in math competition

since 9th grade

4,061

0.05

0.21

0–1

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Tak, S., Catsambis, S. “Video games for boys and chatting for girls?”: Gender, screen time activities and academic achievement in high school. Educ Inf Technol 28, 15415–15443 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11638-3

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