Parents Rejoice: Video Games Don’t Hurt GPAs Much

Todd Stinebrickner over at Western Ontario, and Ralph Stinebrickner over at Berea College (a son & father team), wrote a paper based on the effects studying (or lack thereof) had on grade point averages. The study was based on time-use diaries that volunteer college students kept for the researchers. Data was collected in 2000 and 2001. A total of 210 subjects participated.

The media has trumpeted the most salacious findings in the study: video game use (mainly consoles, it appears from media coverage) that interfered with study time led to slightly lower grades. USA Today/Yahoo News reported the story here; Wired reported the story here. But, parents of college students need not fret. The effect was not too bad. GPAs of freshmen who were gamers showed a decrease by .241 points.

Alas, the full paper is a $5 download, unless you are a working journalist or in a developing country, in which case it’s free. All others can read the abstract here.

References:
Arendt, S. (2007, September 19). Study: Roomies with videogames lower college students’ GPAs. [Online.] Available: http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/09/study-roomies-w.html

Naseef, K. (2007, September 19). Video games can shoot holes in GPA. USA Today. [Online.] Available: http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070919/
tc_usatoday/videogamescanshootholesingpa

Stinebrickner, T. R., & Stinebricker, R. (2007, August). The causal effect of studying on academic performance. [NBER working paper no. 13341.] Cambridge, Massachusetts: National Bureau of Economic Research.

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1. Late breaking news — September 19, 2007 @ 8:19 pm

2. Mathematics Education Blog » Blog Archive » Parents Rejoice: Video Games Don’t Hurt GPAs Much — October 25, 2007 @ 3:01 pm

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