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Cited by 60Impact of Technology on AdolescentsEducational Games and GamificationDigital Games and Media

Video game usage time in adolescents' academic performance

Open access
Gómez-Gonzalvo, Fernando, Devís-Devís, José, Molina-Alventosa, Pere·2020·Comunicar
DOI 10.3916/c65-2020-08
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Abstract

Video game usage among young people has generated great concern due to its possible negative effects on their health, socialization and academic performance. Regarding this last aspect, there are studies that point out that video games have negative consequences for academic performance while others emphasize their positive effects. Therefore, the present study deals with the relationship between the video game usage time and the academic performance in adolescent schoolchildren from the Valencian Autonomous Community. An ad hoc questionnaire was used and validated through expert judgment (0.8 validity and reliability) to develop this cross-sectional and ex post facto study. A stratified and proportional representative sample was designed for the ESO student population of this autonomous community and 1,502 questionnaires were collected. Adolescents spend an average of 47.23 minutes a day playing video games, with less time spent during the week than at the weekend. Those who devote more time to videogames during the week fail more subjects and those who spend more time on weekends get better school grades. In addition, frequent, moderate and many of the occasional players obtain good academic results, while the opposite happens to the intensive players. As many of the occasional players achieve good academic performance, a moderate time devoted to video games seems not to affect academic performance. El uso de los videojuegos entre los jóvenes ha generado una gran preocupación por sus posibles efectos negativos para su salud, socialización y rendimiento académico. Respecto a este último aspecto, existen estudios que apuntan a que los videojuegos son negativos para el rendimiento académico mientras que en otras investigaciones se encuentran efectos positivos. Por esto, el presente trabajo se ocupa de las relaciones entre el tiempo de uso de videojuegos y el rendimiento académico de los escolares adolescentes de la Comunidad Valenciana. Se utilizó un cuestionario ad hoc, validado a través de juicio de expertos (0,8 validez y confiabilidad) para realizar este estudio transversal ex post facto. Se diseñó una muestra representativa estratificada y proporcional a la población de alumnado de ESO de dicha comunidad autónoma y se recogieron 1.502 cuestionarios. Los adolescentes dedican una media de 47,23 minutos al día a jugar a videojuegos, menos entre semana que en fin de semana. Aquellos que dedican más tiempo a los videojuegos entre semana suspenden más asignaturas y los que dedican más tiempo los fines de semana sacan mejores notas escolares. Además, los jugadores frecuentes, moderados y muchos de los ocasionales obtienen buenos resultados académicos, mientras que les ocurre lo contrario a los jugadores intensivos. Muchos de los jugadores ocasionales obtienen buen rendimiento, por lo que la dedicación de un tiempo moderado a los videojuegos no parece afectar al rendimiento académico.

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  • In Spain, the average student spends 47.3 minutes playing video games per day.

    “In their research on adolescents in Spain, Gomez-Gonzalvo et al. (2020) found that the average student spends 47.3 minutes playing video games per day.”

    From Extracurricular Video Game Use and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review (2026) · cites this paper as Gomez-Gonzalvo et al. (2020)

    The Results (section 3.1) report an average of 47.23 minutes per day, close to the cited 47.3 minutes. The Conclusions (section 5) specify that this figure is for secondary-school adolescents in Spain’s Valencian Community, not the average student across Spain. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • In Spain, the longer students spent gaming, the worse their academic performance.

    “In general, they also observed that the longer students spent gaming, the worse their academic performance.”

    From Extracurricular Video Game Use and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review (2026) · cites this paper as Gomez-Gonzalvo et al. (2020)

    The Conclusions report an inverse relationship between gaming time and academic performance among secondary-school adolescents in the Valencian Community. The paper does not establish that this finding applies to students across Spain; its limitations caution against generalizing beyond the population studied. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Gómez-Gonzalvo, F., Devís-Devís, J., & Molina-Alventosa, P.
ORCID
Venue
Comunicar
Publisher
Oxbridgepublishinghouse
Published
2020-10-01
Volume
28
Issue
65
Pages
89-99
ISSN
  • 1134-3478 (ISSN-L)
  • 1988-3293
DOI
10.3916/c65-2020-08
OpenAlex
W3105448392
Cited by
60
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2
FWCI
11.04
Type
journal article
Language
es
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
  • Comunicar (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • E-LIS Repository (University of Naples Federico II) (acceptedVersion)
  • Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva (Universidad de Huelva) (submittedVersion)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva (Universidad de Huelva) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • CEU Repositorio Institucional (Fundación Universitaria San Pablo CEU) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Repository of Digital Objects for Teaching Research and Culture (University of Valencia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
Funders
  • Universitat de València (GIUV2016-310)
  • Universidad San Pablo - CEU (GIUV2016-310)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
Keywords
video games, academic performance, adolescents, elementary school students, ESO students, gaming frequency, school grades, Valencian Community

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