Video Games Cut Into GPAs

As a university professor, I do not find this USA Today study by Todd Stinebrickner, an associate professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario, and his father, Ralph Stinebrickner, a professor of mathematics and computer science at Berea College in Kentucky, to be surprising:

"First-year students whose roommates brought a video game player to college studied 40 minutes less each day on average, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Those 40 minutes of lost study time translated into first-semester grades that were 0.241 points lower on the 4.0 grade scale."

Also:

"The study found that students whose roommate brought a video game console did not exhibit different levels of class attendance, partying, study efficiency or paid employment — all factors that also could affect grades. But there was a substantial drop in time spent studying when one roommate brought a video game player. This means that the lower grades of students whose roommates brought video games can be attributed to the fact that these students studied less, Todd Stinebrickner says."

(HT: Steve Watters)