By Winnie Tam, Centre for University and School Partnership, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
As digital games are increasingly used in education, understanding attitudes toward their use is important. A meta-analysis conducted by Liu and colleagues examined gender differences in attitudes towards digital games across 41 eligible studies, yielding 133 effect sizes. Females accounted for 51% of students studied.
Digital games were classified as either serious (designed for education, healthcare, etc., n=31) or entertaining (n=10). Attitudes were categorized by affect (emotional response), belief (perception of value), and self-efficacy (confidence in operating games). Effect size in the analysis referred to the difference in standardised mean scores between male and female. The results revealed that:
• Males exhibited a significantly more positive attitude than females (ES = +0.21).
• Attitude aspects significantly moderated outcomes, with males showing stronger affect (ES=+0.34) and self-efficacy (ES=+0.37), but no significant gender differences were detected in belief.
• Males’ attitudes were consistently more positive in both entertainment games (ES = +0.39) and serious games (ES = +0.14).
While findings reinforced that males generally have a greater affinity for digital games, no gender differences were observed regarding their perceived value and usefulness. More research is needed to explore potential moderators, such as education level and interactions among these factors to better contextualize the results.
Best Evidence in Brief Index 