This report overviews Canadian teenagers leisure preferences, television viewing and video game play. It sought to understand why so many young people are turning to video games among the various other options for leisure and entertainment available to them in the leisure market. In particular, the survey provides data on the following areas:  

• Ownership of video game and computer technology
  
   
• The importance of video game play in young people's lives' when, where and with whom they play
  
  
• The experience of play
  
  
• Teenagers' game preferences

• Young people's opinions on violence and addiction

• Leisure preferences

• Household rules and the regulation of game play

• The attitudes and motivations of the 'heavy player'

This study was quantitative in nature and consisted of a six page questionnaire which was completed by 647 kids between the ages of 11 and 18. The sample was gathered from schools throughout the province of British Columbia. The schools were selected to ensure a representative sample, which included teens from urban, suburban, and small town environments, as well as from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The survey commenced during the spring school session in 1996 and finished by the end of the fall session of the same year.

The report itself is organized in two parts. The first part presents the results for B.C. teens in general, along with a more detailed analysis of gender differences. The second part examines video game play from the point of view of the "heavy" player. In particular, their attitudes and behaviors are compared and contrasted to "light" players. For the purposes of analysis we defined heavy players as those who spent more than seven hours per week playing and light players as those who played for three hours or less.

The summary of findings presented below follows the general outline of the report with the exception of the data on heavy players, which is integrated throughout rather than reported separately.

Organization of the Report  

The report is organized into two parts. The first part consists of seven sections and reports the results for B.C. teenagers in general. In addition, these sections include more detailed analyses exploring the similarities and differences that existed between boys and girls. In these analyses gender was treated as an independent variable and a variety of statistical tools were used to determine whether or not it was related to video game play. In general, we found that there were many differences between the attitudes and behavior of boys and girls. As a result, we report boys and girls' responses alongside the overall findings for teenagers. Further, when a relationship between gaming and gender was found to be statistically significant we have identified them with an asterisk (*). A statistically significant relationship means that the difference found between boys and girls in the sample is highly likely to hold for the population as a whole. For example, in this survey we found a relationship between gender and the amount of time spent viewing television. As mentioned above, boys watched on average 15 hours of television per week while girls watched less, on average 11 hours. Using the statistical test "analysis of variance" (ANOVA), we determined that that this difference was significant at the 0.05 level. In other words, the probability that this difference reflects a true difference between boys and girls in the population is greater than 95 per cent. We also tested differences at the 0.01 level. A statistically significant difference at the 0.01 level would mean that we are 99 per cent certain it holds for the population.

In the second part of this report, we shift our focus from gender issues to an analysis of the data from the point of view of "heavy players". The responses to the questions in the survey are examined once again, though the analysis is conducted using playtime as an independent variable. In particular, we examine the responses given by those teens that were highly devoted players, regular players, and those that didn't play or played only occasionally. The information provided in this section thus fosters an understanding of the differences between 'afficiandos' and the average teen who is a moderate player. As well, it provides detailed information on the appeal of video games for those kids who were intensely involved with them.
 

 

Sample Demographics: Sex and Age

Of the 647 teenagers who participated in the study, slightly more than half were boys. In total, there were 351 males (54 per cent of respondents) and 295 females (46 per cent) that completed the survey (Table i).

The age of the participants ranged from 11 to 18 years, though 80 percent of them were between 13 and 15 years (Figure i). Because our sample had such a narrow age range and did not include young children or older adults, we did not explore the relationship between age and video game play. This report, therefore, provides information primarily on the thoughts and experiences of youth in their early and middle teens.

Figure i: Proportion of participants by age