Authors: Maria Daisy S. Cortes, Jhoana V. Alcalde, Jose V. Camacho, Jr.

, OUKA,
2013

Research Title: Effects of Computer Gaming on High School Students Performance in

Los Baos, Laguna, Philippines

Objectives: To determine and examined the effects of computer games on school

performance of high school students in Los Baos, Laguna, Philippines. Allowance,
gender, peer group and year level positively affect students decision to play while time
spent on studying, year level, previous grade, number of books and time spent playing
computer games are found to be significant in affecting students performance.

Hypothesis: examined the effects of computer games on school performance of high

school students. and positively affect students decision to play while time spent on
studying, year level, previous grade, number of books and time spent playing computer
games are found to be significant in affecting the performance of the students.

Research Methods: Data gathering was done from October-December 2008 through
personal visits in respondents schools. A total of 240 students from both public and
private schools were interviewed. The schools included in the study were Maquiling
School Inc. (MSI), Trace College, Los Baos Community National High School, and Los
Baos National High School (LBNHS). Using random sampling, 15 students for every
year level were selected as respondents of the study, or a total of 60 students per
school.

Major Findings: Results showed that forty-eight percent of the respondents are
classified as non-computer gamers while 52% are computer gamers. More than 75% of
the total number of computer gamers belong to a peer group whose members are also
computer gamers. Also, 68% of non-gamers belong to a peer group whose members
are, likewise, non-gamers. With regards to parents education, 23% of computer gamers
have parents who did not reach college level, 30% have a parent who reached college
level, either mother or father, and 47% have parents who reached college level.
Meanwhile, 27% of non-computer gamers have parents who did not reach college level,
another 31% have parents who reached college level and 42% have parents who both
reached college level. The survey revealed that 61% of the total number of computer
gamers have less than three siblings while 33% have greater than four but less than six
siblings. Lastly, only 6% belongs to a family with greater than seven siblings.

Conclusion: Computer gaming, measured by number of hours spent playing,

contributes to the probability of a student to fail. The study of Maugo (2007, 45-46)
proved that the number of subjects failed increases the probability of a LBNHS student
to drop out. Thus, computer gamers also have the tendency to drop out of school; either
repeat one academic year or stop schooling. Because computer gaming poses negative
effect on students performance in school, there is a possibility that education in high
school would have a tendency to deteriorate. As computer gaming industry continues to
grow, bigger number of students will lose interest for studies. This might mean that
investment on higher education will lead to lower rate of return among students. Thus
resources such as money, time, school inputs, etc. are probably go to waste.