Gender and videogames in the path to computing careers

• In Event: 4440 - Children and Youth in a Changing World

Abstract

Recent research has shown that playing off-the-shelf video games may be a generative path to computing careers. Gaming is a culturally meaningful activity and an identity, and recent events suggest that interaction in this space is highly gendered. Middle school children experience gender intensification and this time period is particularly consequential for academic pathways, but it is currently unknown how gaming behavior and gamer identity compare in their impact in the pathway to CS. We evaluate the impact of gaming on computer skills, perceptions of competence, and computer interests using a data set of 5235 middle school children in middle school, a particularly consequential period for academic pathways. Our results show that self-identifying as a gamer is more valuable in middle school than gaming behavior alone. We find that boys are more likely to identify as gamers and girls are less likely to identify even when they engage in similar activities such as modding games and playing with friends. Girls are less likely to engage in the social aspects of gaming which are stronger predictors of gaming identity in comparison to other aspects. This suggests cultural forces shape gaming identity in exclusive ways that disadvantage girls. Gaming and gamer identity may be mechanisms of occupational sex segregation in computing careers.

Authors

• Jennifer M. Ashlock, University of North Carolina

• Miodrag Stojnic, UNC Chapel Hill

• Zeynep Tufekci, University of North Carolina