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Research has shown that, among children, boys tend to play video games more than girls do. There are several theories addressing this phenomenon, including that stereotypes and lack of opportunity leave girls feeling inadequate with certain types of technology. No research has yet examined the interactive relationships between time spent playing and feelings of success in video games. The current study shows that, when accounting for this endogenous relationship, girls actually feel just as competent as boys at video games, but choose not to play as frequently. For boys, the increased play time leads to increased feelings of success and achievement, which then prompts more time playing. Links to other research offer the hypothesis that there may be biological bases in the increased sense of reward from achievement among boys; suggestions and implications are discussed in relation to the ongoing gender gap in technology-related fields.

This study explored relationships between time spent playing video games in a typical week and general creativity, as measured by a common assessment. One hundred eighteen students in 4th and 5th grades answered questions about their video game play and completed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, Orlow, & Safter, 1990). While significant relationships were found between creativity and two variables (gender and grade), no significant relationship was found between time spent playing video games in a typical week and creativity, when controlling for gender and grade. Additional analyses examined relationships of creativity with skills used in video games and context in which the games were typically played and these also did not reveal significant relationships. This study provides initial evidence that video game play may not, in fact, influence children's general creativity levels.

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The purpose of this two-year study, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), was to examine the impact of "musically trained" early childhood specialists on the music achievement and emergent literacy achievement of preschool students. The sample, obtained through use of a letter of recruitment mailed to a regional group of National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) members, consisted of 11 teachers who met the criteria for the project and their respective students (N = 165). Following a year of intensive staff development training in musicianship skill and pedagogical strategies for guiding young children’s music development, the teachers implemented the curriculum in the second year and several measures were used to collect data relative to student music and literacy outcomes. Analyses included the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U-test and multivariate techniques of MANCOVA and multiple regression. Results were mixed for music achievement. Median scores were similar for the experimental and control groups on use of singing voice. Students’ tonal pattern achievement in the experimental group was significantly higher but no significant differences were found in children’s rhythm-pattern achievement. When controlling for age and prior knowledge, the music intervention significantly increased children’s oral vocabulary and grammatic understanding and was especially effective for children who began with lower literacy skills.