Study finds 60% college women are gamers

By Marc Saltzman
Gannett News Service

Video games hold wide appeal for college students, especially women, who say the electronic diversions help them socialize and doesn't interfere with their schoolwork.

Sixty-five percent said they were "regular" or "occasional" players of console, computer and online video games, according to a recent survey of 1,162 college students by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (www.pewinternet.org).

Sixty percent of women said they played computer and online games regularly, while only 40 percent of men said they played these types of games consistently.

The same number of men and women, about 50 percent, reported playing console video games regularly.

"I think the most significant finding is that all of the students in the survey had played some type of game — everyone plays them, everyone knows them," says Steve Jones, who heads the department of communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "They are almost an automatic part of what teenagers and college students do for fun and leisure."

Jones oversaw the study, which was conducted between March and October of 2002.

Students also said video games helped them socialize on campus. One out of every five students who play games felt "moderately" or "strongly" that gaming helped them make new friends as well as improve existing friendships.

Jones says he was surprised how often women were playing some types of games.

"I had not expected that we would find more women playing these games than men," he says. "I think there's a sort of stereotype of the male gamer."