Gender differences in children's constructions of video games. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Playing video games has become a common activity among American children. Many research approaches have focused on explaining why children love playing these games and what effects of video game playing have on children's social, cognitive and emotional well-being. Here I propose to discuss video games from a different perspective-when children are making their own video games instead of playing them.
Conclusions address the potential of game-making environments in light of the study's results.
Consistency and variability of gender differences. Over the past ten years interactive technologies have become a significant part of children's culture. While these are isolated indicators, they point out that gender differences are not as consistent as one might believe. It is possible that children display more versatility and range in their play interests and that particular factors such as game structures or context settings might have an impact. The current analysis of video games designed by boys and girls intends to shed some light on the discussion around gender differences by comparing and contrasting two different game design contexts.