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Millions of teenagers worldwide choose digital games as their primary entertainment. Except amusement, gaming environments enhance the capacity of learning, as it has been proved by many studies. Gaming is the only activity that shows a constant positive coefficient between PISA test scores and intensity of use. This paper evaluates gaming habits in teenagers and analyzes the connection between students’ performance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) courses and playing digital games. For the purpose of this paper, we surveyed 6th, 7th and 8th grade Croatian primary school students and evaluated their gaming culture. We analyzed their play time, genre of games they play, complexity of games and used platforms. The aim was also to gather data regarding their self-perceived gamer identity, i.e. do they feel like gamers, do they play alone or with others and their general attitude towards games. We compared the data gathered with students’ grades in STEM related courses and analyzed the relationship of each variable separately to identify those who have the impact on their performance. Our results confirm that there is a partial positive relationship between increased gamer identity and success in STEM related courses.
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Homen et al. (2023) studied this question.