Ars Technica recently reported on at a study which appeared in last month's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The research examined three aspects of children's lives - reading, homework, and sociability.

The study looked at 1,500 adolescents who were already participating in a more ambitious longitudinal study which has been keeping tabs on the same 8,000 families since 1968. Researcher found that less than half of its subjects were gamers, and of those, time spent gaming versus other activities was negligible. They also reported that over 80% of adolescent gamers were boys.

For its part, Ars Technica took issue with major media reporting of the study, which was partially due to the tag-line the publication gave it:

Compared with nongamers, adolescent gamers spent 30% less time reading and 34% less time doing homework...

...which led to sensationalized stories such as "Video Games Cut Into Teens' Reading, Studying" over at Forbes. But Ars writer John Timmer dug deeper into the results, and found that while boys did indeed spend 30% less time reading, it was 30% of 8 minutes per day.

And although 34% less time was spent on homework, this only applied to girls, and only on weekends, although the authors point out that this shouldn't be taken as an indication of a drop in academic effort, but could show better time management.

In terms of social interaction, gaming fell in line with more traditional activities. If a teen played more games in a group, they tended to also do many other activities in a group, and vice-versa. The same held for teens who gamed with their parents. If the parents weren't very involved in their children's gaming, they tended to not participate in other family activities either.

Timmer concludes by asking if parents are concerned about adolescents' reading habits, instead of asking why boys spend 30% less time reading if they are gamers, they should be asking why non-gamers only read for 8 minutes a day...

- Reporting from Canada, GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes