Differences in computer use for entertainment between boys and girls: Evidence from a global survey

• Computer use for entertainment can differ between boys and girls.
• Nationally representative samples from 43 economies were used to examine gender based differences.
• Our results indicate a systematic cross country effect of gender on computer use at home for entertainment.

In this exploratory study we analyzed the difference between boys and girls in computer use for entertainment related tasks at home using nationally representative samples of 15 year old students from 43 economies including both OECD and non-OECD member states. Even though there were substantial cross country variations, our results indicate presence of systematic gender based differences in frequency of computer use at home for entertainment related tasks with the mean frequency of use of boys exceeding that of girls for most tasks. By using an identical set of items, and a uniform sample selection procedure across all sampled countries our analytical procedures provide stronger evidence of cross country gender based differences in computer use for entertainment at home, as compared to evidence obtained from samples based on non-uniform sets of items and sampling procedures.