Is Participation in Esports Beneficial to the Attendance of High School Students?
Dissertation Manuscript
Submitted to Northcentral University School of Education in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
La Jolla, California January 2021
Abstract
As esports continues to gain popularity and various types of esports programs are implemented in high schools across the United States, it becomes more and more important for school administrators and decision-makers to understand the potential benefits of these programs. One of the things which need to consider is the impact these programs have on the attendance of students. Thus, the main question of this study looks at the question of benefit to the average daily attendance for the high school adolescents participating in an after-school esports program. Considering that participation in traditional extra curricular activities has a positive affect on academic achievement through the dual-step transfer model, exploring whether or not esports provides any similar benefits is worth exploring. Thus, attendance was selected as a first step toward this goal. Average daily attendance data was collected from the attendance clerk at La Feria High School and these data were analyzed in a paired sample t-test. The findings showed that the average daily attendance of students who participated in an after-school esports program was not only significantly higher than the attendance of students who did not participate in extracurricular activities, but the attendance of esport participants was not significantly different from the attendance of those students who participated in the traditional extracurricular programs of athletics, band, and choir. Thus, it is fair to say that esport programs can act in a similar fashion to these traditional extra curricular program in terms of providing students an incentive to attend classes regularly. Therefore, schools should consider providing esport sponsors and coaches a similar level of support to budding esports programs as are provided to the traditional extracurricular programs as an avenue for providing additional opportunities for inclusion to students who might otherwise never find their place in high school.
Acknowledgments
I would like to take a moment to acknowledge everyone who played a role in my academic accomplishments. Firstly, my deepest and sincerest gratitude to my dissertation chair, Dr. Thomas Pucci, who gave me the support, guidance, and encouragement I needed to complete my research and my writing. His enthusiasm, sincerity, clear deadlines, and motivation helped me solider through a challenging time to complete this. I am eternally grateful to my best friend, my husband, my rock, Josh. His acceptance and patience of the hours I asked him to sacrifice so I could read, research, type, and edit. Your kisses on the forehead, that gentle cheering, got me through the sections I thought I’d never get through. Thank you for going out to get me tea or coffee or ice cream. Thank you for hanging out with our child. Thank you for understanding when I would drag myself to bed far too late at night, and then fall asleep mid-sentence. Thank you for supporting me through the years, believing I could, and then making sure I had the time and space, and resources. To my family; thank you for believing I could. Thank you for cheering me on to be the first in our family. Thank you for accepting me working during family gatherings, and thank you for understanding when I just didn’t have the energy to visit or call. To my dearest and darling child; thank you for being my inspiration and trying to race me to graduation. In the end, while my date is first, you are the ultimate winner. To my father; thank you for questioning everything I was researching. To my mother; thank you for supporting me even though you didn’t understand. To Amtgard, my kingdom, my province, and my dear northern friends; thank you for the excitement and the break from volunteering when I needed it. And most importantly, thank you to Brandon, for your honesty to me in 2014; this is dedicated to you. Game on.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The view that video games are a useless waste of time and detrimental to our youth was a mindset propagated by the media in which games have often been represented negatively and those who play games as social misfits, outcasts, and delinquents (Alfe & Talaby, 2020). Over the years, mass shootings have been blamed on video games. The shooting in El Paso, Texas in August of 2019 was among the most recent tragedies which was blamed on video games by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Draper, 2019). These headlines suggest that video games are less than desirable for our youth and are attempting to link exposure to first-person shooter games as a contributing factor of violent acts such as the aforementioned El Paso shooting as well as those of Columbine, Virginia Tech, and others (Alfe & Talaby, 2020). The video games of today seem, therefore, to as stereotyped role-playing games of the latter decades of the 20th century; games in which adolescent boys immersed themselves to the detriment of everyday life (Khalil, et al., 2019). Yet, even with this negative view, the playing of video games has seen an increase in popularity, including as a response to the social distancing requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic that closed many in-person sports gatherings (Dixon, 2020). The world had caught up to what universities had been pioneering for nearly a decade, competitive video game play.
It began with Robert Morris University in Illinois which began offering scholarships (Gaudiosi, 2015) to recruit college students participating in a colligate version of the then four-year-old World Championships held in Sweden for RIOT’s League of Legends title (Esports.net, 2020). With the championship prize pool at over ten million dollars US, breaking into the budding esports industry looked as lucrative at breaking into the NFL or the NBA, without the need for being an amazingly fit physical athlete. Studies and publications began to appear in which researchers began considering any possible benefits the playing of video games in a competitive environment may have on the young adults playing them (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). The trend caught on and universities across the country began to follow Robert Morris University’s lead, adding esports programs as varsity sports, intermural activities, or student organizations. High schools began to take note.
The argument regarding the detrimental effects video games can have on adolescents was rekindled as parents and schools debated video games that were not in themselves programmed as educational being welcomed into the adolescent learning space (Alfe & Talaby, 2020). Yet, where video games seemed unwanted the more traditional sports such as football, basketball, and volleyball, were not only welcomed but studies showing the benefits of these extracurricular athletic programs to adolescents were published over the years (Filsinger, 2012). Thus, the metamorphosis to sport that the other traditional sports no doubt had to have done in their history must be acknowledged in the playing of video games, as does the same kind of potential benefits esports as an extracurricular activity can bring (Bradley & Conway, 2016).
Therefore, this study contends that not only are video games not detrimental, but when harnessed properly can provide students with skill sets and opportunities they otherwise would not have had. Scientific literature has already begun looking more closely to the potential benefits playing video games can have. From playing as a classroom activity, to merely a social event, to the beginnings of video games as an organized extra-curricular activity, the mindset regarding video game play is changing especially as the playing of video games continues to morph from a mere leisure activity into an organized sport (Ferguson & Colwell, 2017).
Statement of the Problem
The problem addressed by this study was the lack of evidence for any benefit to the average daily attendance of the high school adolescent participating in an esports program. With the findings that playing online computer games can offer online and offline social support (Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018), there was a suspected link between playing online video games competitively and academic achievement (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). This suspicion has roots in the current research into video game play and the possible link to building positive self-esteem which in turn seems to improve academic achievement (Dyer, Kristjansson, Mann, Smith, & Allegrante, 2017). High schools seeking to consider the addition of an esports program would benefit from the information this study can provide as it would offer a research base from which to make their decision. For those students for whom video games are the social activity of choice, those not physically inclined to traditional sports, or those physically incapable of participating in traditional sports, this study was a glimmer of hope that they too can find the same sort of social acceptance and standing as does the football quarterback (Gregory, 2015). Therefore, as high schools continue considering adding esports to the list of available extracurricular activities, it is important to view what the potential benefits are, such as any potential benefit participating in an esports program may have on the average daily attendance of students.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there is a significant difference in attendance of students who participate in esports programs and clubs vs. those who do not participate. This study focused on the academic benefits of playing competitive video games – esports – in the context of the attendance of students participating in esports programs and clubs during high school as compared to their peers who participate in other forms of traditional sports and competitive activities (in which there should be no significant difference between performance metrics) and their peers who do not participate (in which there should be a difference as significant as the different between this group and those who participate in traditional sports and competitive activities). The data recording Average Daily Attendance for each group of interest was collected from the attendance clerk of the school. In order to discover if there exists a difference of means between student Average Daily Attendance and participation in esports, this study looked at the attendance metric of students. To narrow the scope of this study, a single school year was selected. The academic school year that was selected was the 2019-2020 Academic School year at La Feria High School. The target population was the students enrolled in La Feria High School, a Title I public high school located in La Feria, Texas, and the research will be conducted via compilation of data from the high school’s attendance clerk. Email through district email servers was utilized to provide a level of protection to the transmission of sensitive data from La Feria High School’s attendance clerk and the researcher. The collected data was analyzed on a paired sample t-test to gauge the significant difference between the means. The Average Daily Attendance of students in traditional competitive extracurriculars was compared against students who do not participate in any competitive extracurriculars. Then, the Average Daily Attendance of students in esports was compared to the same group of non-participating students, using the same analysis method. The differences were then compared to each other. The calculations and analysis were compiled using IBM SPSS Statistics Program.
Theoretical Framework
With esports growing more mainstream, competitive play is beginning to filter down into the high school level. School stakeholders will need to weigh the cost of installing the equipment for an esports program against the benefits to student achievement and engagement in a fashion similar to what had been considered with student participation in traditional sports. Research abounds on the topic of sport and academic achievement, with studies throughout the 1980s looking at the relationship between participation in sport and academic performance. Studies from this time period evolved through the decade, stating that there was a minor academic cost to participation at the start of the decade (Messner & Groisser, 1982) to little to no relation between sports participation and academic achievement (Dyer et al., 2017) at the middle of it. However, that same year a study was published in which the results showed support for the position that intercollegiate athletics have a positive influence on the educational attainment of participating athletes (Shapiro, 1984). More recently, a 2012 study by Lora C. Filsinger showed that there is a difference in the cumulative GPAs between students in varsity athletics and those not involved in varsity athletics (Filsinger, 2012). This study recommends that the results found therein be considered by school officials as a possible support for continued funding for athletic programs.
While there are now several dozen colleges and universities offering esports both as a student organization and as a fully funded varsity program and many studies looking at the potential benefits of student social support (Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018), self-regulation (Gabbiadini & Greitemeyer, 2017), and self-reported problem-solving skills (Dyer, Kristjansson, Mann, Smith, & Allegrante, 2017), there seems not to be a focus on the benefits to the high-school student or culture that esports has the potential to bring. This study follows up on Adachi’s note that future studies include objective measures of academic performance, doing so by measuring various academic achievement variables such as GPA and attendance. Thus, while Adachi’s research looked at the effect of particular video games, this study seeks to determine the affect participation in esports, regardless of the game played, has on academic success by considering the affects participation has on student attendance. Attendance was selected, instead of cumulative GPA, since the esports program at the high school being studied is not yet a fully funded extra-curricular activity such as traditional sports. As attendance is a behavior, the act of consistently showing up to and participating in class, one that is learned by the student through interaction with the school environment (Bradley & Conway, 2016). The student starts simply, by being taken to school by parents, where it becomes routine. However, as the student grows into teenaged adolescence, they begin to think about social issues in an abstract way (Babakr, Mohamedamin, & Kakamad, 2019). This includes their place in the community of school and lacking that with which they can self-associate the student can potentially find little reason to engage. This study posits that as traditional sports and other extra-curricular activities fill this role for part of the student population, so too is esports coming to fill the same role for others. The guiding framework for this investigation comes from a dual-step transfer model proposed by Bradley and Conway (2016). In this study, the influence school sports and non-sport extracurricular activities can have on academic achievement was explored. In the 2016 article, Bradley and Conway hypothesize that these activities provide non-cognitive skills, motivational and social skills, that in turn promote learning and academic achievement (Bradley & Conway, 2016). Work by Lobel et al in 2017 suggested that this increase in problem-solving skills could hint at an improvement in academic achievement. Expanding on Lobel’s work, this study will explore the hinted-at improvement, using quantitative methods to analyze attendance metrics that could shed light on any potential benefit participating in esports may have. Thus, the question asked was this: does participation in esports provide a benefit to student’s average daily attendance? This question led to another thought: This thought was that participating in an esports program in a structure that is similar to other more traditional programs should give students who aren’t participating in any other extracurricular activity the same kind of support and experience as those students in the traditional activities receive.
Nature of the Study
For this quantitative study, the end of year average daily attendance from students at La Feria High School was collected from the attendance clerk This data was collected from the Skyward School Management Software which is employed by La Feria Independent School District to maintain student academic information, including attendance information. A paired sample t-test was used to check the statistical differences between the means of each representative group of students, and a one-tailed test will be the best method for analyzing the data. The upper tail of the bell-curve distribution was considered statistically significant for each group’s average daily attendance metric. By looking at the difference in the means of the various sample groups, there is hope that a determination can be made as to whether or not participation in esports as a competitive extracurricular activity is beneficial to the attendance of the students at La Feria High School.
Research Questions
The main guiding question for the quantitative study was a question about how playing esports in high school affects overall high school attendance. To this end, the following research questions were proposed.
RQ1. How does an after-school esports program impact the attendance of high school students at La Feria High School?
Hypotheses
H10. M1 = M2 There exists no significant difference in the attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, and the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M2.
H1a. M1 > M2 The attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, is significantly higher than the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M2.
H1b. M1 < M2 The attendance scores of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, is significantly less than the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M2.
H1c. M1 = M3 There exists no significant difference in the attendance of students participating in an after school esports program, M1, and the attendance of students participating in an after-school activity different from an afterschool esports activity, M3.
Significance of the Study
With esports becoming more and more mainstream, colleges have already begun adding varsity esports to the offerings they have for potential students (HSEL, LLC, 2018). As high schools continue to seek ways to reach their students while moving toward student-centered education, 21st Century Learning, and increased use of technology, esports is gaining support (HSEL, LLC, 2018). It is important, therefore, that school boards and principals who may be considering adding esports to their course offerings while maintaining the rigor of research-based methods look at how participation in esports as a school-sponsored extra-curricular activity can be potentially beneficial to student academic achievement. Current research on the topic of esports has been mainly focused on the benefits esports has for problem-solving skills as self-reported by young adult players, thus it is on the benefits esports has for the post-secondary student instead of the adolescent high school student. The planned focus groups for this study are students in the US public secondary school system, high school-aged adolescents, for whom the data regarding the effect esports participation has on attendance can provide the insight stakeholders in the education of this segment of the population may need to make decisions regarding the future of school-sanctioned and supported esports.
Definitions of Key Terms
After School Activity. is a student activity that happens after the end of the regularly scheduled school day.
Avatar. is an icon representing a person in a video game (Oxford, 2019).
Average Daily Attendance. is the total number of student attendance days divided by the total number of days in the regular school year (EdSource, 2020).
E-athlete (Electronic Athlete). is an individual who plays electronic games (The Computer Language Co Inc., 2019).
Esport. is the competitive engagement in computer and video games (Adachi &Willoughby, 2017).
FPS. is an acronym for First Person Shooter and is a computer game genre in which players aim and shoot at targets where the graphics are rendered in such a way as to display from the point of view of the player (Harper Collins, 2014)hjon.
Gamer. is a person who plays games, especially a person who regularly plays computer or video games (Merriam-Webster Incorporated, 2019).
Gamertag. is a person’s online persona (Urban Dictionary, 2019) typically for Xbox Live but can be used as a general term for all online personas.
MMORPG. is an acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game in which the game takes place in a persistent state world with thousands to millions of players developing their characters simultaneously (Technopedia, 2019).
MOBA. is an acronym for Massive Online Battle Arena, a genre for multi-player online games where the two parties struggle for resources and attack/defend objectives against each other in a confined space (DrFish, 2011).
RTS. is an acronym for Real Time Strategy and is a warfare video game genre usually played from a third-person overhead perspective, which is based on the real-time movement of troops (The Computer Language Co Inc, 2019).
Summary
Esports has grown to encompass many of the same attributes as traditional sports. It is a social activity that speaks to the psychological need to belong (Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018). In addition to psychological needs are the potential academic benefits such as the connection between video games and improvements in problem-solving skills (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). This connection led to the question of the connection between playing video games competitively and academic achievement since the nature of MOBA video games is similar to the nature of team sports (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017) since both promote collaboration, communication, teamwork, and perseverance. Research so far has given a reasonable platform on which to build studies focused on locating appropriate methods of measuring the effect participation in esports has on student achievement (Dyer, Kristjansson, Mann, Smith, & Allegrante, 2017). The studies from Dyer etal 2017) and others focus on young adults in college and university, demonstrating the gap that has been left in focus on primary school or post-secondary young adults leaves room for this study’s target demographic, namely high school students, this study can hopefully offer insight into the gap in the literature as to whether or not there is any effect on student academic achievement by the participation in esports. A more in-depth look at the literature on video games was reviewed in the following chapter.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
The view that video games are a useless waste of time or worse are detrimental to our youth is a mindset propagated by the media in which games have often been represented negatively, and those who play games are social misfits, outcasts, and delinquents (Alfe & Talaby, 2020). This mindset is changing especially as the playing of video games morphs from a leisure activity into an organized sport. The idea of a leisure activity becoming an organized sport is not new. Since the times of the ancient Greeks and the Olympic Games, mankind has found ways of turning simple leisure activities into serious and competitive games. The transition from casual play to competition must be observable and it must be possible to distinguish between occasional play and competitive play (Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018). Like traditional sports, esports started with casual play early in its life. In this literature review, the life of video games will be traced from its early history to the beginnings of esports. The review will then look at the different genres of esports through the view of the pedagogical lens so that the various skills that each genre can bring to a student can be considered. Next will be a look at the current research being done in esports, followed by a comparison between the skills found in traditional sports and those of esports which had been previously explored. Continuing with the comparisons between esports and traditional sports, this literature review will focus then on describing the dual-step transfer model. This model will give this new research the springboard it needs in order to make the leap from traditional sports to esports and the potential academic benefits of participating in esport programs at the high school level as guided by Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Bradley and Conway’s dual-step transfer model.
This chapter includes a summary of video games and a synthesis of literature regarding both traditional sports and video games in general. Also discussed was the study’s theoretical framework. The following sections discussed the history of video games, the transition from game to sport, the genres of esports, a look at the current research in esports, the comparison between traditional sports and esports, the dual-step transfer model, and other potential benefits of playing and participating in esports may have for players. The summary of the literature was then presented.
This study included a keyword search in EBSCHost from the Northcentral University Library database. Keywords applied in the study’s search strategy included video games, esports, sports, and academic achievement. The inclusion criteria included peer-reviewed studies. As this study has been in progress since 2015, the search included literature from 2010. As the study aged, more recent research was located to replace older literature to bring literature from 2016-2021 to the fore. All studies included were in English and had readable abstracts. Additionally, all studies had to include keywords and conclusions that were relevant to this study’s topic. Studies not in English or Spanish, with no abstract, and which were not directly relevant to the study topic, were excluded.
Theoretical Framework
There is little research on if participation in an esports program is in anyway academically beneficial to the high school student. Because high school is a pivotal moment in the development of a person’s problem-solving skills, it is proposed that esports is an avenue by which growth in this area can be achieved (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). As digital technology and video games become more prevalent in the everyday lives of adolescents, it is important to consider the effect that playing such games is having on them. To date, there is a lack of research into exploring if there exists a significantly noticeable difference in the academic achievements of students who participate in an esports program. Much of the research thus far as been done either on the negative impact of video games or on the self-reported problem-solving skills of the young adult. While there exist literature reviews linking eSports to traditional sports, and studies discussing perceived problems with video games and internet use from a non-clinical standpoint, there are few to no studies exploring the actual link between student attendance and GPA and esports, and none comparing that to the affect traditional sports has on these variables. In the following research, this link will be explored. Additionally, this research will seek to scratch the surface of the kind of student best served by the inclusion of eSports to the traditional athletic offerings.
A decade ago, the research conversation regarding esports was just beginning, and there was little research to be found. In 2010, Jonasson and Thiborg began to ponder the impact of esports, then called electronic sports and referred to as computer gaming (Jonasson & Thiborg, 2010), which may have been the future of sport. They considered three possible futuristic scenarios, scenarios in which we may find ourselves as the second decade of the 21st Century begins to unfold. The first of these scenarios outlined was the idea of esport as an alternative to modern sports (Jonasson & Thiborg, 2010). When the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the gathering we had been accustomed to for so long with traditional sports, competitive online video games filled the void. In March 2020, NASCAR launched the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series after suspending all races through May of that year (Dixon, 2020). This is a far-cry from the commentary ten years prior, where Jonasson and Thiborg’s first scenario commented that esports was not generally thought of as a sport even though some countries had already declared it an official sport (Jonasson & Thiborg, 2010). So far a cry, in fact, that some esport partners have begun engaging in dialogue with the International Olympic Committee regarding the inclusion of esports in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games as a demonstration title (Kemp, Pienaar, & Rae, 2020). A few years after Jonasson and Thiborg’s publication, additional research began studying how the playing of video games may benefit the youth playing them (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017; Dyer etal, 2017). Amid the new research published in the twenty-teens, fourteen studies were of particular interest.
Four of the studies reviewed used a structural equation model. This method is a multivariate statistical analysis which is used to analyze structural relationships, and it is a combination of factor analysis and multiple regressions. Factor analysis is a method that takes a large mass of data and shrinks it into smaller sets of data. These smaller sets are more manageable than the larger set, allowing researchers greater ease in finding and understanding the patterns that may be hidden within the data (Glen, 2020). With this smaller dataset, it becomes easier not only to find the hidden patterns but where said patterns are located in the data and where those patterns overlap and reinforce each other. Also revealed with these smaller datasets are the characteristics of the multiple patterns between them. It becomes a useful tool for the complex datasets found in psychological studies. Factor analysis is just one part of a structural equation model for data analysis. The other part of this method is a multiple linear regression. This is a predictive analysis tool used to explain the relationship between a single continuous dependent variable and two or more independent continuous or categorical variables (Statistical Solutions, 2020). By combining these two methods into a single structural equation modeling analysis tool, researchers can explore the structure of how variables interact. In reviewing the literature on esports, three studies were located that related to the topic at hand. The first study found using structural equation modeling, or SEM, was written by Ryan Perry, Anders Drchen, Allison Kearny, Simone Kriglstein, Lennart Nacke, Rafet Sifa, Guenter Wallner, and Daniel Johnson. Published in Computer in Human Behavior in 2018, the article titled “Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play” tested a model in which social video game play supported the well-being of gamers by contributing to a type of harmonious engagement with the game. Study participants played the online-only multiplayer first-person shooter game, Destiny, and they reported the frequency with which they played with real-life friends, friends they met and know only from the online environment, and strangers. Additionally, the study participants reported the type of engagement they had with the game as either harmonious or obsessive passion. Finally, participants completed a well-being measure of their social capital. The total play time of each participant was also recorded. The SEM run by this group of researchers supported the prediction that harmonious passion and not obsessive passion would bolster the positive association between playing with others and social capital (Perry, et al., 2018). A supplementary hypothesis was also supported by the findings of this study and the results found that the three types of relationships – real-life, online-only, and stranger – were differentially associated with two forms of social capital depending upon the closeness of social ties. This emphasized that social interactions in and around online multiplayer video games were effective in building social capital and did so by ensuring that gameplay was in harmony with other goals and values. This study provided insight into the social capital that playing an online video game can provide.
The second study was published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence by Dawes, Modecki, Gonzales, and Millsap (2015). In their publication, titled “Mexican-Origin Youth Participation in Extracurricular Activities: Predicting Trajectories of Involvement from 7th to 12th Grade”, SEM was used to explore the potential benefits of participation in extra-curricular activities for at-risk youth of low-income Mexican-origin in the United States (Dawes, et al, 2015). Participating youth reported the frequency of their participation across a wide range of extracurricular activities while researchers predicted the participation growth of individual activities with SEM through high school. When compared to the reported participation, the researchers found that while participation in sports declined from middle school to high school, they noticed that participation in fine arts increased into high school. This study provided insight into the levels of participation in various extracurricular activities in a demographic similar to that found in La Feria, Texas among middle and high school students.
The third study using SEM method, published in the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research in 2017, was written by Christopher H. Wretman from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the article titled “School Sports Participation and Academic Achievement in Middle and High School”, the research explored any potential link between school sports participation and academic achievement via a positive body-weight image and self-esteem (Wretman, 2017). The results of the study indicated that participation in school sports was associated significantly with academic achievement, perceptions of positive body image, and self-esteem, thus suggesting that participation in school sports promotes outcomes of interest to social work research through the use of latent variable structural equation modeling. This study provided insight regarding the connection between participation in extracurricular activities and academic achievement.
Other research methods represented were MANOVA, ANOVA, and MANCOVA. MANOVA stands for multivariate analysis of variance and is a research method used for comparing the means of samples when a researcher is exploring data sets with two or more dependent variables. This research method was used by Umit Dogan Ustun of the School of Physical Education and Sports Mustafa Kemal University in Hatay, Turkey in the article titled “Participation Motivation in University Students Who Engage in Different Team Sports” published in World Journal of Education in 2018. This study examined the various motives of university students engaging in different team sports. By using MANOVA methods, the study found that there were significant differences between the motives of university students in achievement, physical fitness, and skills and movement factors. The findings of this study are useful to intercollegiate coaches, allowing them to better understand the motivational patterns of participants in sports which would assist them in developing strategies to prevent students from ending their participation; an important insight for similar extracurricular programs.
Two studies were found in the literature using ANCOVA methods. ANCOVA stands for analysis of covariance and is a research method used to determine if there is or is not a statistically significant difference between the means of three or more independent groups. Unlike the ANOVA, which will be discussed next, this research method includes one or more covariates which are helpful to understand how a specific factor impacts a dependent variable (Zach, 2019). In experimental design studies, ANCOVA controls for factors that cannot be randomized but which can be measured using an interval scale. Observational studies remove the effect of variables that modify the relationship of the categorical independent variable to the interval dependent variable. Meanwhile, when completing a regression model using an ANCOVA, it was used to fit regressions when there are both categorical and interval-independent variables (ANOVA (Analysis of Covariance), 2020). Angela M Dryer published “Sport Participation and Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Study” with Alfgeir L. Kristjansson, Michael J Mann, Megan L Smith, and John P. Allegrante in the American Journal of Health Behavior in 2017. In this article, the researchers examined the relationship between participation in sports and the academic achievement of adolescents in high school (Dyer A., Kristjansson, Mann, Smith, & Allegrante, 2017). The results of the study found a positive relationship between participation in a sport and academic achievement and suggested that this relationship may be impacted by socioeconomic status and gender. This study, like others selected, provided insight into the impact that sport participation may have on academic achievement.
Five additional studies were reviewed which made use of ANOVA, a statistical technique used to analyze the variation in a continuous random variable which is measured by conditions defined by discrete factors, such as classification variables with nominal levels (Larson, 2008), using this method to compare the variance among the different groups being studied. The first was written by Eugen Nagorsky and Josef Wiemeyer. Published in PLoS One in August 2020, “The Structure of Performance and Training in esports” used ANOVA to investigate the training in various esport titles, taking into account the relevant competencies specific to each game (Nagrosky & Wiemeyer, 2020), and provided insight for the potential complexities that will no doubt be present for coaches as esport programs and curriculum are crafted in high schools. The next article reviewed was found in BMC Public Health. Published in 2018 and written by Sabina Super, Niels Hermens, Kirsen Verkooijen, and Maria Koelen, the article titled “Examining the relationship between sports participation and youth developmental outcomes for socially vulnerable youth” also used ANOVA methods to explore the relationship between participation in sports and the developmental outcomes in socially vulnerable youth. Its results showed that, like the other articles found thus far, sports participation was positively related to pro-social behavior and subjective health (Super, Hermes, Verkooijens, & Koelen, 2018). Combined with the other articles reviewed thus far, this study provides not just additional support for the positive relationship between participation in a sport but how esport could fit into a sport.
Another article reviewed using ANOVA comes from Kinesiology. “Energy expenditure and perceived exertion during active video games in relation to player mode and gender” by Giuseppe Francesso Giancotti, Andrea Fusco, Angelo Rodio, Laura Caprancia, and Cristina Cortis, was published in 2018. The researchers in this article considered the fact that video games in which players are up, moving, and active have an increased expense of energy as compared to video games which are played sitting still. The researchers then asked if there was a difference in this energy expenditure between male and female players. The results showed that there were no differences to be found in the energy expenditures, which does not seem wholly unreasonable, and while the research question in this article does not appear immediately related to esports, it does discuss that active video games can be used as an alternative to traditional exercise (Giancotti, Fusco, Rodio, Capranica, & Cortis, 2018).
In the journal Methods and Techniques, Myrseth, Notelaers, Strand, Borund, and Olsen introduced a new questionnaire instrument designed to measure the motivation players have for gaming. The instrument, known as the Electronic Gaming Motives Questionnaire, was shown to be internally consistent and useful for measuring coping skills as well as social and skill-gratification motives. This new instrument may provide an additional tool in the esport researcher’s toolbox for further analyzing and exploring the connection between esport participation and the well-being and academic achievement of high school adolescents, while an article in Computers in Human Behavior, which also used ANOVA method, provides information to consider regarding the reward systems found in video games in relation to the presence, enjoyment, and effort amongst the players of said game. “Greater rewards in videogames lead to more presence, enjoyment and effort” by Daniel Johnson, Madison Klarkowski, Kellie Vella, Cody Phillips, and Mitchell McEwan and published in 2018 suggests that there exists a wide range of advantages to video games having a large amount of diverse virtual rewards for players. The application of this concept to gamification (Johnson, Klarkowski, Vella, Phillips, & McEwan, 2018) notwithstanding, this article provided an additional clue to the insight into the motivation players have in playing various esport titles. For purposes of informing the currently proposed study, however, it was one comment that stuck out. This is the note that heart rate varied across conditions consistent with greater rewards leading to greater arousal.
T-test was another research method found in the reviewed literature. It is used to compare the means of two groups and evaluate if the means of the two data sets are statistically and significantly different from each other. The first article reviewed in the pulled literature using a t-test explored the relationships formed by players of a massively multiplayer online game. Published in Computers in Human Behavior, the article “Attachment, attraction and Communication in real and virtual worlds: A study of massively multiplayer online games” by Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, and Gould explored the potential differences between relationships formed online versus offline. In a world that is increasingly digital, this is an important thing to consider for high school adolescents especially since of the factors that affect happiness and well-being only a good social relationship with others appears to be the most necessary (Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018). This study offers an incredible insight into the potential social benefits that online socialization can have.
Also using t-test methods was the 2017 article in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence titled “Video Gaming and Children’s Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study” by Lobel, Engels, Stone, Burk, and Granic. This study sought to add to the library of research and literature about the debate of the effects video game play has on the psychosocial development of children. The findings of nearly 200 children ages 7 to 12 years old showed that while cooperative gaming was not associated with a decrease in prosocial behavior, playing competitively with great frequency was related to increases in internalizing. It is worrisome for these adolescents who play for eight or more hours per week, and without the structure of parental or mentor intervention for playtime, these young gamers may have an increased risk factor for lower prosocial behavior (Lobel, Engels, Stone, Burk, & Granic, 2017). Finally, written by Matthew Barr in 2017 and published in the journal Computers & Education, the article “Video games can develop graduate skills in higher education students: A randomized trial” measured the effects that playing commercial video games has on the development of skills and competences often referred to as ‘graduate attributes’ in undergraduate students in the Arts and Humanities. Findings from the study support the hypothesis that playing video games can improve these skills and further suggest that game-based learning interventions have a role in higher education (Barr M. , 2017).
Together, reviewing these articles reveals the large-scale scope of the factors esports brings to the high school adolescent. From the motivation to play and participate to a discussion of the similarity between traditional sport and esport, these studies brought various insights from various fields. Additionally, they revealed that the topic is far broader than any one singular study can review. Thus, a narrower look at the esports topic had to be taken. Of all the articles and studies that were reviewed none were found to explore any link between participation and school attendance even though there are hints that playing and participating in sports serves as a motivator for participating in academics and academic activities. As esports continue to increase in popularity across middle and high school adolescents it is important to consider the various factors that affect student development. In considering the sheer number of factors present it was important to narrow the scope of study. In so doing, the methods that best deal with large amounts of data, datasets, groups, or variables were disregarded as a possible method to use.
Structural equation modeling was disregarded since that method is best for when there is an almost overwhelming amount of data and variables to consider. The analysis of the variance family of methods, consisting of ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA, and MANCOVA was also disregarded as they all compare two or more variables. Since the proposed study was designed to look only at a single metric of student behavior, in this case, the average daily attendance, no other variables which may have impact on attendance were considered. Instead, the t-test method was selected as it focuses on comparing the means of two groups. Exploring the differences between the average daily attendance of those students who participate in esports, those who participate in the traditional extracurricular activities of band, choir, and athletics, and those who do not participate in either revealed a rather small amount of data. With three means, one for each group, the t-test method was selected to best compare the three means to each other, two at a time.
History of Video Games
In considering the history of video games, attention must first be given to defining more precisely what is meant by video game. The common vernacular of video games makes it seem as if it is a game played on a handheld or console device only. Lexico (2020), an online dictionary powered by Oxford, defines video games as any game played by electronically manipulating images produced on a television or other display screen. Miriam-Webster (2020) agreed with this by offering a more concise definition of video games as games in which players control images on a video screen. Both of these definitions center on the major component of these games: the manipulation of video elements on a visual display. Today, those displays range from large, flatscreen televisions to small personal-sized smartphones.
Current video games can be split into three distinct categories called platforms. These platforms are mobile video games played on a mobile device like a tablet or a cell phone, console video games played on devices created specifically to play video games and computer video games. The oldest of these platforms, the computer video game, gets its start in 1947 where a patent was filed for a game in which players were challenged to shoot a target displayed on a cathode ray tube and an oscilloscope display (The Strong, 2020). Prior to this game, the World’s Fair saw a computer programmed to play Nim. However, since the game’s display was a series of light bulbs that were turned on and off and not a display screen, it is being omitted as the earliest computer video game.
Transition from Video Games to Esport
As computing power and internet speeds have improved over the past few decades, the number of video games undergoing the process of becoming a recognizable sport as per Guttman’s 1978 definition of sport continues to increase. An analysis of the esports phenomenon was done in 2020 by Jonasson and Thiborg. In it, esports was defined as competitive computer gaming (Jonasson & Thiborg, 2010). This definition, now approaching a decade old, has not changed and esports’s likeness to traditional sports continues to grow as an increasing number of colleges and universities are offering esports at the varsity level which includes scholarships for play and achievement (HSEL, LLC, 2018).
In considering the notion of online video games, it is clear that the streaming technology that comes with the continued legitimization of esports is enabling gamers to express themselves through the games they play, the avatars and names they choose, and the manner with which they interact with others in the community (Perry, et al., 2018). Miriam-Webster (2019) defines the word game as a physical or mental competition between participants directly opposing each other which follows a set of rules, but to be considered a sport a game must be more than just casual play. Esports is the competitive engagement in computer and video games (Nagrosky & Wiemeyer, 2020) typically in an online setting. There are, however, reasons to be skeptical about viewing online video games as a sport; the most prominent of which is the apparent lack of physical activity associated with video game play. It is suggested that virtual activities are not real activities and thus cannot be considered as such (Alfe & Talaby, 2020). ESports has been growing in recent years. In 2018, an estimated 25.7 million people in the United States participated or viewed eSports (Gough, 2021). While this appears to be little more than a growing trend in the video gaming and entertainment industry, eSports has much to offer the educational world. An essay by Kalle Jonasson and Jesper Thiborg compared eSports to traditional sports using Guttman’s definition of sport: physical, competitive, and organized play in contrast to spontaneous play, non-competitive games, and intellectual contests (Jonasson & Thiborg, 2010).
The pros of the competitive nature of these video games have not gone unnoticed by some higher education institutions like Robert Morris University in Illinois and the University of Pikeville in Kentucky which treat video gamers like traditional football, basketball, and baseball athletes (Gaudiosi, 2015). Universities have begun tapping into the popularity and potential of the esport community. Robert Morris University Illinois, Harvard University, and Berklee College of Music all boast eSports clubs to support competitive video gaming (Kemp, Pienaar, & Rae, 2020). These clubs, along with many others, band together to form collegiate series for the various games that comprise the esports landscape, and a number of them offer monetary prizes and scholarships for championship-level play. In this regard, high schools can act as a gateway to colleges and universities, and through this connection, high schools can help promote a sense of community that extends between secondary and post-secondary educational institutions.
Genres of Esport
As esports has gained notoriety, various online services have come into place where players and spectators alike can interact and discuss their game of choice (Gregory, 2015). Two such platforms are Twitch and YouTube. Both offer a method by which account holders can become content creators, sharing their gameplay with the vast audiences on the internet. While some video games are single-player, online interactions make even single-player games social activities. Multi-player games, however, add a layer of teamwork to the mix, and being a skilled communicator is a key aspect of succeeding in a team game.
While most team games feature in-game text and map alert systems, game developers have realized that voice communications are important. Prior to recent upgrades such as Riot’s League of Legends and Blizzard’s Overwatch, player serious about teamwork would turn to communication programs such as Skype, Teamspeak, Overwolf, and Discord. While games are supporting voice communications, many players still make use of these third-party programs and applications to facilitate vocal collaboration. MOBA games add an element of the Real-Time Strategy genre, in which players gain the upper hand by applying chess-like strategies to various character types. This requires players to think and act strategically (Gabbiadini & Greitemeyer, 2017) about the skills they assign to their avatars, the items they build to add ability bonuses, and when and where they position their avatars in relation to the avatars of their opponent. Gameplay changes minute to minute and from game to game, so players must reflect upon their actions as well as the actions of their opponents (Donaldson, 2015).
Esports encompasses a wide range of video game types. Some of these are first-person shooters (FPSs) such as Call of Duty; massive online battle arenas (MOBAs) such as League of Legends and Smite; pure strategy games such as Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm; and fighting games like Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Melee, Warner Bros.’ Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Microsoft’s Killer Instinct. League of Legends, a massive online battle arena (MOBA) game by Riot, and Overwatch, a First Person Shooter MOBA game by Blizzard Entertainment are team games where players have to work cooperatively for a common goal. Being a skilled communicator is a key aspect to success in these games. In fact, it is not likely that a player will have much success without acquiring some amount of social expertise (Donaldson, 2015). Both games feature in-game text chats, mini-maps, and location alert systems, as well as voice communication capabilities, allowing players to instantly communicate with each other. There is no denying that these games allow players to come together as if they were physically present in a common meeting area and the social support structures that can develop here may help foster pro-social attitudes, and often these connections extend beyond the virtual world. As players progress through casual play and toward ranked competitive play, the cognitive demand increases. MOBA games have an element of Real-Time Strategy, in which turns are not taken. Instead, the strategy happens in the moment, forcing players to make adjustments every few seconds in order to gain a tactical advantage. Because of these shared elements, MOBAs require players to think strategically in an ever-changing environment (Gabbiadini & Greitemeyer, 2017). Not only must players consider the position of the gaming avatar they are controlling and that position’s relationship with teammates and the potential locations of opponents, MOBA players must also balance skill trees and item builds for their avatars. It is not just the MOBA-style games that can teach the aforementioned skills. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games require players to team up to accomplish a goal or task. In an MMORPG, players progress their avatars via individual quests and challenges. However, many of the challenges are designed to not be completed by an individual player, but rather with a group of players. This type of required grouping and interaction appears to mimic social interactions in the offline world (Coulsom, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018). Like in the real world, players in an MMORPG immerse themselves for social reasons to achieve power and prestige. They collaborate with others, communicate with others, and learn to rely on others to accomplish their goals in a way that is every bit as visceral and psychologically real as the physical world, and can provide relationships that are mentally more mature than simple physical proximity (Coulsom, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018). For the high school students, this can encourage growth from the sense of connection gained from these online interactions to a sense of self-esteem thus bringing students closer to self-actualization (Maslow, 1987).
Current Research in Esports
While current research on esports focuses on the potential social and psychological benefits of video game playing for young adults in college, these findings offer a hint at the possibility of important skills for adolescents in high school. Many of the online games being played are team games, and skills such as teamwork, communication, and perseverance are all things that these online competitive games can teach adolescents before they reach college (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). Literature across the study of video games has called for a deeper and clearer understanding of gaming, leading to a question posed by Granic, Lobel, and Engels as to whether or not there exists any benefit to exposing students to certain video games (2013). Much of recent research appears focused on the effects of online video game play at the college level.
Research on the effects of video game play on adolescents is older and focused on the negative. These studies miss the discussion of the teachable skills embedded in the games being played and of the social capital created by students participating in an organized school activity. A study done in 2017 looked at the potential benefits of video game play. Specifically, the study considered video game’s positive effect on learning principles and problem-solving skills (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). Current literature ponders if there is a correlation between the playing of strategy style video games and an increase in problem-solving ability (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). The pro-social attitudes fostered by video game play in which players are rewarded for helping behaviors manifest in the actions of students in a study by Granic, Lobel, and Engles (2013). This suggests that being in a cooperative team endeavor satisfies the psychological human need to belong (Perry, et al., 2018). This need to belong continues to build the social bonds already being established by the participation in the activity. It enhances impersonal skills by mere exposure since belonging to a group forces connection. These connections allow players to develop and maintain quality (Dyer et al., 2017) which sports coaches focus on between athletes on the same team. It is not only important for athletes to maintain friendships, but these friendships must be developed in order to survive the stresses placed on them. It takes work and skill to nurture friendship to this degree, and in a study of coaches by sports psychologists, it was found that the coaches believed that they were responsible for teaching their players how to interact with their peers (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). Not only does the online collaboration of esports satisfy the psychological need to belong, but for some it can satisfy the need for power (Alexander, Rainey, & Page, 2016). Leadership skills are needed in many aspects of human life and for many, leadership is a tool that can be used to feel powerful. Organizing a group and taking control of a sports team in order to execute a plan, achieve an objective, or meet a common social goal (Granic, Lobel, & Engels, 2013) is among the responsibilities of a sports leader, be it a coach or a team captain. In contrast to traditional sports in which the coach has the ability to continue coaching during gameplay, esports players must do all of the in-game analysis and strategy changes themselves while they are playing, without outside input. It is this communication; respect for officials, teammates, and opponents; and pro-social attitudes that many coaches hope to their players learn to value (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). All of the social and psychological benefits listed above, taken by themselves, are still not enough for a strong argument that esports are beneficial to high school students. Therefore, discussion of the tangible skills that playing and participating in esports can potentially teach students remains. Most of the current research appears highly focused on the effects of esports at the college level (Barr M. , 2017), or of the negative effects of video games on youth (Draper, 2019).
These studies miss discussing the teachable skills that are of use to the high school student in favor of the skills early childhood students can learn via the video-game medium and those skills which are of use to the post-secondary student. A study done in 2017 by Adachi and Willoughby looked closely at the potential benefits of video game play. Specifically, their study considered video games’ effect on learning principles and problem-solving skills (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017) after they too noticed the scarcity of research on this topic. Online video games and esports can provide students an opportunity to practice various life skills that may be missing from their day to day academics. Skills such as interpersonal communication as mentioned above, along with goal setting and leadership skills (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011) are but some of the skills that can be taught through the vehicle of esports in a manner similar to how these skills are taught via traditional sports. Additionally, skills such as clear communication under pressure, two- and three-dimensional spatial awareness and reasoning, and multitasking along multiple sensory input streams are a few of the auxiliary skills sets that may be teachable through online video games.
Comparison: Traditional Sport versus Esport
Given that more than 90 out of every 100 adolescents aged 12-17 years play some sort of digital online video game (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017), the potential benefits to this population segment cannot be ignored. Additionally, today’s youth likely find the playing of online video games and esports as natural as the parents and grandparents found playing neighborhood streetball. In addition to streaming their own gameplay, it is possible for gamers to spectate the games of others, and stream them spectating while providing voice-over commentary and play-by-play analysis in a manner similar to sports announcers found on ESPN and other broadcast stations for televised sporting events such as American football, basketball, tennis, and many others.
The main difference between the broadcast of a traditional sport and the live streams gamers use is a chat feature. Currently, traditional sports broadcasts attempt to include audience participation by using social media, such as Twitter. The chat feature found on Twitch and YouTube streams grants the ability for broadcasters to react nearly instantly to comments made on the stream, thus improving the feel of real-time interaction and a sense of community between content creators and stream consumers (Draper, 2019). In this way, these two services are acting as the sports bars and pubs of traditional sports (Gregory, 2015). This level of interactivity often leads audience members to want to create their own content, resulting in them streaming their own gaming experiences and attempting to comment and analyze the play styles of others in the community (Burroughs & Rama, 2015). In fact, in many of these team games, it is not likely that a player will have much success without acquiring some amount of social expertise (Donaldson, 2015).
Regardless of the method, there is no denying that these applications bring players together in a way that mirrors physical proximity in a common meeting area. This can bind players in a community of appropriate social context (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). The social support structures of these meetings create and help foster self-esteem and pro-social attitudes in their participants, often extending beyond the virtual meeting space (Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018). This is the hope of many coaches in traditional sports, that the respect of teammates, officials, and the opposition transcend the sport being played such that participants learn to value all people and treat them with respect and dignity (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). This need to belong continues to build the social bonds being established by participation in an activity and enhances interpersonal skills through exposure since belonging to a group forces social interactions and connections. These connections allow players to develop and maintain quality friendships (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011) which traditional sports coaches focus on building between athletes on the same team. It is not just important for athletes to maintain friendships with teammates, but these friendships must be developed in order to survive the stresses placed upon them by competition. It takes work and skill to nurture friendships to this degree, and in a study of coaches by sports psychologists, it was found that the coaches studied believed that they were responsible for teaching their players how to interact with their peers (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011).
Online video games and esports can provide some students an opportunity to practice various life skills that may be missing from their day to day academics if they do not participate in traditional sports. Skills such as interpersonal communication, as mentioned above, along with goal setting, leadership, and perseverance are but some of the skills that are traditionally reinforced with traditional sports yet can also be taught within the context of esports (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). Other skills include clear communication under pressure, two-dimensional spatial reasoning, and multitasking along multiple sensory input streams. This constant revaluation of situations from moment to moment requires a heavy investment in metacognition, understanding not just of the various bits of the game but how they interact and can be used together. It culminates in split-second decision-making that can affect the outcome of a game, similar to the second-by-second choices made during traditional sports. The formative years of adolescence found in high school are a perfect opportunity for schools to help integrate the technology of the games students are playing at home with the structured lessons in teamwork and competitiveness of the traditional high school sport.
Now that the working definition for eSports, which stems from Guttmann’s definition of traditional sport, has been settled, it is important to compare the manner in which participants gain knowledge and interact with the meta-knowledge of the various games that make up sport, either traditional or eSport. This starting point is an important first step is considering how eSports may integrate into the landscape of high school athletics. By considering the acquisition of game knowledge of both eSports and traditional sports, it would be possible to craft an effective eSports program. Looking at how eSports players acquire game knowledge and expertise, there are two distinct stages. In the first stage, players acquire mechanical expertise by playing low-risk games against computer opponents and other similarly skilled human players (Donaldson, 2015). This practice is much like learning to play a sport during a physical education class in school. A coach helps organize small, low-risk practice games during class. These games allow students to learn the physical aspects of the various sports to which they are being introduced. As the student progresses from the physical education classroom setting of playing a sport to making the decision to join an extracurricular sports team, like football or volleyball, their knowledge of the sports begins to grow to encompass more than just the physical motions required to play the game. At this phase, athletes begin to consider and synthesize information about the sport that may improve their own ability during play. Players of League of Legends, an eSport, show a similar shift in knowledge as they progress from low-risk games to competitive ranked play as they work to build their metaknowledge (Donaldson, 2015). Traditional sports have long been used as a tool to foster teamwork, acceptable competitiveness, and citizenship. The sports programs of many high schools across the nation pride themselves on preparing their student-athletes to be leaders in their communities. Among the skills a good citizen, and good leader, needs to have is a sense of critical thinking about self-made choices.
Part of the consumption of an esport is the diffusion of the game from player to player. The diffusion of innovations such as video games and esports relies on four attributes of the innovation: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and trialability; and they are significant predictors that an innovation is going to be diffused. Students will use both online and offline social networks to disseminate information and opinions about an innovation and computer game. The main concern in students diffusing information about a video game is their use of social media and face-to-face interactions. Most teachers and adults are more confident and comfortable with face-to-face interactions because it is what most of them grow up with.
Today’s students, however, are digital natives and thus just as comfortable with an online interaction as they are with an offline face-to-face one. Esports is starting to gain credibility and popularity, and yet the perception that students who play video games are lazy and use video games as a way to avoid studying and homework remains. Digging into older bits of research about the more traditional sports, hopefully, research can be found to support the hypothesis that academic achievement in the first years of traditional sport in the public high school has a significantly similar effect as that of esports. The prosocial attitudes fostered by video game play in which players are rewarded for helping behaviors manifest in the actions of students in a study by Granic et al. (2013). This suggests that being in a cooperative team endeavor satisfies the psychological human need to belong (Alexander, Rainey, & Page, 2016). This need to belong continues to build the social bonds already being established by the participation in the activity. It enhances impersonal skills by mere exposure since belonging to a group forces connection. These connections allow players to develop and maintain quality friendships (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011) which sports coaches focus on between athletes on the same team. It is not only important for athletes to maintain friendships, but these friendships must be developed in order to survive the stresses placed on them. It takes work and skill to nurture friendship to this degree, and in a study of coaches by sports psychologists, it was found that the coaches believed that they were responsible for teaching their players how to interact with their peers (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). Not only does the online collaboration of esports satisfy the psychological need to belong, but for some it can satisfy the need for power (Alexander, Rainey, & Page, 2016).
Leadership skills are needed in many aspects of human life and for many, leadership is a tool that can be used to feel powerful. Organizing a group and taking control of a sports team in order to execute a plan, achieve an objective, or meet a common social goal (Granic, Lobel, & Engels, 2013) is among the responsibilities of a sports leader, be it a coach or a team captain. In contrast to traditional sports in which the coach has the ability to continue coaching during gameplay, esports players must do all of the in-game analysis and strategy changes themselves while they are playing, without outside input. It is this communication; respect for officials, teammates, and opponents; and pro-social attitudes that many coaches hope their players learn to value (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). The very nature of team sports is collaborative. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the many online forums available to players of all skill levels for many online games. Many online games have forums available to players of all abilities. These forums allow players a place to discuss and debate the effectiveness of an item, skill tree build, or team strategy in order to enhance the theory and analysis of the game (Donaldson, 2015). As the game progresses, players must reflect on the actions of their opponents and teammates, making alterations to their style of play, avatar location, and skill and item trees. These reflections force players to analyze their effectiveness against their opponents’ playing style (Donaldson, 2015). This constant reevaluation of situations from moment to moment requires a heavy investment of metacognition on the part of the individual player. Information to form these metacognitive connections is synthesized from sources external to the game environment, in the discussion of the game’s mechanics and theory with other players in a variety of settings. It is this outside information merging with the knowledge of an avatar’s abilities and the rules of the game’s tournament that allow players to perform competitively (Kemp, Pienaar, & Rae, 2020).
The Dual-Step Transfer Model
Because high school is a pivotal moment in the development of a person’s problem solving skills, it is proposed that esports is an avenue by which growth in this area can be achieved (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). Reviewing Bloom’s Taxonomy, this level of discourse and the critical thinking required in analyzing anything is among the skills educators are to impart upon their students. It is in bringing broadcaster and viewer together in an online community, that social contexts are built. In these communities, moral and pro-social behaviors are exalted and upheld. Streamers moderate the comments on their stream chats, staying active and present within these forums. Such behaviors are an important part of the development of a youth’s character (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011) which is most often associated with the personal growth expected when an adolescent participates in a sport. These pro-social attitudes manifested in the actions of students across various studies, suggesting that the cooperation of the team endeavor even in a virtual space such as an online video game is still satisfying the psychological human need to belong (Alexander, Rainey, & Page, 2016). An esports program at the high school level could make noticeable gains in a student’s ability to preserve by building optimism and resilience (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011) in a manner similar to traditional sports and other competitive extra-curricular activities. Since a player’s implicit and explicit motivation to play and excel at the game may bleed over into motivation to see through the problems given to them by academics, there is a possibility that esports can leverage academic achievement from a growing sense of self-esteem and belonging offered by participation in a group activity and inclusion in a team (Bradley & Conway, 2016). Worth noting is that a student’s engagement in a task is highly important in maximizing their achievement in physical education (Phil, 2014) among other endeavors. The dual-step transfer model suggests that participation in an extra-curricular activity can enhance academic achievement (Bradley & Conway, 2016). In an exploration by Bradley and Conway (2016), the effect of extra-curricular participation on the development of non-cognitive skills such as motivation and self-efficacy was studied. They looked at both sports and non-sport extra-curricular activities. Their meta-analysis of several other studies on the topic revealed that for physical education and school sport, increasing daily physical activity yielded no negative impact on academic achievement. This finding was despite the increase in physical activity time came at the expense of instructional time. Bradley and Conway noted there is a difference between general physical education classes and an organized school-sponsored sports activity.
Where the physical education activities are themselves a class, with a timetable and a codified curriculum, the school-sponsored sport appears to offer the potential for a greater impact on the attitudes of those participating. As an extra-curricular and potentially inter-mural activity, Bradley and Conway found evidence in their literature analysis that participation in these sports activities appeared to promote self-esteem, self-concept, and social capital in students as well as a feeling of connectedness to the community of the school. It is this promotion of self, coupled with a connection to community, that Bradley and Conway suggest enhancing the development of non-cognitive skills via a transfer effect. This, in turn, may transfer to academic achievement; a dual-step transfer. The connection between participation in extra-curricular competitive sports and increased academic achievement can be found in other studies with high school-aged students (Wretman, 2017).
Other Potential Benefits of Esports
The connection of this to digital citizenship – and thus global citizenship – is not lost. The potential of this interconnectivity, of the social capital that is possible, cannot be ignored as it is as much a part of esports as is teamwork, perseverance, and communication between players. As mentioned earlier, those who play video games are typically seen as lacking the social connections and skills to interact appropriately. Add to this the not-wholly-unreasonable stereotype of the computer geek never interacting with the sports jock along with the world’s increasing digitization and it is imperative that the part of the population that does not participate in traditional sports but are motivated by video games have the same opportunity to learn these skills and have a space to work on building the social skills and capital that will be of use to them in the future. Not only does the online collaboration of esports satisfy the need to belong, but for some, it can satisfy the need for power (Alexander, Rainey, & Page, 2016). Leadership positions are required in many aspects of human life, and for many, leadership is a tool that can be used to feel powerful. Organizing a group, taking control of a sports team, executing a plan, and leading the way to a common goal are among the responsibilities of a leader, be it a coach or a team caption (Granic et al., 2013). As players progress through casual play toward ranked competitive play, the need to process a large amount of cognitive work becomes apparent. Much as traditional sports offer students a place to work on teamwork, competitive cooperation, and performance under high-stakes pressure, eSports offers all the same benefits and the added bonus of helping students navigate not only traditional face-to-face citizenship in the local community but also digital citizenship in the global community. As the world increasingly shifts into the digital age, children are becoming comfortable with digital devices and video games at earlier and earlier ages. This new crop of digital natives finds video games as legitimate and worthwhile as their predecessors did of traditional sports. As the population of digital natives grows, they will lead the way in forging the societal rules that will evidentially govern the realm of cyberspace. Many of these rules have already been loosely written, and many behaviors that dominant the cyber-landscape would be greatly frowned upon if they were performed in the real, flesh and blood, world. It is of great importance, therefore, that everything is done to help instill a sense of community and citizenship in the digital student. With the ease of communication and instant gratification provided by the internet and social media tools, the digital citizen will need to be far more cognizant of habits as a consumer than ever before.
Esports provide a unique way for participants to view the various roles they can take as consumers and therefore can help provide a lens through which they can consider and analyze their own consumption of esports and by extension anything else in their lives (Kemp, Pienaar, & Rae, 2020). It is a place where the roles of coach, mentor, and apprentice merge in the production of learning moments (Burroughs & Rama, 2015) and these are moments and formats that a clever teacher can use and mimic. After all, the level of collaboration needed to create these online spaces requires a great deal of communication and mutual respect.
Summary
As has been seen, esports has clearly grown to encompass many of the same attributes as any other traditionally physical sport. It is a social activity that speaks to a psychological need to belong, and the culture of esports is such that online streaming video services are the main social hubs where fans and players alike can interact with each other. Unlike traditional sports, most of these player-run live streams allow fans to interact directly with players often during gameplay.
It is this coming together of fan and player that lends the subject of e-sports the flexibility of being able to be studied from the viewpoint of youth subculture or youth scene rather than purely from the lens of the sports psychologist. Due to the teamwork aspect of the current focus game, League of Legends, it is a field ripe with topics of study regarding the nature of competitive video games and social behaviors, including those of leadership positions. In addition to the social benefits, there is potential to study the correlation between the playing of video games and improvements in problem solving skills and academic achievement. The very nature of MOBA video games, as was noted, is the same as that of any team sport.
MOBAs are collaborative and require players to have a strong grasp of negotiation skills which they are given time to perfect as they move from casual to competitive play. Research so far has given a reasonable platform on which to build studies focused on locating appropriate methods of measuring the effect participation in e-sports has on student achievement. As part of new studies, the gap that current research has left in its narrow focus on single-player games may be resolved by use of Riot’s League of Legends. The target demographic for study, that being high school students, can offer insight into the gap of video games being introduced at particular moments of a person’s development. That most current studies are qualitative in nature suggests that a study must be done, in the very near future, with quantitative data collection designed to look for a correlation between esports participation and academic achievement.
Chapter 3: Research Method
The purpose of this quantitative study was to question how participating in an after-school esports program in high school affects overall high school attendance. In order to achieve this goal, the total population of a participating high school was divided into three distinct groups. One group was to act as the control and contain those students who opted not to participate in any form of after school activity. The other two were groups in which students participated in an after-school activity. One of these groups contained students who participated in an after-school esports program while the other participated in some other type of after-school activity. Research supports the positive effect participation in traditional after-school sports activities has on many facets of a high school student’s success (Filsinger, 2012), thus it is reasonable to hypothesize that participation in an after-school esports program in high school may offer similar benefits to the student. In this regard, this study will compare the mean attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program to the attendance of students participating in a traditional after-school activity. In comparing the attendance, it was possible to clearly state the effect that participation in an after-school esports program has on student attendance and therefore suggest possible directions for further study in order to better generalize any benefit or detriment caused by participation in esports versus traditional sports. To this end, the following research question is proposed.
RQ1. How does an after-school esports program impact the attendance of high school students at La Feria High School?
Hypotheses
H10. M1 = M3 There exists no significant difference in the attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, and the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M3.
H1a. M1 > M3 The attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, is significantly higher than the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M3.
H1b. M1 < M3 The attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, is significantly less than the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M3.
H1c. M1 = M2 There exists no significant difference in the attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, and the attendance of students participating in an after-school activity different from an afterschool esports activity, M2.
Research Methodology and Design
In order to explore the extent to which participation in the competitive extra-curricular activity of esports, it was important to collect various data points from high school students. With these data, a t-test can be used to check for statistical differences in the means between the grades of those students not participating in any form of competitive extracurricular and those
participating in either traditional competitive extracurricular activities or competitive esports. This type of quantitative study was best suited to this sort of exploration as the upper tail of the bell-curve distribution was considered statistically significant for this study as it would represent averages that are statistically higher than those closer to the mean of those students not participating in competitive extracurricular activities. Thus, by looking at the differences of the means from various sample groups, it can be seen whether or not participation in esports as a competitive extracurricular activity does indeed have a positive effect on student average daily attendance as suggested by the dual-step transfer model mentioned in chapter two.
Population and Sample
The population of this study was high school students who attended La Feria High School. This high school is located in the city of La Feria, Cameron County, in the state of Texas in the United States. The student data was segregated by participation in esports, participation in traditional sports or any other competitive extracurricular activity, and no participation in competitive extracurricular activities. This segregation was facilitated by the use of the esports roster for the school year 2019-2020 and the various course rosters for all athletics, band, and choir classes. Data was collected from Skyward Student Information Manages System by the La Feria High School’s Attendance Clerk. Identifying information was excluded from the final data.
Materials/Instrumentation
The instrument that was used was the paired sample t-test. This test was appropriate because this study sought to compare the means of two different samples; namely the means of a sample whose members participated in an esports program and another whose members did not participate in any form of extracurricular activity. The data collected was entered into IBM SPSS Statistics 26 where the option to analyze means was applied. The grouping variable was the column indicating participation. For this study, a paired sample t-test was utilized in order to detect more than just an improvement in attendance. By allowing the study to detect attendance on the lower tail of the data, it has the ability to offer insight into the study’s main assumption (i.e., the dual-step transfer model for participation does not negatively impact student attendance).
Similarly, the same test was used to compare means between a sample whose members participate in traditional sports and the aforementioned non-participating sample. All of the tests being performed used a significance level of 0.05. In building this study, a multivariate analysis of variance was considered but disregarded as this study focused on one variable’s mean, that is the mean average daily attendance of students participating in esports and those not participating. Thus, since this study focused on the comparison of two means, the t-test was selected for this correlational study in order to determine if there is a relationship between participation in esports and the average daily attendance of those students who participate.
Operational Definitions of Variables
Grade Level: The high school grade level for each student during the academic school year. This is an ordinal variable containing four categories: 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. This variable was collected from the PEIMS clerk.
Participation Status: The participation status for each student. It was used to segregate the data by the type of activity each student participated in. This was a nominal variable containing three categories: esports, traditional, and none.
M1: Mean Attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program. This variable was an interval percentage from 0% to 100%. This variable was collected from the attendance clerk. This variable was analyzed via a difference of means.
M2: Mean Attendance of students participating in an after-school traditional sports program. This variable was an interval percentage from 0% to 100%. This variable was collected from the attendance clerk. This variable was analyzed via a difference of means.
M3: Mean Attendance of students not participating in an after-school program. This variable was an interval percentage from 0% to 100%. This variable was collected from the attendance clerk. This variable was analyzed via a difference of means.
Absences: The number of absences reported for each student. This was a ratio variable with whole number values. This variable was collected from the attendance clerk.
Study Procedures
To collect the data, the attendance clerk at La Feria High School accessed the Skyward System for attendance data. The data was collected into three different groups. The first group of attendance data was from students that actively participate in La Feria High School’s after school esports program. The second group of attendance data was from students that do not participate in any after-school program in La Feria High School. The final group of attendance data was from students that participate in afterschool programs other than La Feria’s High School Esports program. The data was compiled by the researcher for analysis.
Data Collection and Analysis
An Excel spreadsheet was used to collect all of the relevant data in one location. The data was reviewed to ensure that all the variables are using the same type of input and that all the variable fields were lined up correctly. This spreadsheet was transferred into IBM SPSS Statistics 26 for data analysis using a two-tail two-sample t-test between the various groups within the population of data collected. This test allowed for a comparison of the mean average daily attendance between the groups, and thus an insight into the correlation between participation and attendance. With this, it was possible to see if the mean average daiy attendance for those participating in esports is higher than those not participating in any extra-curricular activities. In order to see the difference between our two groups – namely, those participating in esports and those participating in no extra-curricular activities – SPSS’s paired sample t-test was utilized. The grouping variable was selected as the yes/no field for participation. The results were reviewed, and the p-value was considered. A small enough p-value for a two-tail test would indicate that the null hypothesis will be rejected and the only logical conclusion to draw would be that there was in fact a significant difference between the mean average daily attendance of each group.
Assumptions
The main assumption being made for this study was that the dual step transfer model – wherein the motivation, self-esteem, and resilience gained during the participation in a sport transfer to academics – works for esports in the same manner as it works for traditional sports and that there is no difference in participation in esports or traditional sports in terms of motivation increasing student academic achievement. For this study, participation in traditional sports, esports, and any competitive extra-curricular activity such as band, choir, and orchestra grants students the same feelings of belonging, the same sense of team spirit and camaraderie as each other. This sense of team and school pride is assumed to carry into behavioral concerns as well, and thus it is assumed that much as traditional sports coaches hold their players to a higher standard of behavior and leadership, so too will esports.
Limitations
Due to the newness of esports, not all high schools are equal in their treatment of esports. For some, participation in esports at the high school is led by a volunteer teacher sponsor and is not financially funded by the school in any way shape, or form. For others, the school district has bought into the potential benefits of esports and fully funds an esports program. For these schools, it is not unheard of to have an esports arena – a classroom with various gaming computers and consoles on which students can practice – along with an esports gaming concepts course which can be used in much the same fashion as an athletics class period for football and a music extra-curricular class are used for their corresponding activities. The vast majority of schools fall somewhere along a spectrum between these two extremes. In order to best mitigate this potential disparity, data from each school will be compiled along with a rating of the amount of support each school district granted the esports program being reported upon. Perhaps this will provide additional insight as to the depth of the difference means between schools with minimal financial support and a robust esports program. Another limitation is the possibility that schools do not track detention or ISS days. If this is the case, a comparison between the number of behavioral concerned cannot be accomplished. Should this happen, this part of the study will be dropped.
Delimitations
In narrowing down the scope of this study, it was decided to only look at how participation may affect the average daily attendance of the high school students in a single high school. Also, due to the assumption that there is no difference in the effect on average daily attendance caused by participation in any kind of competitive extra-curricular activity and the argument that esports should be seen and treated as a legitimate sport as traditional ones are, measures of average daily attendance for students participating in other competitive extracurricular activities needed to be gathered and analyzed as well. Additionally, the scope was narrowed from multiple high schools to a single high school in Texas. It is certainly not representative of a larger population and thus any results can not be directly applied to any high school one would wish to apply them to, but it can serve as a starting point in a larger discussion.
Ethical Assurances
This study received approval from Northcentral University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) before any data was collected. Because of the age of the participants, any risk was considered greater than minimal. To help protect the information of the students who participated, the information was transmitted via district-maintained servers. The file containing student data was reviewed to ensure no identifying information such as name, dates of birth, or student identification numbers was included. Any files containing such information were cleaned of the identifying personal information before the file was saved for further analysis. Each attachment was saved to a single USB drive before being deleted from the receiver’s email cache. The data was then loaded into the researcher’s IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program, which was found on the researcher’s home computer. This computer was protected by Norton Firewall and Network Protections Protocols. The researcher was currently certified in good standing as a public school teacher in the state of Texas and was familiar with all state and federal laws regarding the confidentiality of student information. Additionally, as the researcher was also an esports coordinator and data from the school the researcher works for, data for students listed on the researcher’s student rosters was omitted from the final analysis. In this way, there was no fear of bias on the researcher’s part to attempt to artificially influence the dependent variable of the study. The only effect the researcher played in the data of their own school was in the form of a coach attempting to motivate players to excel both in the game and in their academics.
Summary
One piece of the decision-making puzzle school boards and districts must contend with is clear evidence that some new offerings in need of financial support do in fact provide a benefit to students. Given the stigma video games suffered in the latter part of the 20th Century, a stigma that is only now beginning to fall away, there is a need to look at the various ways video games and participation in esports can benefit their students. The research question being asked in this study explores the effect participation in an after-school esports extracurricular activity has on the average daily attendance of high school students. In this way, decision-makers and stakeholders at the district level for the high school can make a more informed decision in the use and allotment of resources to support the growth of an esports program. The high school’s esport sponsor was the main point of contact for each school’s Ethics Review Committee to opt into including the high school’s data in this study. Care was taken to ensure the protection and security of school and student data while it was being collected, prepared, uploaded, and analyzed by the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 software for Windows 10. The data measuring the average daily attendance by grade level and participation in esports was entered into the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program, where a paired sample t-test was performed using a significance level of 0.05. This assumption stated that the dual-step transfer model, in which student participation in a traditional sport of competitive extra-curricular activity, positively impacts student academic achievement was likewise present for esports. Limiting this study was the lack of equality in the support the school’s extracurricular programs received.
Esports is still new and some districts are hesitant in supporting this endeavor. Other districts, meanwhile, not only support esport programs but offering a for credit course in which esports is the focus. This disparity in support and funding will be noted in the data collection process, in case it appears relevant in some manner. The study, therefore, was studied solely to explore if there exists a difference in student average daily attendance between students who participate in esports versus those who do not participate in extra-curricular activities. The study considered only how attendance measures compare and in which direction.
Due to federal laws surrounding the ethical treatment of minors and their information including grades, absences, and behavioral referrals, it was vital that parents are given the option of informed consent and that all reasonable measures and precautions are taken throughout the life of this study to secure the data. Currently in place was the use of district-provided and secured email as the transport method for data collection. Scheduled was the use of a single unmarked USB thumb drive to transfer all collected data from the school-provided and secured computer to the researcher’s home system. This system, secured by an alpha-numeric password and an up-to-date firewall and anti-virus suite, was used to upload the study’s data to the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program where it was analyzed as previously mentioned. These findings will be presented and discussed in the upcoming chapter.
Chapter 4: Findings
In this chapter, the results of the quantitative methods study which was conducted to answer the research question “How does an after-school esports program impact the attendance of high school students at La Feria High School?” can be found. This single question was broken up into four different hypotheses. These hypotheses are:
H10. M1 = M3 There exists no significant difference in the attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, and the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M3.
H1a. M1 > M3 The attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, is significantly higher than the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M3.
H1b. M1 < M3 The attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, is significantly less than the attendance of students not participating in any after-school activity, M3.
H1c. M1 = M2 There exists no significant difference in the attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program, M1, and the attendance of students participating in an after-school activity different from an afterschool esports activity, M2.
The first hypothesis is the null hypothesis which states that there is no difference in the average daily attendance between the group of students who participated in an after-school esports program and those who did not participate in an after-school activity of some type. The next hypothesis checks if the average daily attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program was significantly higher than the average daily attendance of those students who do not participate in an after-school activity, whereas the third hypothesis looks at the counterpoint to the previous hypothesis in that it considers that the average daily attendance of students who participated in an after-school esports program was lower than that of students who did not participate in an after-school activity. The fourth and final hypothesis was designed to consider if the average daily attendance of students participating in an after-school esports program is the same as the average daily attendance of students participating in traditional after-school programs.
Validity and Reliability of the Data
The data received from La Feria High School was Average Daily Attendance information from the 2019-2020 school year. This data was split into three groups. Group 1, identified as variable M1, was comprised of the average daily attendance information from students who participated in an after-school esports program during the 2019-2020 school year. Group 2, identified as variable M2, was comprised of the average daily attendance information from students who participated in traditional after-school extra-curricular activities of band, choir, and athletics during the 2019-2020 school year. Group 3, identified as variable M3, was comprised of the average daily attendance information from students who did not participate in any of the aforementioned after-school extra-curricular activities during the 2019-2020 school year. To acquire this information, the attendance clerk at La Feria High School printed out a list of all students enrolled in La Feria High School during the 2019-2020 school year as well as class rosters for all Band, Choir, and Athletic courses. These rosters, in conjunction with the roster of students who participated in esports during the 2019-2020 school year, the enrollment list was highlighted into the three different aforementioned groups. The highlighted list was then returned to the attendance clerk, who used the list to create three reports. Each report contained average daily attendance information by grade level for each specific group. As the highlighted list was being created, it was noticed that there were some students who participated in both traditional extra-curricular activities as well as the after-school esports program. These students were included in the group of students that participated in esports.
Results
The study sample contained Average Daily Attendance information from La Feria High School during the 2019-2020 School Year. There were a total of 973 students enrolled in La Feria High School, and the data was split into three distinct groups by the attendance clerk at La Feria High School in the campus’s Skyward Student Information Management System. The first group, labeled M1, was composed of the students who participated in esports as identified by the esports sponsor’s roster. It represented a total of 52 students across all four grade levels, of which only 28 students also participated in band, choir, or athletics. These students’ attendance data was included only in the M1 group, and were excluded from the M2 group. The second group, labeled M2, was composed of 460 students who participated in band, choir, or athletics as identified by class rosters for these courses. The third and final group, labeled M3, was composed of 461 students who did not participate in any of the aforementioned activities as identified by not finding these students listed in any of the previously mentioned rosters of participation.
The quantitative study results are based on the means of the percentage of attendance for each group’s Average Daily Attendance. The research question below conveys the problem and purpose of the study because it seeks to compare the mean attendance between the three groups in order to consider the effect participation in esports had on the attendance of the students who participated and thus consider the report esports could play in improved academic achievement by way of the dual-transfer model. IBM’s SPSS 26 Statistics program was used to calculate the mean of each group.
RQ1: How does an after school esports program impact the attendance of high school students at La Feria High School? Findings from this study revealed that the mean Average Daily Attendance for students who participated in esports as an after-school activity was similar to the mean Average Daily Attendance for students who participated in band, choir, or athletics to the second decimal place, while the mean Average Daily Attendance for students who participated in neither was lower than both.
The average daily attendance is a continuous interval, as shown in the tables, and acts as the dependent variable for this study. The data are normally distributed over the school population of 973 students enrolled at La Feria High School during the 2019-2020 school year, and contains no identifiable outliers. These assumptions in the data satisfy the four main assumptions for a paired sample t-test (Paired sample t-test, 2021), which was selected over a two-sample t-test as the two samples come from the same population during the same segment of time and this study is interested in the difference between two variables of the same subject (Xu, et al., 2017). An α-value of 0.05 was selected and a paired sample t-test done to compare the means between the difference groups of population. A paired sample t-test showed that the difference in the average daily attendance of those students who participated in esports (n = 4, M = 0.977200, SD = 0.0060238) and those students who did not participate in extra-curricular activities (n = 4, M = 0.957775, SD = 0.01052327) was statististically significant, t(3) = 2.640, p = 0.039, 95% CI [-0.0039897, 0.0428397], d = 2.27. A paired sample t-test showed that the difference between the average daily attendance of students who participated in esports (n = 4, M = 0.9772, SD = 0.0060238) and students who participated in band, choir, or athletics (n = 4, M = 0.976275, SD = 0.0031763) was not statistically significant, t(3) = 0.354, p = 0.3735, 95% CI [- 0.0073965, 0.0092465], d = 0.19.
Evaluation of the Findings
In this study, the first finding showed that the average daily attendance of students participating in esports was not similar to that of students who do not participate in any form of extra-curricular activities. In fact, the difference between the average daily attendance of these groups showed that the average daily attendance of those students who did participate in esports was significantly higher than those of students who did not participate in extra-curricular activities. These findings are consistent with research linking participation in sports with academic achievement (Dyer A., Kristjansson, Mann, Smith, & Allegrante, 2017) through the dual-step transfer model. The dual-step transfer model connects participation in extra-curricular activities and traditional sports with improved academic achievement by supporting student
social capital and sense of self-worth (Bradley & Conway, 2016).
The next finding showed that the differences between the average daily attendance of students participating in esports had an average daily attendance metric similar to that of students participating in traditional extracurriculars such as Athletics, Band, and Choir. This finding is supportive of the recent uptick in esports during the past decade (Dixon, 2020). With colleges, universities, and now high schools across the country developing after-school and varsity esports programs, these esports programs are providing an additional avenue of participation and belonging to the student population (HSEL, LLC, 2018). More powerfully, of the 52 students identified by the esports rosters for La Feria High School, 28 were also on the rosters for either athletics, band, or choir. This indicates that 24 students now participated in an after-school extracurricular activity where they, by all current evidence, might not have participated in any such activity.
Summary
In this chapter, the study explored the effect of participation in an after-school esports program as an extracurricular activity on the average daily attendance of students at a Title I public high school in La Feria, Texas. The research question was: how does an after-school esports program impact the attendance of high school students at La Feria High School? The researcher used a paired sample t-test to compare the average daily attendance of three segments of the student population at La Feria High School during the 2019-2020 school year. The roster of students who participated in esports was given to the attendance clerk, who queried the school’s Skyward Student Management System for attendance information for the year in question. The attendance clerk then provided attendance information for students who appeared on the course rosters for band, choir, or athletics, minus those students who were on the esports roster. Finally, the attendance clerk pulled attendance data for those students who did not appear on either of the previous two types of rosters. The averages provided were listed by grade level and entered into IBM’s SPSS 26 program for analysis. The research findings indicate that the average daily attendance of students who participated in either an after school esports program, athletics, band, or choir was significantly higher than the average daily attendance of students who did not participate in either esports, athletics, band, or choir. This result suggests that students who are active in an extracurricular activity are less likely to be absent from school. The dual-step transfer model suggests that participation in extracurricular activities has affect on academic achievement (Bradley & Conway, 2016). While Bradley and Conway do discuss a link between extracurricular activities, there was no discussion in their research of esports as an extracurricular activity. However, amid the results of this study was the finding that the average daily attendance of students who participated in esports was not significantly different from the average daily attendance of students who participated in traditional extracurricular activities such as athletics, band, or choir discussions can now be had regarding the consideration and treatment of esports in a similar fashion to the manner in which the more traditional extracurricular activities enjoy. Chapter five consists of the implications of this, recommendations for schools, and recommendations for future research.
Chapter 5: Implications, Recommendations, and Conclusions
The problem addressed in this study was the question of academic benefit for the high school adolescent participating in an esports program. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the effect that participation in an after-school esports program has on the average daily attention of students in high school. The dual-step transfer model shows that participation in sports and non-sport extracurricular activities has positive effects on academic achievement (Bradley & Conway, 2016). In order to explore the extent to which participation in afterschool esports programs, it is important to collect data regarding high school students. This study, therefore, narrows the scope of all the various possible avenues of consideration to only look at the effect of participation in esports on attendance.
A paired sample t-test was used to check for any statistical differences between the means of the average daily attendance of students who participated in an after-school esports program and those students who did not participate in any form of competitive after-school extracurricular activity. As data was collected from La Feria High School’s Attendance Clerk, it was separated into three distinct groups. Two of these groups were the groups for which the data was of interest. The third group consisted of students who participated in the traditional competitive after-school extra curricular activities. In La Feria High School, these activities were athletics such as football, basketball, volleyball, and tennis; band; and choir. With this third group, it was then possible to compare the mean attendance of the esports group with that of the group of students participating in traditional extracurricular activities.
The results of which showed three different results. In this study, the first finding showed that the average daily attendance of students participating in esports was not similar to that of students who do not participate in any form of extra-curricular activities. In fact, the difference between the average daily attendance of these groups showed that the average daily attendance of those students who did participate in esports was significantly higher than those of students who did not participate in extra-curricular activities. The next finding showed that the differences between the average daily attendance of students participating in esports had an average daily attendance metric similar to that of students participating in traditional extracurriculars such as Athletics, Band, and Choir.
Due to the newness of esports, not all high schools are equal in their treatment of esports. For some, participation in esports at the high school is led by a volunteer teacher sponsor and is not financially funded by the school in any way shape, or form. For others, the school district has bought into the potential benefits of esports and fully funds an esports program. For these schools, it is not unheard of to have an esports arena – a classroom with various gaming computers and consoles on which students can practice – along with an esports gaming concepts course which can be used in much the same fashion as an athletics class period for football and a music extra-curricular class are used for their corresponding activities. The vast majority of schools fall somewhere along a spectrum between these two extremes.
In this chapter, the implications of the results of this study will be discussed, and any factors that may have influenced the interpretations will be detailed. Following that discussion, recommendations for practice will be considered, including how they can be applied by high schools as they consider the implementation of an esports program if one does not exist in their district, or the implementation of upgrades to any existing program they may have. Finally, this chapter will close with recommendations for future research into this topic, including what additional studies may be done to further build on the findings of this study.
Implications
The findings from the study revealed that the average daily attendance of students who participated in an after-school esports program was significantly higher than the average daily attendance of students who did not participate in any form of competitive extracurricular after-school activity. The findings also revealed that the average daily attendance of students who participated in an after-school esports program was not significantly different from the average daily attendance of students who participated in traditional extracurricular activities such as athletics, band, or choir. The findings support the notion that esports can provide students with a sense of belonging and community which can provide some students with the social support they might otherwise not get (Lobel, Engels, Stone, Burk, & Granic, 2017).
One factor that may have influenced the results was the size of the school chosen for this study. Listed as a 4A school in Texas, La Feria High School had a total of 973 students enrolled during the school year. Due to the small student population, there were a number of students who participated in multiple extracurricular activities. While students who participated in more than one of the three traditional extracurricular activities offered by La Feria High School would not have impacted the results of this study, the fact that some of the students who participated in the after-school esports program also participated in at least one of the traditional extracurricular activities may have.
RQ1. How does an after-school esports program impact the attendance of high school students at La Feria High School? The impact that participation in an after-school esports program has on the average daily attendance of high school students was a positive one, where the attendance of the students in esports was greater than that of students who did not participate in any form of extra curricular. Moreover, since the findings indicated that there was no significant difference between the average attendance of students participating in any form of extracurricular activities, it shows that esports can act in a manner similar to traditional extracurricular activities such as athletics, band, and choir. This finding is important as prior studies found that participation in traditional extracurricular sports activities had a positive impact in academic achievement in high school students (Dyer A., Kristjansson, Mann, Smith, & Allegrante, 2017). Additionally, the dual-step transfer model showed that it is not only traditional sports activities but any extracurricular activities that could thus positively affect academic achievement (Bradley & Conway, 2016).
Recommendations for Practice
The major finding drawn from the data of this study was how the average daily attendance of students is affected by whether or not there was participation in an extracurricular activity or not. Thus, because the average daily attendance of students participating in esports was not significantly different from the average daily attendance of those students who participated in traditional extracurricular activities, the first recommendation for practice is that schools consider esports as an extracurricular activity similar to traditional sports. In so doing, schools will open a new avenue by which students can connect to peers and the community; an avenue that can have positive outcomes (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017) by helping students learn to self-regulate (Gabbiadini & Greitemeyer, 2017). However, districts are urged to do more than simply allow students to gather and play video games. They do this already. Rather, school districts should consider treating esports as they would traditional sports, structuring practices and training in a manner that will benefit the players (Nagrosky & Wiemeyer, 2020).
Daily attendance is but the tip of the iceberg for how esports can be utilized. Esports does not merely provide that extra avenue of connectedness for students but also the potential for increases in academic achievement similar to that seen from participation in traditional sports (Wretman, 2017).
The second recommendation for practice is for school principals, district curriculum and instruction personnel, and deans of instruction to rigorously look at current course offerings to locate a class that can grant esports a class period for structured gathering with a coach. During this esports class period, students will learn not just how to play the video games in which they would be competing but will be afforded the time and facility to consistently employ physical activities such as cardio exercises and flexibility, as well as discussions about diet and nutrition all of which are import to peak performance in any competitive activity (Giancotti, Fusco, Rodio, Capranica, & Cortis, 2018). Additionally, this class will allow gamers to form a more cohesive team mentally, improving communication, interpersonal, and social skills.
Recommendations for Future Research
The findings from the study add a unique perspective on how participation in an after-school esports program can benefit high school students. The study explored how the average daily attendance of students is affected by whether or not there was participation in an extracurricular activity or not. This quantitative study’s findings revealed that the attendance of students participating in esports was similar to the attendance of those students participating in traditional extra curricular activities such as athletics, band, or choir. Additionally, this study showed that for this particular high school, the attendance of both aforementioned groups were significantly higher than the attendance of the students who did not participate in any form of traditional extracurricular activity. However, there are a couple of lines of research that should be conducted in this area in order to enhance the knowledge base concerning the effects esports have on the academic achievement of middle and high school students. The following are recommendations for future research that will shed further light and understanding of the growing phenomenon that is competitive video game playing and esports.
The first recommendation is that the studies and research conducted to consider the impact sports participation has on academic achievement be replicated replacing traditional sports with esports. More than just a space to gather and practice, it is important that students are guided through learning from defeat. Such resilience is an important trait, one that coaches help students develop in traditional sports, which students then transfer to their scholastic endeavors (Bradley & Conway, 2016). In replicating studies exploring the effect of sports participation on academic achievements using esports in lieu of traditional sports, researchers can add to the body of knowledge concerning the impact this still new avenue may have on youth when paired with their education as many students participate in esports on their own and without structure and support. Through the replication of those studies, schools would implement standards of learning for esports groups, treating them much like an athletics course, providing students who would not otherwise join a team sport a similar experience (Super, Hermes, Verkooijens, & Koelen, 2018).
The second recommendation is that districts consider the multifaceted role esports can play in the educational sphere. Along with the skill of playing various video games, there is the production that goes into making esports watchable by family and community members. From the technical knowledge of how to connect the gaming console to large screen projectors and monitors, students can also learn to use online services to live stream games in a manner much like a sports broadcast. A host of technical skills are available for teaching through this, skills such as video production and editing, sound engineering, social media communications, and public speaking. Additional skills in computer networking and cyber-security can also be rolled into a thriving esports program. Finally, those skills that esports can lend themselves toward which can not be forgotten is that of video game design and developer (Phil, 2014). The findings from this study showed an improved attendance metric in esports participants over those without a similar extracurricular added to the population numbers which revealed that of the 52 students participating in either esports or a traditional extracurricular activity, nearly half would apparently not have participated in any form of extracurricular activity had there not been an after school esports program. Thus, it is probable that an effect similar to that seen between traditional sport and non-sport extracurricular activity participation and academic achievement (Bradley & Conway, 2016) in other studies would also be seen between esport participation and academic achievement.
The third recommendation is to repeat this exact study with a finer lens and broader narrower definition of extracurricular activity. The current study divided the student population into three groups. One group was the group of students who were on the roster of the after-school esports program. Another group was compromised of students who were enrolled in any level of athletics, band, or choir course. The third group contained all the other students. It is possible that this group contained students who were members of and participated in some other form of extracurricular activity that did not have a course. Such activities include but are not restricted to the following student clubs and organizations: art, drama, cultural appreciation clubs, chess, robotics, Future Farmers of America, and Health Occupations Students of America, among others. This study was unable to disaggregate the student population this finely. Thus, the body of knowledge on the effect participation in esports has on the attendance of high school students would be improved and expanded by including a separate line of data for each of these kinds of activities in which students may be participating.
Conclusion
The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore how participation in an after-school esports program affects the average daily attendance of high school students. One high school in southern Texas was selected. Data from La Feria High School was collected from the school’s attendance clerk. The researcher ensured that professional and ethical research procedures were followed as highlighted by NCU’s IRB process. As the data being collected was archival data, no identifying information was on the data provided to the researcher by the attendance clerk. The study’s findings revealed that the average daily attendance of students who participated in an after-school esports program was not the same as the average daily attendance of students who did not participate in any extracurricular activities. More specifically, this study’s findings revealed that the attendance metric of students participating in esports was significantly higher than the attendance metric of those students who do not participate in extracurricular activities. In addition, the findings showed that the average daily attendance of esport participants was similar to the attendance metric of students who participated in either athletics, band, or choir. This similarity in the attendance metric between these two groups suggests that they malfunction similarly in providing high school students with an incentive to avoid missing school days unnecessarily. However, it is not just an increase in student attendance that is the benefit, but the actual playing of videos games (Adachi & Willoughby, 2017). Research has shown that in young adults, the playing of video games can help develop graduate-level skills (Barr M., 2017). Therefore, there is the potential benefit to the adolescent who is preparing for post-secondary education in beginning to practice these same skills. There is also a benefit to adolescents participating in an organized esports program at school in a similar way as participation in traditional sports is beneficial to high school students (Dyer A. M., Kristjansson, Mann, Smith, & Allegrante, 2017).
The study showed that since the attendance metric of students participating in an esports program was greater than the attendance of students who did not participate in extra curricular activities, a school-sponsored esports program can motivate students into coming to school in order to gather and play video games. Thus, esports programs can be a factor in helping support student achievement by helping ensure students are present not just for esports gatherings but also for classes into which students carry the friendships formed at esports practice. Students then find themselves supported by a peer group, gaining resilience as follows in the dual-step transfer model (Bradley & Conway, 2016). However, the true power of esports is not just the friendships and support groups formed within the individual school community in which the esports are being practiced.
As esports by its nature is digital and online, students can compete with others not just from a neighboring city, but across the state or country or even on the other side of the globe. Just as healthy competitive relationship is built between competitors in face-to-face sports, so too can similar relationships be developed via online interactions (Coulson, Oskis, Meredith, & Gould, 2018). However, unlike face-to-face competition which is limited by geographic locations and travel funds, online competition means that with a stable internet connection, there is no need to travel. Thus, students can find themselves connected with others from locations they would otherwise never meet or see. This provides the potential for students to interact with a variety of cultures, expanding their understanding of our increasingly connected and global world.
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