A sample of 524 Israeli school children in grades 4 through 8 was used to investigate the relationships of game-playing with school achievement, family background, and several psychological characteristics. Game playing was found not to be directly related to school achievement when abilities and attitudes were controlled. However, the playing of certain types of games was found to be related to certain attitudes and abilities, which in turn were related to school achievement. These relationships were nonlinear and appeared to represent threshold effects. (Author)