SYDNEY - Students regularly playing online video games tend to have higher school scores, an Australian study released on Monday suggested.

Video games could boost teenagers' analytical and problem-solving skills, therefore improving their scores in math, science and reading, found Alberto Posso, a researcher with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, after testing more than 12,000 Australian 15-year-olds.

"Students who play online games almost every day score 15 points above the average in math and 17 points above the average in science," Posso said.

The research also indicates that students who used social media like Facebook every day score 20 points worse in math than students who never used it.

"Students who are regularly on social media are, of course, losing time that could be spent on study," Posso said.

The research has been published in the International Journal of Communication.