Electronic Device Use and Academic Performance in Adolescents

Electronic Device Use and Academic Performance in Adolescents Background: Academic performance is dependent upon a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The availability and ownership of electronic devices has risen dramatically in recent decades. Popularity of these devices has increased, particularly amongst adolescents. Direct links have been made between technology use and physical inactivity as well as sleep insufficiency. However, the relationship between technology use and academic performance remains unclear. We hypothesized that there would be a significant association between academic performance and the amount and type of technology used in a large sample of UK adolescents. Methods: UK adolescents (n=892; aged 11-13 years) from eight UK secondary schools were recruited into a three-year cohort study. All measures were obtained annually. Academic performance data were obtained at the end of each academic year from school records for Mathematics, Science and English. Use of technology was obtained from the Technology Use Questionnaire (TUQ) for five technologies (television, mobile telephones, video games, MP3 player, computer use for social networking). Frequency of use of combined technology was determined using a likert scale (0-2015). Individual use of technology was dichotomized (never vs. sometimes/usually/always) The primary analysis was by repeated measures ANOVA using a linear mixed model which took account of the within-subject variability, using academic results at all 3 time points. Models were fitted for each subject separately (English, Mathematics and Science) and adjusted for age, BMI and type of school attended. Academic results for each subject were transformed into z-scores. Results: There is evidence that overall weekday technology usage had an impact on female academic performance across all three subjects but no evidence of impact on male academic performance. Social networking on weekday affected female results in English (β=-0.15, p=0.031) and Science (β=-0.19, p=0.007). TV usage also had an impact on female English results (β=-0.14, p=0.045). Video game usage during weekday affected male students English results (β=-0.25, p=0.004). There is no evidence that music or mobile phone usage had an effect on any subject performance for both males and females. Conclusion: In our study, weekday use of electronic devices had significantly higher negative impact on the academic performance in females more than males. The use of different technologies and social networking during the weekday affect the performance in different subjects such as English vs. Science. Gender differences in academic performance were not found amongst adolescents with mobile phone use or who listened to music. Further studies investigating the relationship between duration of technology use and academic performance are needed.

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