Students hooked on to texting or chatting on cell phones may be negatively affecting their academic performance

Updated on: Friday, April 12, 2013

College students who are hooked on to texting or chatting on cell phones and constantly updating their Facebook status may be negatively affecting their academic performance, a new study has warned

Researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioural and Preventive Medicine in US found freshmen women spend nearly half their day - 12 hours - engaged in some form of media use, particularly texting, music, the Internet and social networking.

Researchers found media use, in general, was associated with lower grade point averages (GPAs) and other negative academic outcomes.

However, there were two exceptions: newspaper reading and listening to music were actually linked to a positive academic performance.

The findings, reported by the journal Emerging Adulthood, offer some new insight into media use in early adulthood, a time when many young people are living independently for the first time and have significant freedom from parental monitoring.

Lead author Jennifer L Walsh from The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioural and Preventive Medicine, said, "Most research on media use and academics has focused on adolescents, rather than new college students, or has only examined a few forms of media. So we were curious about the impact of a wider range of media, including activities like social networking and texting that have only become popular in recent years."

Walsh and colleagues surveyed 483 first-year college women at a northeast university at the start of their freshmen year.

Researchers asked students about their use of 11 forms of media (television, movies, music, surfing the Internet, social networking, talking on a cell phone, texting, magazines, newspapers, non-school-related books and video games) on the average weekday and weekend day during the previous week.

In January and June, participants reported their GPAs for the fall and spring semester, and they also completed surveys about academic confidence, behaviours and problems.

In addition to data suggesting that college women use nearly 12 hours of media per day, researchers found that cell phones, social networking, movie/television viewing and magazine reading were most negatively associated with later academic outcomes, after accounting for their fall academic performance, Science Daily reported.

"We found women who spend more time using some forms of media report fewer academic behaviours, such as completing homework and attending class, lower academic confidence and more problems affecting their school work, like lack of sleep and substance use," said Walsh.

Students hooked on to texting or chatting on cell phones may be negatively affecting their academic performance

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