The impact of students’ cellphone-use and self-control on academic performance in traditional classroom

• Published in: Asia Pacific education review Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 591 - 598
• Main Authors: Ma, Weifeng, Lin, Xuefen, Lou, Jiao, Liu, Yang, Tang, Wei, Bao, Zongliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; 교육연구소
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Cellular telephones; College Freshmen; Education; Handheld Devices; Mathematics; Mathematics Education; Predictor Variables; Self Control; Statistical Significance; Students; Use Studies; 교육학; Cellphone-use duration; Self-control; Cellphone-use frequency; Academic performance
• ISSN: 1598-1037; 1876-407X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12564-023-09824-6

Cellphone-use in class has many negative effects on students' overall performance. By using a self-developed monitoring-app to record students' cellphone-use in class, this study attempts to explore the relationships of cellphone-use and self-control on academic performance. The subjects of this study are 207 freshmen who take part in advanced mathematics courses, and the research period lasts for 16 weeks. Two-factor ANOVA showed that cellphone-use duration and self-control had an interactive influence on students' academic performance. There was no statistical significance in the influence of cellphone-use frequency and self-control on academic performance. Simple slopes analysis revealed a negative relationship between cellphone-use duration and academic performance for those who were low on self-control, whereas there was no relationship between these constructs for those who were high on self-control. The results show that self-control plays a moderating role in the relationship between cellphone-use duration and academic performance. Self-control could weaken the influence of cellphone-use on academic performance. Furthermore, this study is helpful to better understand the way of cellphone-use affecting academic performance, and suggests appropriate intervention of cellphone-use to help poor self-controlled students achieve better academic performance.