IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rug/rugwps/19-986.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: First Evidence from Longitudinal Data

Author

Listed:
  • Simon Amez
  • Suncica Vujic
  • Lieven De Marez
  • Stijn Baert

Abstract

To study the causal impact of smartphone use on academic performance, we collected—for the first time worldwide—longitudinal data on students’ smartphone use and educational performance. For three consecutive years we surveyed all students attending classes in eleven different study programmes at two Belgian universities on general smartphone use and other drivers of academic achievement. These survey data were merged with the exam scores of these students. We analysed the resulting data by means of panel data random effects estimation controlling for unobserved individual characteristics. A one standard deviation increase in overall smartphone use results in a decrease of 0.349 points (out of 20) and a decrease of 2.616 percentage points in the fraction of exams passed.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Amez & Suncica Vujic & Lieven De Marez & Stijn Baert, 2019. "Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: First Evidence from Longitudinal Data," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 19/986, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    • Handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:19/986
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_19_986.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beland, Louis-Philippe & Murphy, Richard, 2016. "Ill Communication: Technology, distraction & student performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 61-76.
    2. Baert, Stijn & Omey, Eddy & Verhaest, Dieter & Vermeir, Aurélie, 2015. "Mister Sandman, bring me good marks! On the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 91-98.
    3. Andrew Bell & Malcolm Fairbrother & Kelvyn Jones, 2019. "Fixed and random effects models: making an informed choice," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 1051-1074, March.
    4. Amez, Simon & Baert, Stijn, 2019. "Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: A Literature Review," IZA Discussion Papers 12723, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Stijn Baert & Sunčica Vujić & Simon Amez & Matteo Claeskens & Thomas Daman & Arno Maeckelberghe & Eddy Omey & Lieven De Marez, 2020. "Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: Correlation or Causal Relationship?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 22-46, February.
    6. Matthew A Christensen & Laura Bettencourt & Leanne Kaye & Sai T Moturu & Kaylin T Nguyen & Jeffrey E Olgin & Mark J Pletcher & Gregory M Marcus, 2016. "Direct Measurements of Smartphone Screen-Time: Relationships with Demographics and Sleep," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-14, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amez, Simon & Denecker, Floor & Ponnet, Koen & De Marez, Lieven & Baert, Stijn, 2021. "Mobile DNA and Sleep Quality," IZA Discussion Papers 14816, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Amez, Simon & Baert, Stijn & Heydencamp, Emily & Wuyts, Joey, 2021. "Does Multitasking Affect Students' Academic Performance? Evidence from a Longitudinal Study," IZA Discussion Papers 14896, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Amez, Simon & Baert, Stijn, 2021. "Bye, bye, Hotel Mama, bye, bye good grades? Living in a student room and exam results in tertiary education," GLO Discussion Paper Series 885, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stijn Baert & Sunčica Vujić & Simon Amez & Matteo Claeskens & Thomas Daman & Arno Maeckelberghe & Eddy Omey & Lieven De Marez, 2020. "Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: Correlation or Causal Relationship?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 22-46, February.
    2. Simon Amez & Suncica Vujic & Margo Abrath & Stijn Baert, 2021. "Deteriorated sleep quality does not explain the negative impact of smartphone use on academic performance," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 21/1019, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    3. Simon Amez & Stijn Baert, 2021. "Bye, bye, Hotel Mama, bye, bye good grades? Living in a student room and exam results in tertiary education," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 21/1018, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    4. Amez, Simon & Denecker, Floor & Ponnet, Koen & De Marez, Lieven & Baert, Stijn, 2021. "Mobile DNA and Sleep Quality," IZA Discussion Papers 14816, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Simon Amez & Stijn Baert, 2019. "Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: a Literature Review," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 19/982, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    6. Baert, Stijn & Lippens, Louis & Moens, Eline & Sterkens, Philippe & Weytjens, Johannes, 2020. "How Do We Think the COVID-19 Crisis Will Affect Our Careers (If Any Remain)?," IZA Discussion Papers 13164, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Eline Moens & Louis Lippens & Philippe Sterkens & Johannes Weytjens & Stijn Baert, 2022. "The COVID-19 crisis and telework: a research survey on experiences, expectations and hopes," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(4), pages 729-753, June.
    8. Amez, Simon & Baert, Stijn & Heydencamp, Emily & Wuyts, Joey, 2021. "Does Multitasking Affect Students' Academic Performance? Evidence From a Longitudinal Study," GLO Discussion Paper Series 982, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Baron, Opher & Callen, Jeffrey L. & Segal, Dan, 2023. "Does the bullwhip matter economically? A cross-sectional firm-level analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    10. Sana Sadiq & Khadija Anasse & Najib Slimani, 2022. "The impact of mobile phones on high school students: connecting the research dots," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 30(1), pages 252-270, April.
    11. Scherr, Sebastian & Reifegerste, Doreen & Arendt, Florian & van Weert, Julia C.M. & Alden, Dana L., 2022. "Family involvement in medical decision making in Europe and the United States: A replication and extension in five Countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    12. Hall, Caroline & Lundin, Martin & Sibbmark, Kristina, 2019. "A laptop for every child? The impact of ICT on educational outcomes," Working Paper Series 2019:26, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    13. Nick Drydakis, 2023. "Parental unemployment and adolescents' academic performance," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(7), pages 1362-1381, February.
    14. Yana Akhtyrska & Franz Fuerst, 2021. "People or Systems: Does Productivity Enhancement Matter More than Energy Management in LEED Certified Buildings?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-35, December.
    15. Chowdhury, Subhasish M. & Crede, Carsten J., 2020. "Post-cartel tacit collusion: Determinants, consequences, and prevention," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Patterson, Richard W. & Patterson, Robert M., 2017. "Computers and productivity: Evidence from laptop use in the college classroom," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 66-79.
    17. Toger, Marina & Türk, Umut & Östh, John & Kourtit, Karima & Nijkamp, Peter, 2023. "Inequality in leisure mobility: An analysis of activity space segregation spectra in the Stockholm conurbation," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    18. Theodor F. Cojoianu & Andreas G. F. Hoepner & Xi Hu & Moustafa Ramadan & Paolo Veneri & Dariusz Wójcik, 2024. "Are cities venturing green? A global analysis of the impact of green entrepreneurship on city air pollution," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 523-540, February.
    19. Schaffner, Markus & Sarkar, Jayanta & Torgler, Benno & Dulleck, Uwe, 2018. "The implications of daylight saving time: A quasi-natural experiment on cognitive performance and risk taking behaviour," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 390-400.
    20. Naveed Hayat & Muhammad Imran & Shabbir Ahmad & Adnan Ali Shahzad & Jamshaid ur Rehman, 2022. "The Effect of Mobile Phone Use on the Students’ Budget, Social Behavior and Academic Performance: A Case Study of Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, Pakistan," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(3), pages 122-134, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    smartphone use; academic performance; longitudinal data; causality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:19/986. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nathalie Verhaeghe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.