Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 127, December 2018, Pages 107-112
Computers & Education

The effects of mobile phone use on academic performance: A meta-analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.08.012Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Study purpose is to further examine any relationships that may exist between mobile phone use and educational achievement.

  • A meta-analysis on the relationship between mobile phone use & academic outcomes over 10 years (2008–2017) was conducted.

  • Results indicate the summary effect of mobile phone use on student outcomes is r = −0.16 with 95% CI of −0.20 to −0.13.

Abstract

Purpose

Although the mobile phone has been conspicuously proliferated in the past decades, little is known about its influence; especially its effect on student learning and academic performance. Although there is a growing interest in mobile devices and their correlates and consequences for children, effects vary across related studies and the magnitude of the overall effect remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to further examine any relationships that may exist between mobile phone use and educational achievement.

Research design

A meta-analysis of research conducted on the relationship between mobile phone use and student educational outcomes over a 10-year period (2008–2017) was conducted. The operational definition of cell phone use to guide the implementation of this study is: any measure of mobile phone use, whether considered normative or problematic, that quantifies the extent to which a person uses a phone, feels an emotional or other dependence on a phone, or categorizes the types of uses and situations in which use occurs. Studies examining use for the express purpose of educational improvement are not included, as the aim of this study is to ascertain the effects of normal smartphone use. The operational definition of academic achievement to guide the implementation of this study is: any measure that quantifies the extent to which a student or group of students is performing or feels he or she is performing to a satisfactory level, including but not limited to letter grades and test scores, knowledge and skill acquisition, and self-reported measures of academic ability or difficulty.

Findings

The overall meta-analysis indicated that the average effect of mobile phone usage on student outcomes was r =  −0.162 with a 95% confident interval of −0.196 to −0.128. The effect sizes of moderator variables (education level, region, study type, and whether the effect size was derived from a Beta coefficient, and mobile phone use construct) were analyzed. The results of this study and their implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Section snippets

Literature review

There is a growing interest in exploring the effects of mobile phone use on academic achievement. In contrast to the plethora of research on the effects of internet use, far less is known about general mobile phone and consequences for children (Jackson, Von Eye, Fitzgerald, Witt, & Zhao, 2011).

Of the empirical investigations that have been conducted on the effects of mobile phone use, the observed effects are not homogeneous in either size or direction, ranging from positive and negative to

Purpose statement & research questions

The purpose of this study is to explore any relationships that may exist between mobile phone use and educational achievement. There are several important factors necessitating this study: (1) mobile phones are increasingly ubiquitous across all age groups and school levels; (2) while mobile phones can be useful tools, negative findings about their effects on mental health suggest that researchers should investigate how they could be affecting other areas of life; and (3) as educational

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Studies were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis if they conformed with the following three criteria:

  • 1.

    Studies of the relationship between cell phone usage for non-educational purposes and student academic achievement. The article measured some sort of construct of mobile phone use such as: (a) number of text messages or phone calls sent/received in a given period, (b) measure of mobile phone addiction, or (c) time spent using a mobile phone for various purposes in a given period. If the

Overall effect

The 39 studies included (40 effect sizes) in the analysis consist of 148,883 students covering K-12 (135,131 students) and college (13,752 students) from 14 countries and regions (i.e., United States, Turkey, Middle East, Taiwan, India, Brazil). The forest plot of effect sizes and the 95% confidence interval of the 39 studies are shown in Fig. 1. As shown in the figure, the effect sizes range from −0.49 to 0.09. Thirty-six (36) of the studies reported a negative relationship and 3 reported a

Summary of results and discussion

This meta-analysis was designed to explore the extent to which mobile phone use influences student academic achievement, and if so, the extent to which the effects of mobile phone use are moderated by (a) education level, (b) region, (c) study type, (d) whether or not the effect size was derived from a Beta coefficient, and (e) the construct used to measure mobile phone use.

The results of this study indicate that, overall, mobile phone use has a small negative effect (r = −0.16) on educational

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