Digital Screen Time as a Characteristic of Academic Performance among School-Going Children

Abstract

Today’s times are witnessing the younger ones getting totally immersed in screen-driven operations from a very tender age. This study assesses the role of screen-time exposure at regulating the academic performance of students at school, in association with age and gender. Students in the age group of 10–15 years were considered under the present study. Non-probability convenient, purposive sampling technique had been used for this cross-sectional investigation. Ethical clearance was taken from the institutional ethical committee. Informed, written consent was received from all participants. Those who volunteered for this study, as permitted by their parents, filled a standardised questionnaire, and their academic performance in the last attended semester was also recorded. Data gathered were analysed using SPSS 20.0. The study hints that watching television for 1 hour and/or more every day, specifically, tends to interfere with the general competency at school (tracked with aggregate scores). The students, primarily using computer and other related screens for less than 1 hour or even not at all on a daily basis were linked to higher composite academic scores. Hence, only an optimal media-screen usage is acceptable, noted to have been giving up at-par academic scores without impairing the scholastic performance of students.