How does mobile phone dependency impair academic engagement among Chinese left-behind children?

Abstract

Mobile phone dependency (MPD) and low academic engagement are two common social and psychological problems among left-behind children in rural China. However, the relation between MPD and academic engagement in this population remains unclear, although studies have indicated that technology addiction is associated with increased academic problems. To elucidate the relationship between MPD and academic engagement and its underlying mechanism, this study examined the mediating roles of inattention, academic persistence, and procrastination in the relation between MPD and academic engagement. We recruited 1505 left-behind children to complete self-report questionnaires. A structural equation model was established to examine the multiple mediating effects. The results showed that MPD had three 1-step indirect and negative effects on academic engagement via inattention, academic persistence, and academic procrastination. MPD had three 2-step indirect and negative relationships to academic engagement via inattention to academic persistence, inattention to academic procrastination, and academic persistence to procrastination. MPD also had a 3-step indirect and negative relationship to academic engagement via inattention, academic persistence, and procrastination. These findings suggest that inattention, academic persistence, and academic procrastination mediated the relationship between MPD and academic engagement in left-behind children in rural China and further indicate that MPD can elicit a constellation of academic problems, which, in turn, result in low academic engagement.