Abstract
Although overuse of the internet has been suggested to be related to poor academic performance, the effects of internet use for education on academic performance showed conflict results in previous studies. Accordingly, the associations of school performance with internet use for study and for general purpose were explored in a large population of Korean adolescents. Cross-sectional data from the 2013 Korean Youth Risk Behaviour Web-based Survey (KYRBWS) were retrieved for 59,105 12- to 18-year-old adolescents. The associations between school performance and internet use were analysed using multinomial logistic regression with complex sampling. Days of physical activity, sex, obesity, region of residence, income level, parental education level, stress, sleep time, smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, and total study time were recorded and adjusted for as confounders. Higher school performance was positively associated with longer internet use for study (adjusted odds ratio, AOR, of 2+ h [95% confidence interval] = 2.43 [2.10–2.82], 2.02 [1.78–2.30], 1.66 [1.46–1.89], and 1.30 [1.15–1.47] for performance groups A, B, C, and D, respectively, P < 0.001) but negatively associated with longer internet use for general purpose (AOR of 3+ h [95% confidence interval] = 0.68 [0.60–0.78], 0.85 [0.76–0.94], 0.83 [0.75–0.92], and 0.98 [0.89–1.08] for performance groups A, B, C, and D, respectively, P < 0.001). Higher school performance significantly positively correlated with internet use for study but negatively correlated with internet use for general purpose. Academic use of the internet could be a means of achieving good school performance.
Highlights
Academic performance in adolescence, which subsequently determines individuals’ final educational level, is a crucial factor that has substantial effects on adolescents’ later life
All of the considered variables including age, days of physical activity, sex, obesity, region of residence, level of income, level of parental education, stress, sleep time, smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, and total study time significantly differed between the performance groups (P < 0.001 for each variable)
Compared to the lowest school performance group (E), internet use for study of 2+ h was related to higher school performance in the unadjusted model, model 1, and model 2 (AOR [95% confidence intervals (CIs)] for internet use for study of 2+ h in model 2 = 2.43 [2.10–2.82], 2.02 [1.78–2.30], 1.66 [1.46–1.89], and 1.30 [1.15–1.47] for performance groups A, B, C, and D, respectively, P < 0.001)
Summary
Study population and data collectionThe Institutional Review Board of the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) approved this study (2014-06EXP-02-P-A). Written informed consent was obtained from each participant prior to the survey. Because this web-based survey was performed at a school with many participants, the need to obtain informed consent from students’ parents was waived. This consent procedure was approved by the IRB of the KCDC. This was a cross-sectional nation-wide study using data from the 2013 KYRBWS collected by the KCDC, which were analysed using statistical methods based on designed sampling and adjusted weighting. Sampling was weighted by statisticians, who calculated the weights post-stratification and considered non-response rates and extreme values
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