Graduate Research

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Relationship Between Smartphone Usage and Academic Performance of High School Students
(2020) Bennett, Russell; Kariuki, Patrick
Today’s youth are obtaining, or obtaining access to, smartphones at younger and younger ages. The purpose of this study was to examine if there was a relationship between smartphone usage and academic performance of high school students. This study also examined whether or not there was a difference between smartphone usage and academic performance for boys and for girls. The population for this study was from a high school in northeast Tennessee. Two English Language Arts (ELA) classes from each grade nine through twelve were invited to participate. Smartphone usage by the participant was measured with a researcher-created survey. A student’s cumulative high school GPA was used to measure academic performance. The results indicated there was no relationship between smartphone usage and academic performance of high school students. Significant differences between the smartphone usage and academic performances were found for both boys and girls with the higher of the two coming from the girls. While it has been shown that electronic devices can be used for learning purposes as well as distract and pull students off-task from academic activities, this study suggests there is no relationship between a student’s use of a smartphone for academic purposes and his or her academic performance.