Lepp, Andrew, et al.

​The Relationship Between Cell Phone Use and Academic

Performance in a Sample of U.S. College Students.​ 2015,

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244015573169.

The Relationship Between Cell Phone Use and Academic Performance in a Sample of

U.S. College Students ​is a peer reviewed journal written by Andrew Lepp, Jacob E. Barkley, and

Aryn C. Karpinski, associate and assistant professors at Kent State University, whom are known

for their SAGE Open’s Award for the Most Read Journal Article of 2015 for this article. While

Barkley focuses his research on factors related to physical activity and sedentary behaviors, Lepp

and Karpinski focus their research on “new media” use, young people’s behavior, technology

and social media in education. This article targets students and educators about the potential

academic risks associated with the usage of cell phones.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the hypothesized idea of cell phone use and

academic performance are related. It focused on four factors: sex, cigarette smoking, class

standing, and undergraduate major. A sample size of 536 undergraduate students from 82

self-reported majors. A survey was conducted using the SE:SRL (self-efficacy for self-regulated

learning) and SE:AA (self-efficacy academic achievement) scales in order to predict the

students’ academic performance. Self-efficacy, according to the article, generally describes an

individual’s belief in his or her capabilities to organize and execute the behaviors the behaviors

necessary for success and an abundance of research suggests that self-efficacy beliefs are among

the strongest predictors of academic performance. The SE:SRL and SE:AA scales used a 1-7

scale and those who had higher scores indicated greater self-efficacy. The study found that

females had a higher GPA than males, smokers had a lower average GPA than nonsmokers,
Freshmen and juniors had higher average GPAs than sophomore and seniors, but the students’

self-reported majors had no major difference in average GPA, so this variable was omitted. It

also found that there was a positive relationship between college GPA and SE:SRL, and GPA

and SE:AA, but there was a negative relationship between total daily cell phone use and college

GPA. This validates the hypothesis that cell phone use and academic performance are related.

● Participants were observed for 15 min with on-task and off- task behavior recorded every

minute. Results showed that participants typically became distracted by media such as

Facebook and texting after less than 6 min of studying. Furthermore, measurements of

daily Facebook use and daily texting behavior predicted off-task behavior during study

periods as well as self-reported GPA.

● As such, the negative relationship between cell phone use and academic performance

identified here could be attributed to students’ decreased attention while studying or a

diminished amount of time dedicated to uninterrupted studying.

● Considering these explanations, it is likely that the modern cell phone creates a

temptation to surf the Internet, check social media (e.g., Facebook), play video games,

contact friends, explore new applications, or engage with any number of

cell-phone-based leisure activities, which some students fail to resist when they should

otherwise be focused on academics.

This article was a medium read and I had to look up a few words while reading. The

statistics provided were confusing, but the authors explained their findings of the study which

helped resolve the problem. The information found in this article is very useful for my research
because it shows the effects of cell phones on academic performance. I wonder if this is only in

the United States, or other countries in the world, such as in developing countries.