The relationship between SNS usage and academic performance:

the mediating role of procrastination

Chris Chen, Catherine Zhang, Charlene Ye, Carol Zhu, Xiaofan Han

Agenda

Introduction

Literature Review

Methods

Results

Conclusion & Discussion

Limitations & Future Study

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Introduction

Prevalence of SNS among Mainland Chinese students

❖ Sina Weibo Among Chinese netizens whose age is at 19 or above, the penetration

rate of Weibo is 88.8% (Annual Report of Weibo, 2012), and 30 million are

college students (Weibo Development Report, 2013).

❖ Renren According to Alexa.com, the age of Renren users is between 18 and 24 ,

and most of them have college educational background.

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Background

❖ Academic procrastination has become a spotlight.

❖ Previous studies found that academic procrastination would cause

anxiety, irritation, regret, despair, or self-blame (Burka & Yuen, 1983;

Pychyl et al., 2000a; Rothblum, Solomon & Murakami, 1986).

❖ Also, procrastination is found to be negatively associated with academic

performance (Wesley, 1994; Beck, Koons & Milgram, 2000).

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Purpose of study

❖ To clarify the relationship between SNS usage and academic

procrastination;

❖ To explore the mediating role of procrastination on the relationship

between SNS usage and academic performances.

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Literature Review

Definition of SNS

❖ Boyd & Ellison (2007) defined social network sites as web-based

services that allow individuals to:(1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system;(2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection;(3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

❖ Other scholars debate the word "networking" is more appropriate

(Staples.2009)

❖ This study will adopt the terminology "networking" for SNS.

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Definition of Academic Performances

❖ Academic performances can be predictable by

(1) Tests of examining academic ability, e.g. the American College Test (ACT)

(2) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)

(3) A widely used indicator—Grade Point Average (GPA)

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Definition of Emotions and Attitudes to Study

❖ Grade alone can not fully evaluate a student' learning ability.

❖ Conceptualization: A student 's psychological reflection and

evaluation towards his (or her) study.

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Literatures on SNS usage and Academic-related Performances!

❖ There is no robust negative relationship between Facebook use and grades (Pasek, More & Hargittai, 2009).

❖ Facebook use, often carried out simultaneously with other study activities, reported having lower GPAs and spend fewer hours per week studying than nonusers (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010).

❖ Certain ways of using Facebook could leads to various psychosocial outcomes in students academic engagement, and moreover Facebook use is not detrimental to academic outcomes (Junco, 2012).

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Definition of Procrastination

❖ Procrastination is the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point

of experiencing subjective discomfort (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984).

❖ Lack or absence of self-regulated performance and the irrational

behavioral tendency to postpone what is necessary to reach a goal or

should be completed (Ellis & Knaus, 1977; Lay, 1986; Tuckman, 1991;

Knaus, 2000).

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Definition of Academic Procrastination

❖ Academic Procrastination is the intentional delay in the

beginning or completion of important and timely academic activities

(Schouwenburg, 2004; Ziesat, Rosenthal & White, 1978).

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Literatures on Procrastination and Academic-related Performance

❖ Procrastination results in detrimental academic performance, including

poor grades and course withdrawal (Semb, Glick & Spencer, 1979).

❖ Procrastination leads to low academic achievement (Beswick,

Rothblum & Mann, 1988).

❖ University students who rated high on procrastination received low

grades (Tice and Baumeister, 1997).

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Literatures on SNS Usage and Academic Procrastination

❖ A study shows that a majority of students believe online activities

distract them from studying, lead to procrastination, and displace time

that would have otherwise been spent on academics (Shannon J &

O'Brien, 2012).

❖ Also, there is a research on Facebook-related academic procrastination

(Holbova, 2010).

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Framework

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Academic Performances

Academic Procrastination

SNS UsageEmotions and

Attitudes to study

+_

_?

?

Hypotheses and Research Question

Hypothesis 1: SNS usage will be positively related to academic procrastination.

Hypothesis 2: Academic procrastination will be negatively related to academic performances.

Hypothesis 3: Academic procrastination will be negatively related to emotions and attitudes towards study.

RQ: What is the relationship between SNS usage and academic-related performances?

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Methods

Sampling

❖ Online survey: Google Form

❖ N=245 (out of 251), Female:160; Male:85

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65.3 % 34.7 %

Sampling

❖ Online survey: Google Form

❖ N=245 (out of 251), Female:160; Male:85

❖ Subject: college students from mainland of China

❖ Probability sampling: Available sampling methodNon-probability sampling: Snowball sampling strategy

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Measurement❖ SNS Usage (Weibo, Renren and Wechat)

6-point Scale (1=Less than 10 minutes, 6=More than 3 hours)

Question: How much time spend on SNS per day?

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❖ Bruce W. Tuckman's Procrastination Scale (revised version)

4-point Likert Scale (1=That's not me for sure, 4=That's me for sure)

Questions: I needlessly delay finishing assignments, even when they are important; I am an incurable time waster, etc.

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Measurement❖ Academic Performance

Self-reported question

Question: What is your average score in last semester evaluated by Percentage

System？

!

❖ Emotions and Attitudes toward study

4-point Likert scale (1=Not at all true, 4=Exactly true )

Questions: I feel I am a productive student; I work very hard in my study, etc.

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Results

Findings—reliability

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❖ Procrastination scale

Mean Std.Deviation Cronbach's Alpha N of items

2.32 0.48 0.89 16

Findings—reliability

❖ Emotions and attitudes to study scale

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Mean Std.Deviation Cronbach's Alpha N of items

2.5 0.44 0.77 8

Findings—descriptive

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Mean Std. deviation

Renren Use Per Day (N= 231) 1.44 0.98

Weibo Use Per Day(N=238) 2.28 1.51

Wechat Use Per Day(N=247) 3.19 1.77

Emotions & Attitudes to study (N=232) 2.50 0.44

Academic Performance(N=214) 82.33 14.4

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Academic Procrastination

Renren Use Per day(N=231)

Pearson correlation!Sig.(2-tailed)

-.18*!.01

Weibo Use Per Day(N=238)

Pearson correlation!Sig.(2-tailed)

.12#!.08

We chat Use Per day (N=247)

Pearson correlation!Sig.(2-tailed)

.01!

.94

***p<.001; **p<.01; *p<.05

IV: SNS Usage DV: Academic Procrastination

Hypothesis 1 is supported.

Unexpectedly, Renren usage is weakly negatively associated with academic procrastination. In terms of Renren usage, hypothesis 1 is rejected.

Findings—correlation

Findings—correlation

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IV: Academic Procrastination DV: Academic performances & Emotions and Attitudes to study

Academic Performances

Emotions and Attitudes to Study

Academic Procrastination

(N=213)

Pearson correlation!Sig.(2-tailed)

.09!

.23-.53**!.000

***p<.001; **p<.01; *p<.05

Hypothesis 2 is rejected.

Hypothesis 3 is supported.

Findings—correlation

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IV: SNS Usage DV: Academic Performances & Emotions and Attitudes to Study

Academic Performances

Emotions and Attitudes to Study

Renren Use Per day(N=214)

Pearson correlation!Sig.(2-tailed)

.10!

.16.05!.53

Weibo Use Per Day(N=219)

Pearson correlation!Sig.(2-tailed)

-.05!.45

.08!

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We chat Use Per day (N=228)

Pearson correlation!Sig.(2-tailed)

.09!

.19.01!.87

***p<.001; **p<.01; *p<.05RQ: there is no direct relationship between SNS usage and academic performances & emotions and attitudes to study.

Conclusion Discussion

&

Weibo Usage & Academic Procrastination

❖ Weibo Usage is marginally positively related to academic procrastination (r=.12, p=.08).

❖ Reasons: Information source + Entertainment + Celebrity = More time spent on Weibo

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Renren Usage & Academic Procrastination

❖ Unexpectedly, Renren usage is weakly negatively linked to academic procrastination (r=-.18, p<.05).

❖ Reasons: Renren is a platform through which to communicate with friends and classmates. Their behaviors would generate pressures on the user, which pushing he (or she) to do something.

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Academic Procrastination & Academic Performances ❖ There is no significant relationship between academic

procrastination and academic performances (r=-.09, p=.23).

❖ Reasons: (1) Final test in mainland of China put more emphasis on memory; (2) Grades reflect more on test outcome, rather than overall quality of a student.

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Academic Procrastination & Emotions and Attitudes to study❖ There is a moderately negative relationship between

academic procrastination and emotions and attitudes to study (r=-.53, p<.01).

❖ This study confirmed the logic of previous researches.

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The mediating role of procrastination

❖ Procrastination can mediate the relationship between SNS Usage and emotions and attitudes to study.

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Path analysis

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Academic Performances

Academic Procrastination

Renren UsageEmotions and

Attitudes to study

-.18*-.53**

-.09

.10

.05 .19**

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Academic Performances

Academic Procrastination

Weibo UsageEmotions and

Attitudes to study

.12#-.53**

-.05

.08 .19**

-.09

Path analysis

The mediating role of procrastination

❖ Implication Social psychologists and educational workers will find understanding motivations of SNS usage are useful.

When discussing what influences academic outcome, it matters more what students use SNSs for and the impact on the degree of procrastination , rather than the time spent on SNS.

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Limitations Future Study

&

Limitations on Questionnaire Design

❖ Answer categories are not exclusive and comprehensive.

❖ As data showed, measuring SNS usage by "how long" question is not ideal.

❖ Overlooking those first-year students who do not have average score in college.

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Limitations on Sampling

❖ Representativeness: sample size is too small to generalize.

❖ The proportion of gender is not balanced (160 females and 85 males).

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Future Study

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Academic Performances

Academic Procrastination

Functions of SNS

Emotions and Attitudes to study

Thank you for your attention