Abstract
The Internet, while offering convenience, can also have negative impacts on learning and quality of life. Previous studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between pathological Internet use and academic performance, but the nature of this relationship in relation to development remains unclear. Utilizing a large sample, the current study aimed to compare the incidence of problematic Internet use across different age groups and explore how the correlation between problematic Internet use and math performance varies with the age of students. Cluster random sampling was used to distribute questionnaires to students in a city in eastern China. A total of 17,208 fourth-grade students (age: M = 9.79, SD = 0.44) and 11,127 eighth-grade students (age: M = 13.65, SD = 0.54) participated in this study. They were asked to complete the Pathological Internet Usage Scale and several math-achievement tests. The results revealed that: (1) A smaller proportion of upper-grade students exhibited problematic Internet use compared to lower-grade students; (2) There was a significant negative correlation between problematic Internet use and math performance; and (3) This correlation was less pronounced among older student.These results suggest that the negative correlation between problematic Internet use and math achievement decreases with age, and this reduced correlation may be linked to increased academic stress. As Chinese students advance in grades, their academic responsibilities become more burdensome, leading to reduced Internet usage. The findings of this study aim to provide insights into enhancing the academic performance of students with problematic Internet use through environmental education interventions.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Ajibade, S. S. M., Mejarito, C., Egere, O. M., Adediran, A. O., Gido, N. G., & Bassey, M. A. (2022). An analysis of the impact of social media addiction on academic engagement of students. Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results, 13, 1390–1398. https://doi.org/10.47750/pnr.2022.13.S04.166.
Alvarez, M., Torres, A., Rodriguez, E., Padilla, S., & Rodrigo, M. J. (2013). Attitudes and parenting dimensions in parents’ regulation of Internet use by primary and secondary school children. Computers & Education, 67 (sep.), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.03.005.
Andreetta, J., Teh MSc, J., Burleigh, T. L., Gomez, R., & Stavropoulos, V. (2020). Associations between comorbid stress and Internet gaming disorder symptoms: Are there cultural and gender variations? Asia-Pacific Psychiatry, 12(2), e12387. https://doi.org/10.1111/appy.12387.
Armstrong-Mensah, E., Ramsey-White, K., Yankey, B., & Self-Brown, S. (2020). COVID-19 and distance learning: Effects on georgia state university school of public health students. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 547. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.576227.
Brito, A. B., Lima, C. D. A., Brito, K. D. P., Freire, R. S., Messias, R. B., Rezende, L. F. D., & Silveira, M. F. (2023). Prevalence of Internet addiction and associated factors in students. Estudos De Psicologia (Campinas), 40, e200242. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0275202340e200242.
Bruno, A., Scimeca, G., Cava, L., Pandolfo, G., Zoccali, R. A., & Muscatello, M. R. A. (2014). Prevalence of Internet addiction in a sample of southern Italian high school students. International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, 12(6), 708–715. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-014-9497-y.
Buzzai, C., Filippello, P., Costa, S., Amato, V., & Sorrenti, L. (2021). Problematic Internet use and academic achievement: A focus on interpersonal behaviours and academic engagement. Social Psychology of Education, 24, 95–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-020-09601-y.
Cao, H., Sun, Y., Wan, Y., Hao, J., & Tao, F. (2011). Problematic Internet use in Chinese adolescents and its relation to psychosomatic symptoms and life satisfaction. BMC Public Health, 11(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-802.
Cao, J. (2021). Opinions on further reducing the burden of homework and off-campus training for students in compulsory education. Ministry of Education of the people’s republic of China, Retrieved August 31, 2021 from http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/202107/t20210724_546566.html.
Caplan, S. E. (2003). Preference for online social interaction: A theory of problematic Internet use and psychosocial well-being. Communication Research, 30, 625–648. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650203257842.
Cheng, D., Ren, B., Yu, X., Wang, H., Chen, Q., & Zhou, X. (2022). Math anxiety as an independent psychological construct among social-emotional attitudes: An exploratory factor analysis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1517(1), 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14902.
Chi, X., Hong, X., & Chen, X. (2020). Profiles and sociodemographic correlates of Internet addiction in early adolescents in southern China. Addictive Behaviors, 106, 106385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106385.
CNNIC (2021). The 47th statistical report on china’s Internet development. Retrieved August 31, 2021 from https://www.cnnic.com.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/
Durkee, T., Kaess, M., Carli, V., Parzer, P., Wasserman, C., Floderus, B., Apter, A., Balazs, J., Barzilay, S., & Bobes, J. (2012). Prevalence of pathological Internet use among adolescents in Europe: Demographic and social factors. Addiction, 107(12), 2210–2222. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.03946.x.
Gu, M. (2020). A longitudinal study of daily hassles, Internet expectancy, self-control, and problematic Internet use in Chinese adolescents: A moderated mediation model. Personality and Individual Differences, 152, 109571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109571.
Guo, J., Huang, N., Fu, M., Ma, S., & Zhang, B. (2021). Social support as a mediator between Internet addiction and quality of life among Chinese high school students. Children and Youth Services Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106181
Harris, S. (1999). TIMSS performance assessment: The strengths and weaknesses of students in England. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 25(3), 287–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-491X(99)00030-9.
Hayes, M., van Stolk-Cooke, K., & Muench, F. (2015). Understanding Facebook use and the psychological affects of use across generations. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 507–511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.040.
Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. University of California Press.
Internet World Stats (2023). World Internet usage and population statistics 2023 year estimates. Retrieved July 31, 2023 from https://www.Internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Joseph, J., Varghese, A., Vijay, V. R., Dhandapani, M., Grover, S., Sharma, S., Khakha, D., Mann, S., & Varkey, B. P. (2021). Prevalence of Internet addiction among college students in the Indian setting: a systematic review and meta-analysis. General psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18485.60644
Jun, W. (2015). An analysis study on correlation of Internet addiction and school age. 2015 2nd International Conference on Information Science and Security (ICISS) (pp. 1–3). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICISSEC.2015.7370977.
Kandell, J. (1998). Internet addiction on campus: The vulnerability of college students. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 1, 46–59. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.1998.1.11.
Kirschner, P. A., & Karpinski, A. C. (2010). Facebook® and academic performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1237–1245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.03.024.
Ko, C. H., Yen, J. Y., Chen, C. C., Chen, S. H., & Yen, C. F. (2005). Gender differences and related factors affecting online gaming addiction among Taiwanese adolescents. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 193(4), 273–277. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nmd.0000158373.85150.57.
Korkeila, J. A., Kaarlas, S., Jääskeläinen, M., & Taiminen, T. (2008). P0030-Using the Finnish Internet addiction test version to measure heavy use of the web. European Psychiatry, 23(S2), S312–S312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2008.01.1073.
Kuss, D. J., Griffiths, M. D., Karila, L., & Billieux, J. (2014). Internet addiction: A systematic review of epidemiological research for the last decade. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 20(25), 4026–4052. https://doi.org/10.2174/13816128113199990617.
Lee, J., & Stankov, L. (2013). Higher-order structure of noncognitive constructs and prediction of PISA 2003 mathematics achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 26, 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2013.05.004.
Lee, Y. H., Ko, C. H., & Chou, C. (2015). Re-visiting Internet addiction among Taiwanese students: A cross-sectional comparison of students’ expectations, online gaming, and online social interaction. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43, 589–599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9915-4.
Lei, L., & Yang, Y. (2007). The development and validation of adolescent pathological Internet use scale. Acta Psychologica Sinica,39(4), 688.
Ling, Y., Hu, H., You, S., Shen, X., Zhu, X., & Zhang, J. (2022). The heterogeneity of Internet addiction in adolescents and related factors: A latent profile analysis. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 30(2), 282–290. https://doi.org/10.16128/j.cnki.1005-3611.2022.02.008.
Liu, J., Nie, J., & Wang, Y. (2017). Effects of group counseling programs, cognitive behavioral therapy, and sports intervention on Internet addiction in East Asia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(12), 1470. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14121470.
Mak, K. K., Lai, C. M., Watanabe, H., Kim, D. I., Bahar, N., Ramos, M., & Cheng, C. (2014). Epidemiology of Internet behaviors and addiction among adolescents in six Asian countries. Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking, 17(11), 720–728. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0139.
Mamun, M. A., Hossain, M. S., Siddique, A. B., Sikder, M. T., & Griffiths, M. (2019). Problematic Internet use in Bangladeshi students: The role of socio-demographic factors, depression, anxiety, and stress. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 44, 48–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2019.07.005.
Meerkerk, G. J. (2007). Pwned by the Internet: Explorative research into the causes and consequences of compulsive Internet use. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/10511.
Moreno, M. A., Jelenchick, L., Cox, E., Young, H., & Christakis, D. A. (2011). Problematic Internet use among US youth: A systematic review. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 165(9), 797–805. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.58.
Nakamura, R., Yamashita, J., Akabayashi, H., Tamura, T., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A comparative analysis of children’s time use and educational achievement: Assessing evidence from China, Japan and the United States. Chinese Journal of Sociology, 6(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057150X20911871.
Niaz, U. (2008). Addiction with Internet and mobile: An overview. Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society, 5(2), 72.
Provasnik, S., Kastberg, D., Ferraro, D., Lemanski, N., & Roey, S. (2012). Highlights from TIMSS 2011: Mathematics and science achievement of u.s. fourth- and eighth grade students in an International context. National Center for Education Statistics, 113(1), 112. https://doi.org/10.1080/00382167.1980.9629823.
Şaşmaz, T., Öner, S., Kurt, A. Ö., Yapıcı, G., Yazıcı, A. E., Buğdaycı, R., & Şiş, M. (2014). Prevalence and risk factors of Internet addiction in high school students. The European Journal of Public Health, 24(1), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckt051.
Shuang-Ju, Z., Hui-Ming, W. U., & Wei, Z. (2007). Internet addiction and the sociality development of adolescents in Macao. Journal of South China Normal University. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73023-1
Siddiqi, S., & Memon, Z. A. (2016). Internet addiction impacts on time management that results in poor academic performance. 2016 International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT) (pp. 63–68). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIT.2016.020.
Spada, M. M. (2014). An overview of problematic Internet use. Addictive Behaviors, 39(1), 3–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.09.007.
Stavropoulos, V., Alexandraki, K., & Motti-Stefanidi, F. (2013). Recognizing Internet addiction: Prevalence and relationship to academic achievement in adolescents enrolled in urban and rural Greek high schools. Journal of Adolescence, 36(3), 565–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.03.008.
Thibert, G., & Karsenti, T. P. (1996). Motivation profile of adolescent boys and girls: gender differences throughout schooling. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED395248.pdf.
Tokunaga, R. S., & Rains, S. A. (2016). A review and meta-analysis examining conceptual and operational definitions of problematic Internet use. Human Communication Research, 42(2), 165–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12075.
Truzoli, R., Viganò, C., Galmozzi, P. G., & Reed, P. (2020). Problematic Internet use and study motivation in higher education. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36(4), 480–486. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12414.
Ulfik-Jaworska, I. (2014). Adolescent Internet usage patterns: Exploring gender differences among Polish high school students. Biuletyn Edukacji Medialnej, 2, 84–101.
Wang, H., Zhou, X., Lu, C., Wu, J., Deng, X., Hong, L., & Scott, J. G. (2011). Problematic Internet use in high school students in guangdong province, China. Plos One, 6(5), e19660. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019660.
Wang, M. T., & Eccles, J. S. (2012). Social support matters: Longitudinal effects of social support on three dimensions of school engagement from middle to high school. Child Development, 83(3), 877–895. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01745.x.
Ye, L., Posada, A., & Liu, Y. (2019). A review on the relationship between Chinese adolescents’ stress and academic achievement. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2019(163), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20265.
Young, K. S. (1996). Internet Addiction: The emergence of a new clinical disorder. the 104th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Canada. August 20, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.1998.1.237.
Young, K. S. (1998). Internet addiction: The emergence of a new clinical disorder. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 1, 237–244. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.1998.1.237.
Yu, X., Zhou, H., Sheng, P., Ren, B., Wang, Y., Wang, H., & Zhou, X. (2023). Math anxiety is more closely associated with math performance in female students than in male students. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04349-y
Zhang, J. (2019). Homework: An overload on Chinese school children. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 4(3), 821–824. https://doi.org/10.22161/iiels.4.3.37.
Zhang, Y., Qin, X., & Ren, P. (2018). Adolescents’ academic engagement mediates the association between Internet addiction and academic achievement: The moderating effect of classroom achievement norm. Computers in Human Behavior, 89, 299–307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.08.018.
Zhou, D., Liu, J., & Liu, J. (2020). The effect of problematic Internet use on mathematics achievement: The mediating role of self-efficacy and the moderating role of teacher-student relationships. Children and Youth Services Review, 118, 10537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105372.
Funding
This study has been supported by the National Social Science Fund of “13th Five-Year Plan” Education general project (No. BFA190059).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Xiaodan Yu, Haitao Wang and Xinlin Zhou contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Xiaodan Yu and Xiaojiao Luan. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xiaodan Yu, Jing Li and Xiaojiao Luan. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (Ocean University of China) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5).
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study. Informed consent was obtained from legal guardian in the case of children under 16.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Yu, X., Li, J., Luan, X. et al. The correlation between problematic Internet use and mathematical performance becomes weaker as students grow older. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05983-w
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05983-w