The Influence of Social Media use on Adolescents’ School Performance, and the Role of Sleep Problems and Attention Problems

Abstract

The last years, researchers have paid more attention to the negative effects of social media use, as there are concerns that social media use (SMU) would negatively affect adolescents’ school performances. The present longitudinal study tested whether the use of social media actually affects adolescents’ school results, and further investigated whether this relationship can be explained by an increase in attention problems and/or sleep problems. A total of 1038 adolescents (M age: 14.5, 48.3% male) completed the questionnaire of the Digital Youth Project twice, with an interval of one year. In line with expectations, the findings indicate that social media use has a negative effect on the subsequent adolescents’ school results. Although social media use seems to increase attention problems, and attention problems are associated with lowered school performance, there is little evidence that attention problems would mediate the impact of social media use on adolescents’ school performances. Moreover, no evidence was found that the effect of social media use on school grades would be due to an increase in sleep problems. Future research should further investigate the mechanisms through which social media use influences school performances, in order to develop effective prevention and intervention programs.