The associations between internet use time and school performance among Korean adolescents differ according to the purpose of internet use

• Published in: PloS one 2017-04, Vol.12 (4), p.e0174878-e0174878
• Main Authors: Kim, So Young, Kim, Min-Su, Park, Bumjung, Kim, Jin-Hwan, Choi, Hyo Geun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Achievement; Addictions; Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; Adolescents; Alcoholic beverages; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass index; Child; Child development; Computer and Information Sciences; Computers; Confidence intervals; Consent; Correlation analysis; Cross-Sectional Studies; Disease control; Disease prevention; Drug abuse; Education; Exercise; Forecasts and trends; Health education; Humans; Income; Influence; Internet; Internet access; Learning; Logistic Models; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental health; Motivation; Obesity; Odds Ratio; Otolaryngology; People and Places; Physical activity; Public health; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Republic of Korea - epidemiology; Schools; Sleep; Smoking; Social networks; Social Sciences; Socioeconomic factors; Studies; Surgery; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teenagers; Time Factors; Validity; Web 2.0; World Wide Web; Youth
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174878

Although overuse of the internet has been suggested to be related to poor academic performance, the effects of internet use for education on academic performance showed conflict results in previous studies. Accordingly, the associations of school performance with internet use for study and for general purpose were explored in a large population of Korean adolescents. Cross-sectional data from the 2013 Korean Youth Risk Behaviour Web-based Survey (KYRBWS) were retrieved for 59,105 12- to 18-year-old adolescents. The associations between school performance and internet use were analysed using multinomial logistic regression with complex sampling. Days of physical activity, sex, obesity, region of residence, income level, parental education level, stress, sleep time, smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, and total study time were recorded and adjusted for as confounders. Higher school performance was positively associated with longer internet use for study (adjusted odds ratio, AOR, of 2+ h [95% confidence interval] = 2.43 [2.10-2.82], 2.02 [1.78-2.30], 1.66 [1.46-1.89], and 1.30 [1.15-1.47] for performance groups A, B, C, and D, respectively, P < 0.001) but negatively associated with longer internet use for general purpose (AOR of 3+ h [95% confidence interval] = 0.68 [0.60-0.78], 0.85 [0.76-0.94], 0.83 [0.75-0.92], and 0.98 [0.89-1.08] for performance groups A, B, C, and D, respectively, P < 0.001). Higher school performance significantly positively correlated with internet use for study but negatively correlated with internet use for general purpose. Academic use of the internet could be a means of achieving good school performance.