Revisiting the Causality between Smartphone Usage and Academic Performance: A Large-Scale Study on over 10 Thousand Responses

Despite the rapid technological advances, the usage of smartphones among college students has been broadly discouraged, because a number of studies have demonstrated a strong causality between smartphone usage and poor academic performance. Nonetheless, there is a lack of studies that simultaneously test the impacts of the use of multiple smartphone applications on academic performance while considering the possible mediating effect of students’ internal status and life habits. Based on a large-scale survey with over 10,000 college students, this study aims to offer robust empirical evidence that appropriate use of certain applications factually motivates a better academic performance. Specifically, our model assumes a direct impact of the use of five types of applications on academic performance, as well as their indirect impacts mediated by cultivation of nomophobia and other habits related to smartphone usage