ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1533327
This article is part of the Research TopicChildren's Health and Screen TimeView all 10 articles
The relationship and mechanism of screen time and academic performance among adolescents: an empirical study based on CEPS
Provisionally accepted
- 1Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China
- 2Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, China
- 3Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
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Objective: There is an association between adolescents' screen time and academic performance, but the conclusions remain controversial. In particular, there is a lack of research on Chinese students who face higher academic pressure. Based on this, we aim to explore the relationship and mechanisms between screen time and academic performance among Chinese adolescents. Methods: 17150 junior middle school students from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) from 2013 to 2014 were selected as the participants of the survey. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between screen time and adolescents' academic performance. On this basis, the Z-test of regression coefficient is used to further investigate whether there is heterogeneity in the type of screen exposure in this relationship. The possible mediating mechanism of the relationship between screen time and adolescents' academic performance was investigated through path analysis. Results: Screen time and Chinese (β=-0.022), mathematics (β=-0.048), English (β=-0.043) and 3 total scores(β=-0.113), there was a significant negative correlation (P<0.01). The time spent watching TV and the time spent on the Internet and playing games were significantly negatively correlated with the academic performance of adolescents (P<0.01), but there was heterogeneity in the type of screen exposure. The time spent on the Internet and playing games had a significant impact on adolescent mathematics (β=-0.063), English (β=-0.047) and total scores (β=-0.148) produced more negative effects. Path analysis found that cognitive performance was the main path of the relationship between the two, sleep time, mental health, classmate relationship and parent-child relationship were important distal paths, and social relationship construction played a stronger intermediary role in the relationship between screen time and adolescent academic performance.The results support the -negative impact‖ hypothesis, and the negative effect of surfing the Internet and playing games on adolescents' academic performance is greater. Screen time directly or indirectly affects academic performance by increasing sleep time, mental health, classmate relationship and parent-child relationship, but the mediating effect of BMI and subjective health perception has not been verified.
Keywords: screen time, academic performance, Screen exposure, Cognition, Teenagers
Received: 23 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ren, Shi and Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Peng Shi, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255049, Shandong, China
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