Feeling anxious? Try turning off that cellphone. New research has found cellphone use by college students not only lowers their grades, but also boosts their anxiety.
The findings are based on a survey of more than 500 students by Kent State University researchers. Daily cellphone use was recorded, along with clinical measures of anxiety and each student’s level of satisfaction in life. Participants also allowed the researchers to access their official university records in order to retrieve their actual cumulative college grade point average (GPA).
All students surveyed were undergraduate students and were equally distributed by class (freshman, sophomore, junior and senior).
The results showed that students who used their cellphones a lot had lower GPAs and higher levels of anxiety—and reported lower general happiness in their lives—than those who used their mobile devices less frequently.
The study follows earlier research by the same team of medical experts that tied frequent cellphone use to lower levels of cardiorespiratory fitness.
“Taken as a whole, these results suggest that students should be encouraged to monitor their cellphone use and reflect upon it critically so that it is not detrimental to their academic performance, mental and physical health, and overall well-being or happiness,” say the researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.
© 2013 NewsmaxHealth. Reprinted with permission.
