Research suggests that young people who spend too much time online are more likely to miss school due to illness or truancy.
Research shows that teenage girls are more likely than teenage boys to score higher on excessive internet use. However, adequate sleep and exercise, as well as a trusting relationship with parents, appear to go some way in mitigating the impact of excessive web use on missed classes.
The results of the study, led by a Finnish team, were published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
To measure how excessive internet use can affect school attendance and what, if any, mitigating factors, the research team conducted a study in Finland. We used data from the School Health Promotion Survey, a survey administered by the country's Health Research Institute. and welfare.
They focused on 86,270 8th and 9th grade students between the ages of 14 and 16. The teens were asked specific questions about their relationships with their parents, how often they share their concerns with them, how much sleep they get each night, and how long they sleep. He was on the road for at least an hour every day of the week.
Excessive Internet use was assessed by measuring five lifestyle factors indicative of compulsive behavior. I'm worried if it's not online. Being online can make it hard to eat or sleep.
Respondents were asked to estimate how often they experienced each of these, giving them a score from 1 (never) to 4 (very often), with an overall average. They also provided information on how many times they were absent from school or sick during the most recent school year.
The average score on this scale was less than 2 points, with 2% of participants (1,881) scoring just above the maximum of 4 points. Researchers found that girls were more likely than boys to use the Internet excessively.
Spending excessive time online was associated with an increased risk of truancy (38% increased risk) and medically explained school absences (24% increased risk).
However, good parent-child relationships, long sleep nights on weekdays, and physical activity were all found to have significant protective effects, with increases in each factor associated with steady reductions in the risk of truancy and school absence due to illness. It became clear that they were related.
Being able to discuss concerns with parents was most strongly associated with which type of school refusal was least at risk. Teens who often felt able to share troubling issues with their parents were 59% less likely to be absent from school and 39% less likely to miss school due to illness.
This is an observational study and no firm conclusions can be drawn about causality. Researchers acknowledged that the School Health Promotion data did not include information about how teens were using the Internet.
The researchers said, “Despite limitations, our results have important implications for improving health and academic performance.'' “Our results are important for professionals organizing and working with school health and social services, especially when professionals meet with students where school absenteeism is a concern.”