Among the myriad of functionalities smartphones have enriched the youth's daily lives with, an unexpected side-effect may be the propensity of the prolific devices to reduce academic performance and endorphins, while increasing cholesterol.
A recent study by Kent State University, involving a survey of over 500 university students, revealed a link between frequent cellphone use and lower grades, reduced happiness and heightened anxiety levels.
Researchers Andrew Lepp, Jacob Barkley and Aryn Karpinski - all faculty members in the university's College of Education, Health and Human Services - recorded daily cellphone use together with a clinical measure of anxiety and each student's level of satisfaction with their own life.
All participants also granted the research team access to 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 seniority. The university says 82 different, self-reported majors were represented.
"Results of the analysis showed that cellphone use was negatively related to GPA and positively related to anxiety. Following this, GPA was positively related to happiness while anxiety was negatively related to happiness.
"Thus, for the population studied, high-frequency cellphone users tended to have lower GPA, higher anxiety, and lower satisfaction with life (happiness) relative to their peers who used the cellphone less often."
The university researchers say the statistical model illustrating these relationships was highly significant.
Earlier this year, a team led by Lepp and Barkley also identified a negative relationship between cellphone use and 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."
Previous studies have pointed to cellphone use causing hyperactivity in children and, on the lighter and more obvious side, leading to egocentricity.
* Kent State University's latest cellphone study is published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior (2014), pages 343-350, and can be accessed here.
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