Compulsive texting in teen girls result to low grades in school: study

In this day and age, texting is the leading preferred communication method of teenagers, with about 170 text messages being sent on a daily basis. While it may appear conspicuous and not causing any harm, a new study discovered that texting becomes a problem when it becomes compulsive, especially among teen girls, as it causes a negative effect on school performance.

Eureka Alert reports that according to the research done by the American Psychological Association in collaboration with the Delaware County Community College, compulsive texting involves several reaction on a teen girl and it involves cutting back on text messaging, trying to defend their actions when questioned, and getting frustrated when they failed to maintain it. More so, this seems to be a problem on teen girls more than teen boys, affecting their grades and eventually resulting to a poor academic performance.

Dr. Kelly M. Lister-Landman, the lead author of the study, explains that it could probably due to how teen girls use text messaging. While most teen boys use it frequently to spread information, teen girls use it as a form of social interaction with peers. Dr. Lister-Landman adds that girls are also more than likely to obsess over the context or hidden meanings of the text messages they receive, resulting to preoccupied thinking. The distraction they get from trying to understand the messages they receive can cause the interference with their academic performance.

Medical Xpress adds that for the study, Dr. Lister-Landman and her team asked more than 400 teens between grades eight to eleven from semi-rural town school districts. The respondents are mostly white and came from households with a complete set of parents. These are the demographic characteristics primarily seen within the school district.

The team also developed a Compulsive Texting Scale (CTS) to help them identify the factors that may affect their completion of tasks and performance such as if texting interferes with tasks; if texting makes teens preoccupied and distracted; and if texting will cause teens to hide their behavior when they realize that it is affecting their school work. The researchers also asked the teens to answer a questionnaire regarding academic performance and school adjustment.

In the results, girls scored high on the CTS which translated to a worst academic performance, The Medical Daily writes. Furthermore, girls are prone to have compulsive behaviors toward texting because of the emotional meaning attached to it. Teen girls will show great discomfort over boys when they can’t break the meaning behind a text message.

Dr. Lister-Landman believes a large-scale study must be conducted to further understand the behavioral texting of teens which includes their motivations and impact of multi-tasking on school performance.

The study, entitled “The Role of Compulsive Texting in Adolescents Academic Functioning”, was published in the Psychology of Popular Media Culture this month.