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Gender differences in the effect of virtual social networks use on students’ academic performance

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Abstract

Nowadays, due to the increasing trend in use of Virtual Social Networks (VSNs) as one of the most important communicative instruments among students in societies and worldwide, it is essential to research in this issue. The aim of this study is to assess the difference in academic performance of male and female students who use VSNs. The present research is a quantitative and descriptive study. The statistical population involved all the full-time male and female students who were attending high school second-course grades in the academic year of 2016–2017 in Taybad. Total sample sizes of 297 students were selected by the simple random sampling. Instruments used in the study consisted of a self-developed questionnaire (reliability α: 0.84). The difference of the cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) in the last two semesters was used to analyze the academic performance. This difference in means of two samples was analyzed using independent t-test. The study found that there was no difference in GPA of male and female students who use VSNs. Also, it can be concluded that male and female students are same in the Academic Performance score. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

I sincerely appreciate the management of the high schools in Taybad city for allowing me to carry out this research in the faculty; I am also thankful to the students in the various high schools for making the data available for this study.

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Taybad Branch, Islamic Azad University.

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  1. Department of Educational Sciences, Taybad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Taybad, Iran

    Majid Reza Razavi

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Correspondence to Majid Reza Razavi.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Razavi, M. Gender differences in the effect of virtual social networks use on students’ academic performance. Curr Psychol 40, 744–750 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9991-7

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