The impact of social media usage and lifestyle habits on academic achievement: Insights from a developing country context

Abstract

Social media has become an integral part of young people's lives. While its effects on students’ academic performance are extensively studied in the literature, there is still a lack of research on how social media combined with other lifestyle habits can affect academic performance in a developing country context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the impact of social media and a collection of behavioral factors such as smoking, consuming alcohol, and romantic relationships on academic achievement in a context of developing countries. From a sample of 112 undergraduate students at a university in Lebanon, the study found that excessive social media use, smoking, and romantic relationships were significantly associated with a lower academic performance. No interactions have been detected between social media usage and other lifestyle habits. A classification model that predicts the likelihood of having good academic performance is also presented. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd