Longitudinal relationships between school burnout, compulsive Internet use, and academic decrement: A three-wave cross-lagged study

This longitudinal investigation examined the relationships between school burnout, compulsive Internet use, and academic decrement related to middle school adolescents' Internet use. The study tracked 1301 students from the seventh to ninth grades. We applied a cross-lagged panel model for the longitudinal data at three time points. The results indicated that elevated school burnout was significantly associated with later compulsive Internet use and academic decrement across the three years. Compulsive Internet use also had a predictive effect on academic decrement. These recursive patterns imply that students may overuse the Internet as a means to avoid an exhaustive school load and lower their perceptions of their academic performance. Moreover, higher academic decrement in the seventh grade was linked to increased school burnout and compulsive Internet use in the eighth grade; however, the link was not duplicate from the eighth to ninth grades. Academic decrement played an important role in the early period of the middle school by feeding back to burnout and Internet use. Finally, compulsive Internet use showed a direct effect on burnout from the eighth to ninth grades, but not in the earlier period. While burnout seems to always lead to compulsive Internet use, overuse of the Internet might fuel students' school burnout only in the later period of middle school. This paper discusses different perspectives of Internet use to expand the understanding of Internet use by the digital native generation.

Automated summary

This longitudinal study explores the associations between school burnout, compulsive Internet use, and academic decrement among middle school adolescents. The findings suggest that elevated school burnout is linked to later compulsive Internet use and academic decrement. Additionally, compulsive Internet use predicts academic decrement. The study also reveals that academic decrement in the early stages of middle school contributes to increased school burnout and compulsive Internet use, but this link does not persist in later stages.