Time Management and Academic Performance
Students’ self-assessment of time management practices and ability was also compared to academic performance. This analysis involved two phases. In the first phase, the participants’ assessment of their own time-management skills and abilities as measured from the first 11 questions were correlated to their academic performance. However, this relationship was not found to be significant (-.146, p=0.403). In the second phase, participants’ estimates of the time they spent on a variety of recreational activities were also collected. A frequency chart showing the number of students who reported engaging in the different activities is shown in Figure 1. This chart compares the median values of time spent per week for each activity with the number of students reporting that value.
Figure 1: Frequency of students participating in various recreational activities by hours spent per week in each activity.
The time spent by each student on each recreational activity was then correlated with academic performance (Table 6). A positive correlation was found between time spent playing computer games and academic performance; however, no other recreational activities appeared to correlate with exam results.
Table 6: Spearman rho correlations between participants' estimates of time spent on recreational activities and academic performance
Recreational Activities |
Exam #1 |
Academic Performance |
|
Total Recreation Time |
Correlation Coefficient |
.193 |
.103 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.266 |
.558 |
Exercising |
Correlation Coefficient |
-.141 |
-.213 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.419 |
.219 |
Pleasure Reading |
Correlation Coefficient |
.158 |
.208 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.365 |
.231 |
Watching TV |
Correlation Coefficient |
.038 |
.000 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.829 |
.999 |
Time with Friends |
Correlation Coefficient |
.098 |
.084 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.576 |
.632 |
Chatting on-line |
Correlation Coefficient |
-.231 |
-.302 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.183 |
.078 |
Computer Games |
Correlation Coefficient |
.447(**) |
.319 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.007 |
.062 |
Console Games |
Correlation Coefficient |
.084 |
-.109 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.633 |
.532 |
Social Networking |
Correlation Coefficient |
-.198 |
-.325 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.254 |
.057 |
Surfing Internet |
Correlation Coefficient |
.126 |
-.001 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.470 |
.995 |
Shopping |
Correlation Coefficient |
.144 |
.166 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.408 |
.342 |
Volunteering |
Correlation Coefficient |
-.112 |
-.061 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
.524 |
.728 |
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). |