Everything in moderation: ICT and reading performance of Dutch 15-year-olds

Abstract

Previous research on the relationship between students’ home and school Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources and academic performance has shown ambiguous results. The availability of ICT resources at school has been found to be unrelated or negatively related to academic performance, whereas the availability of ICT resources at home has been found to be both positively and negatively related to academic performance. In addition, the frequency of use of ICT is related to students’ academic achievement. This relationship has been found to be negative for ICT use at school, however, for ICT use at home the literature on the relationship with academic performance is again ambiguous. In addition to ICT availability and ICT use, students’ attitudes towards ICT have also been found to play a role in student performance. In the present study, we examine how availability of ICT resources, students’ use of those resources (at school, outside school for schoolwork, outside school for leisure), and students’ attitudes toward ICT (interest in ICT, perceived ICT competence, perceived ICT autonomy) relate to individual differences in performance on a digital assessment of reading in one comprehensive model using the Dutch PISA 2015 sample of 5183 15-year-olds (49.2% male). Student gender and students’ economic, social, and cultural status accounted for a substantial part of the variation in digitally assessed reading performance. Controlling for these relationships, results indicated that students with moderate access to ICT resources, moderate use of ICT at school or outside school for schoolwork, and moderate interest in ICT had the highest digitally assessed reading performance. In contrast, students who reported moderate competence in ICT had the lowest digitally assessed reading performance. In addition, frequent use of ICT outside school for leisure was negatively related to digitally assessed reading performance, whereas perceived autonomy was positively related. Taken together, the findings suggest that excessive access to ICT resources, excessive use of ICT, and excessive interest in ICT is associated with lower digitally assessed reading performance.