Facebook use and academic performance among college students: A mixed-methods study with a multi-ethnic sample

• A mixed-methods study of academic performance and Facebook among U.S.-based college students.
• A qualitative account of how a U.S.-sample of college students conferred meanings to their academic lives on Facebook.
• Academic performance may determine college students’ Facebook use, rather than the reverse.
• Those with lower GPAs may disclose negative affective states in their academic disclosure on Facebook.

This paper uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the relation between online academic disclosure and academic performance. A multi-ethnic sample of college students (N = 261; male = 66; female = 195; M age ≈ 22 years) responded to open-ended questions about their Facebook use. Thematic analysis revealed that over 14% of the Facebook wall posts/status updates (N = 714) contained academic themes; positive states were more frequent than negative and neutral states and students with lower GPAs expressed negative states more often. A path analysis suggested that academic performance may determine college students’ Facebook use, rather than the reverse. Implications for student support services are discussed.