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.