The Relevance of Students' Digital Media Behaviour and Self-Efficacy for Academic Achievement in View of their Socio-Economic Background

Abstract

Research suggests a link between students’ social background, e.g. educational background of parents, academic self-efficacy expectations and study behaviour. Often, lower academic achievement is expected of those students’ whose parents are characterized by lower educational background. Although digital media are prevalent in several areas of everyday life, their relevance for academic achievement is not satisfactorily explored. Furthermore, it remains largely unknown in this context whether media usage is related to social background factors. In consequence, it is important to investigate if existing inequalities in higher education are stable, further enhanced or even reduced by means of “digitalisation”. The present study explores the relationships between individual, contextual as well as social background factors, with a special focus on academic and digital media self-efficacy expectations. Data was collected at four German universities in summer 2018 (n = 2039). Currently, data is analysed by means of structural equation models.