SAMPLE PAPER • Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature and Studies
SAMPLE / MODEL PAPER
Practical Research 2 — Grade 12 ABM
CHAPTER 2
Review of Related Literature and Studies
Research Title: Screen Time and Academic Performance of Grade 12 Students
⚠ Note for Students and Teachers
This chapter is a MODEL/EXEMPLAR only — written to show you what a complete, well-organized Chapter 2
looks like in practice, including formatting, flow, synthesis, and APA 7 citation style. It is built to connect
directly with the Chapter 1 sample (same title, same variables — screen time and academic
performance/GWA — and the same hypothesis). The sources cited below (e.g., "Lim, 2021"; "Navarro &
Cruz, 2020") are ILLUSTRATIVE PLACEHOLDERS, not real, verifiable publications. Do NOT copy these
citations into your own paper. When you write your actual Chapter 2, every source must come from a real
article, book, or study that you have personally read and verified — see the companion guide, "Chapter 2:
Review of Related Literature and Studies — Student Guide," for how to find and evaluate real sources.
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SAMPLE PAPER • Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature and Studies
Review of Related Literature and Studies
This chapter presents a review of related literature and studies gathered from books, journal articles, and
previous research relevant to screen time and academic performance among senior high school students.
The literature is organized thematically to build a coherent picture of what is currently known about the
topic, followed by a synthesis that connects these works to the present study.
Related Literature
Screen Time Among Adolescents
Screen time refers to the total amount of time an individual spends using devices with digital screens,
such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and televisions (Lim, 2021). Among adolescents, screen time has
increased substantially in recent years, driven largely by the growing use of smartphones for entertainment,
communication, and, more recently, online learning (Navarro & Cruz, 2020). Lim (2021) further notes that
much of this screen time is discretionary — that is, spent on social media, streaming, and gaming rather than
on academic tasks.
The distinction between educational and recreational screen use has become an important theme in
the literature. Peralta (2022) argues that not all screen time carries the same relationship with learning
outcomes; time spent on schoolwork-related digital tasks may support academic performance, while
recreational screen use, particularly late at night, is more consistently associated with negative outcomes
such as reduced sleep and lower classroom attentiveness.
Academic Performance and Contributing Factors
Academic performance, commonly measured through indicators such as the General Weighted Average
(GWA), is influenced by a wide range of factors including study habits, motivation, family environment, and
time management (Domingo, 2021). Domingo (2021) emphasizes that time allocation — how students
divide their hours between study, rest, and leisure — is one of the more consistent predictors of academic
outcomes across grade levels.
Several researchers have highlighted that the way students manage discretionary time, rather than the
number of hours available in a day, tends to matter most. Villareal (2020) found that students who followed
a structured daily schedule, regardless of their total screen exposure, tended to report higher GWAs than
students without a consistent routine, suggesting that self-regulation may moderate the relationship
between screen use and academic performance.
Screen Time and Its Relationship with Academic Outcomes
A growing body of research has examined the specific relationship between screen time and academic
performance. Ramirez (2022) found that excessive recreational screen time was associated with lower
academic performance, primarily through its effect on study time displacement and reduced sleep quality.
Similarly, Bonifacio (2021) observed that students who reported more than four hours of daily non-academic
screen use had, on average, lower GWAs than students with more limited screen exposure, although the
relationship was not observed to be uniformly strong across all subjects.
Not all findings in the literature point in the same direction, however. Castillo (2020) noted that when
screen time included educational applications and online research for schoolwork, the relationship with
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SAMPLE PAPER • Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature and Studies
academic performance became weaker or even slightly positive, underscoring the importance of
distinguishing between types of screen activity rather than treating total screen time as a single uniform
variable.
Related Studies
Foreign Studies
A study conducted in the United States by Harmon and Blake (2020) examined the relationship between
recreational screen time and academic achievement among high school students. Using a quantitative
correlational design, the researchers found a statistically significant negative relationship between daily
recreational screen time and grade point average, particularly among students who reported more than
three hours of non-academic screen use per day.
In a related study conducted in South Korea, Han and Park (2021) investigated smartphone use patterns
and academic performance among secondary school students. Their findings revealed that late-night
smartphone use was more strongly associated with lower academic performance than total daily screen
time, suggesting that the timing of screen use may be as important as the total duration.
Local Studies
In the Philippine setting, Marasigan (2021) conducted a descriptive-correlational study among Grade 12
students in a public secondary school and found a significant relationship between average daily screen time
and GWA, with students reporting higher screen time generally obtaining lower GWAs. The study also noted
that the relationship was more pronounced for students who primarily used their screen time for social
media and gaming rather than schoolwork.
A related local study by Espino and Ramos (2020) focused specifically on Grade 12 STEM students and
examined both screen time and study habits as predictors of academic performance. The researchers found
that screen time alone was a weaker predictor of GWA than the interaction between screen time and study
habits, indicating that students who maintained consistent study routines were somewhat protected against
the negative academic effects of high screen time.
Synthesis
Taken together, the literature and studies reviewed above suggest that the relationship between screen
time and academic performance among senior high school students is real but not uniform. Lim (2021) and
Navarro and Cruz (2020) establish that adolescent screen time has grown substantially and is largely
discretionary, while Peralta (2022) and Castillo (2020) caution that the type of screen activity — educational
versus recreational — meaningfully changes its relationship with academic outcomes, a distinction echoed
internationally by Han and Park (2021), whose findings pointed to timing of use as a key factor.
Time management and self-regulation emerge as recurring themes across both foreign and local
studies. Domingo (2021) and Villareal (2020) point to structured routines and time allocation as strong
predictors of academic performance, while Marasigan (2021) and Espino and Ramos (2020) provide local
evidence that the strength of the screen time–performance relationship depends heavily on how that time is
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SAMPLE PAPER • Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature and Studies
used and whether it is paired with consistent study habits. Meanwhile, Harmon and Blake (2020), Ramirez
(2022), and Bonifacio (2021) collectively suggest that high levels of recreational screen time are associated
with lower academic performance, though the strength of this relationship varies by context, subject, and
student profile.
Collectively, these works support the present study's premise that screen time is meaningfully related
to academic performance, while also highlighting that this relationship is shaped by how screen time is used
and how well students regulate their own study habits. This positions the current study to examine the
specific relationship between average daily screen time and the academic performance (GWA) of Grade 12
students — an area that, per the reviewed literature, remains comparatively underexplored at the local
school level referenced in this study.
Theoretical Framework
This study is anchored on the Time Displacement Theory, which posits that time is a finite resource, and
time spent on one activity — such as recreational screen use — necessarily reduces the time available for
other activities, such as studying, reading, or completing academic tasks (Neuman, 1988, as cited in
Domingo, 2021). Applied to this study, higher levels of screen time are expected to displace time that would
otherwise be allocated to academic preparation, potentially resulting in lower academic performance,
particularly when screen use is recreational rather than educational in nature.
This theoretical lens supports the present study's focus on measuring both the amount of daily screen
time and academic performance (GWA), providing a coherent basis for testing whether a significant
relationship exists between the two variables among Grade 12 students, consistent with the core inferential
question and hypothesis established in Chapter 1.
Conceptual Framework
Based on the reviewed literature and the guiding theory, the study conceptualizes screen time as the
independent variable that influences the dependent variable, academic performance. This is consistent with
the variables, respondents, and hypothesis established in Chapter 1. This relationship is illustrated in the
input-process-output model below.
Framework Component Description
Screen time — measured as the respondents' average number of hours
Independent Variable
spent daily on digital devices (self-reported)
Academic performance — measured using the respondents' General
Dependent Variable
Weighted Average (GWA) for a specified grading period
Respondents Grade 12 students at [School Name], school year 2025–2026
H₀: There is no significant relationship between screen time and
academic performance.
Hypothesized Relationship
H₁: There is a significant relationship between screen time and academic
performance.
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SAMPLE PAPER • Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature and Studies
Definition of Terms
For clarity, the following terms are defined conceptually and operationally as used in this study.
Screen Time
Conceptual: The total time an individual spends using devices with digital screens, such as smartphones,
tablets, computers, and televisions (Lim, 2021).
Operational: In this study, screen time refers to the respondents' self-reported average number of hours
spent daily on digital devices, as measured through a survey questionnaire.
Academic Performance
Conceptual: The extent to which a student has achieved short-term or long-term educational goals, typically
reflected in measures such as grades or grade point averages.
Operational: In this study, academic performance refers to the respondents' General Weighted Average
(GWA) for a specified grading period.
General Weighted Average (GWA)
Conceptual: A numerical summary of a student's overall academic standing, computed from grades across
all subjects taken within a grading period.
Operational: In this study, GWA refers to the respondents' officially recorded GWA as provided by the school
registrar or reported by the respondents themselves, for the most recent grading period available.
References
(Illustrative / placeholder entries — for formatting demonstration only; not real publications)
Bonifacio, R. (2021). Recreational screen use and academic standing among senior high school students.
Philippine Journal of Educational Research, 17(2), 130–144.
Castillo, N. (2020). Distinguishing educational and recreational screen time: Implications for academic outcomes.
Journal of Digital Learning, 9(3), 210–225.
Domingo, A. (2021). Time management, study habits, and academic performance among senior high school
students. Journal of Educational Psychology in Practice, 14(1), 55–70.
Espino, M., & Ramos, J. (2020). Screen time, study habits, and academic performance of Grade 12 STEM students
[Unpublished undergraduate thesis]. Sample University.
Han, S., & Park, J. (2021). Smartphone use timing and academic performance among Korean secondary students.
Asia-Pacific Journal of Educational Technology, 11(2), 98–112.
Harmon, T., & Blake, S. (2020). Recreational screen time and academic achievement: A correlational study of U.S.
high school students. Journal of Adolescent Education Research, 22(4), 301–316.
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SAMPLE PAPER • Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature and Studies
Lim, C. (2021). Adolescent screen time in the digital age: Patterns and trends. Journal of Youth Media Studies,
8(1), 12–27.
Marasigan, P. (2021). Screen time and academic performance of Grade 12 students in a public secondary school.
Philippine Journal of Applied Education, 16(3), 175–190.
Navarro, D., & Cruz, F. (2020). Smartphone use among Filipino senior high school students: A descriptive study.
Philippine Journal of Youth Studies, 5(2), 88–101.
Peralta, G. (2022). Educational versus recreational screen use: Differing relationships with learning outcomes.
Journal of Learning Technology Research, 13(1), 40–54.
Ramirez, H. (2022). Screen time, sleep quality, and academic performance among senior high school students.
Journal of Adolescent Health and Education, 10(2), 66–80.
Villareal, K. (2020). Daily routine structure as a moderator of screen time effects on academic performance.
Philippine Journal of Educational Research, 15(4), 220–234.