Identifying Turkish students’ profiles of using information and communication technologies and its relationship with their academic achievement: A latent class analysis approach

In this study, 15-year-old Turkish students’ profiles of using ICT at home and at school were identified, and the extent to which these profiles were associated with their academic achievement was determined. Moreover, the study investigated the effects of the students’ age of first usage of digital device and internet, their gender and their parents’ education level on the students’ ICT usage profiles. In the study, by using Latent Class Analysis, Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 Turkey data were analyzed (n = 6890). According to the findings obtained in the study, it was revealed that the students who used ICT resources at high level at home and at school constituted the smallest class (8% of the sample). The students whose mothers’ levels of education were high and those who were male had a higher probability of being a member of the high-level ICT user class. In addition, the students who started using their first digital devices and the Internet at later ages were less likely to be a member of the class using high-level ICT. Finally, the students in the high-level ICT user class had low mathematics, reading, and science achievement scores.