The Developmental Characteristics of Primary School Students’ Network Behavior and its Relationship with Selfregulation Learning

Objective: This study investigated the characteristics of internet behaviors among primary school students and their relationship with the Self-regulated learning. Participants were fourth- to sixth-grade students from three primary schools located in urban, township, and urban-rural fringe areas of a city in Jiangsu Province (Valid N=371). Results: Network behavior Characteristics: Primary students primarily engaged in information acquisition and leisure activities online. Male students engaged significantly more in leisure activities (watching videos, gaming, listening to music) than females. Fifth and sixth graders demonstrated significantly higher levels of information acquisition behavior compared to fourth graders. Students in urban schools showed significantly greater information acquisition and significantly less leisure activity than those in township or urban-rural fringe schools. Relationship with Self-regulated learning: Regression analysis revealed that online information acquisition behavior was a significant positive predictor of the overall Self-regulated learning score. Conversely, leisure activity behavior was a significant negative predictor. This predictive pattern was consistent across all four sub-dimensions of the competency: Joy of Learning, Effective Learning Strategies, Reflective Thinking, and Information Literacy. That is, information acquisition significantly positively predicted higher scores on each sub-dimension, while leisure activities significantly negatively predicted them. Conclusion: Enhancing primary students’ online information acquisition behaviors and managing their online leisure activities may contribute to the development of their Self-regulated learning.