FRIDAY, Feb. 25, 2011 (HealthDay News) -- Guilt might be a common side effect of texting while you're in class, but that doesn't stop students from doing it, researchers have found.
In a survey of 1,043 college students at the University of New Hampshire, almost half said they feel guilty about texting during class when it's not allowed. Even so, texting is quite common: 65 percent said they send at least one text message during a typical class.
The survey was administered by student researchers in a market research class led by adjunct professor Chuck Martin.
Women and business students texted the most, the results showed. But overall, 49 percent said they felt guilty about texting in class when they knew it was not permitted, and 51 percent said it distracted them. But texting isn't always banned: about half of those surveyed said it was only prohibited in about half of their classes.
"I wasn't surprised by the results, but I was surprised to see that some teachers didn't prohibit texting in their classes," Gretchen Eastman, a student who helped lead the survey, said in a university news release.
More information
Text in class if you must, but beware of texting while driving: the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has details on the risks.
