Social media use and college students' academic performance: Student engagement as a mediator

We investigated the relationships between students' social media use, engagement, and academic performance, proposing that student engagement would mediate the social media use–academic performance relationship. Using survey data from 307 Chinese college students, we found that student engagement played a mediating role in the link between social media use and academic performance. In addition, the results show that the direct effect of social media use by college students on their academic performance was nonsignificant. Our results contribute to knowledge of the relationships between social media use, student engagement, and academic performance in a Chinese higher educational context. They also provide educators with meaningful implications for improving students' academic performance. Future directions for research are discussed.

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Use of social media, student engagement, and academic performance of business students in Malaysia

International Journal of Educational Management ◽

10.1108/ijem-08-2016-0182 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 625-640 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mohammad Said Ibrahim Alshuaibi ◽

Ahmad Said Ibrahim Alshuaibi ◽

Faridahwati Mohd. Shamsudin ◽

Darwina Ahmad Arshad

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Social Media ◽

Academic Performance ◽

Student Engagement ◽

Media Use ◽

Business Students ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Content Type ◽

The Public ◽

Use Of Social Media

Purpose Social media is a popular communication tool for college students in many countries including Malaysia. Even though the literature indicates that the use of social media in a higher learning environment is likely to enhance academic performance of college students, the mechanism that explains such association is yet to be explored. Based on the claims that the integration of social media use is purposeful to enhance student engagement, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of student engagement as a potential mediator between social media use and academic performance of college students in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach A total number of 227 business students in one of the public universities in Malaysia were randomly chosen to participate in this study. Questionnaire was used as the main data collection technique, which was personally administered during class sessions. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling-partial least square (SEM-PLS). Findings The result showed the multidimensionality of student engagement. It also indicated that cognitive engagement mediated the relationship between social media and academic performance, but not behavioral, emotional, or agentic engagement. The result suggests that social media has the potential to be used in a learning environment as it promotes cognitive engagement of students in class and subsequently their academic performance and success. Research limitations/implications One of the limitations of the present study is that the generalizability of the finding to a much larger population of students may be limited as the sampled students were recruited from business students in one of the public universities in Malaysia only. Students of different academic programs in different universities may have a different pattern of using the social media. Practical implications This study will help higher learning institutions and educators think of ways to integrate the use of social media in learning activities to help students achieve better academic performance. As shown by the findings, such use can encourage students to be cognitively engagedt in class in which the students can be more active learners. Originality/value The present study adds to the literature in social media use by addressing the issue of how it helps enhance academic performance of college students in a single model. Past studies tended to examine the role of social media and student engagement and the effect of student engagement on academic performance separately. Furthermore, this study took into consideration various types of social media used by college students who tend to have multiple accounts.

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Is Social Media Use Socially Enhancing or Compensating?

Journal of Creative Communications ◽

10.1177/0973258620943705 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 269-288

Author(s):

Rahul Gadekar ◽

Peng Hwa Ang

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Social Media ◽

Media Use ◽

The Other ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Face To Face ◽

The Social ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Manova Analysis ◽

Compensation Hypothesis

Who benefits more from the use of social media—those who are already socialable and have a wide network of friends or those who do not and so seek to make up for their deficiency by going online? The social enhancement hypothesis says that extroverts benefit more through being able to enlarge their network of friends online more than introverts. The social compensation hypothesis, on the other hand, argues that social media use benefits introverts more; shy users who avoid face-to-face communication can communicate freely online. MANOVA analysis of the survey of 1,392 college students in a western state of India who are Facebook users found evidence predominantly for the social enhancement hypothesis.

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Social media use and student creativity: The mediating role of student engagement

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.9356 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (10) ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Xiaomeng Sun

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Student Engagement ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Media Use ◽

Chinese Higher Education ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Validated Questionnaire

Fostering student creativity is widely accepted as an important goal in Chinese higher education, and social media is now integrated into students' everyday lives. I investigated how social media use in study contexts is related to students' engagement and creativity. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data from 652 undergraduate students at 3 Chinese public universities. Structural equation modeling results show that social media use in study contexts was related to student engagement and creativity, and that student engagement partially mediated the relationship between social media use and student creativity. This provides insight into how to promote student creativity. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are presented, and future directions for research are discussed.

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Social media use and employee innovative behavior: The mediating role of employee voice

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.9014 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Qingjiang Han ◽

Lei Xia

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Media Use ◽

Employee Voice ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Innovative Behavior ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Mediating Role ◽

The Social

We examined employee voice as the mediator in the social media use–employee innovative behavior relationship in the current Web 2.0 age. We used structural equation modeling to test this mediating role with 178 employees of a large enterprise in China. The results showed a significant positive relationship between social media use and employee voice, and between employee voice and innovative behavior, and a positive but not significant relationship between social media use and employee innovative behavior. Results also supported a full mediating role for employee voice in the social media use–employee innovative behavior relationship. Our findings extend prior research and suggest some mechanisms of social media use. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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COVID-19 Stress and Addictive Social Media Use (SMU): Mediating Role of Active Use and Social Media Flow

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.635546 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Nan Zhao ◽

Guangyu Zhou

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Online Survey ◽

Media Use ◽

Self Report ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Chinese College Students ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Self Report Data

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is likely to enhance the risk of addictive social media use (SMU) as people spend more time online maintaining connectivity when face-to-face communication is limited. Stress is assumed to be a critical predictor of addictive SMU. However, the mechanisms underlying the association between stress and addictive SMU in crises like the current COVID-19 situation remain unclear. The present study aimed to understand the relationship between COVID-19 stress and addictive SMU by examining the mediating role of active use and social media flow (i.e., an intensive, enjoyable experience generated by SMU that perpetuates media use behaviors). A sample of 512 Chinese college students (Mage = 22.12 years, SD = 2.47; 62.5% women) provided self-report data on COVID-19 stress and SMU variables (i.e., time, active use, flow, addictive behavior) via an online survey from March 24 to April 1, 2020. The results showed that COVID-19 stress was positively associated with tendencies toward addictive SMU. Path analyses revealed that this relationship was significantly serially mediated by active use and social media flow, with SMU time being controlled. Our findings suggest that individuals who experience more COVID-19 stress are at increased risk of addictive SMU that may be fostered by active use and flow experience. Specific attention should be paid to these high-risk populations and future interventions to reduce addictive SMU could consider targeting factors of both active use and social media flow.

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Understanding domestic social media use among Chinese college students under the framework of uses and gratifications

Studies in Communication Sciences ◽

10.24434/j.scoms.2018.01.002 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Hua Pang

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Social Media ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Uses And Gratifications ◽

Media Use ◽

Computer Mediated Communication ◽

Relationship Maintenance ◽

Related Factor ◽

Social Media Use ◽

The Social

Although China has the world’s largest population of social media users, little is known what drives Chinese users to adopt the country’s leading media platforms, like QQ, WeChat, and Weibo, and what gratifications are satisfied by using these fastest-growing sites. In light of the literature on the uses and gratifications theory, the study explored the essential pattern of computer-mediated communication phenomena and interaction behaviors in Mainland China. In this exploratory study, 258 college students from Chinese universities were asked about their uses and gratifications of these social media sites. The factor analysis reveals five key dimensions relating to gratifications obtained from social media are identified: relationship maintenance, amusement, style, information seeking and sociability. Moreover, a hierarchical OLS regression analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between frequency of social media use and the needs of relationship maintenance and amusement. Furthermore, among the five socio-psychological values, the social related factor is revealed to be significantly and positively linked with spending time on the social media.

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