IMPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY USAGE FOR SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING, ANXIETY, MENTAL HEALTH AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A MEASURE TO CAPTURE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

Technology and social media are rapidly developing and changing the way people feel, behave and interact in the world. Students are the most active and enthusiastic users of technology (Wentworth & Middleton, 2014) and considering the amount of time that they invest in using their devices, the question of what are the consequences of this usage for them, academically, personally and professionally, it is momentous.

This paper provides a clear and comprehensive self-report measure from a meso-level that is set to cross culture and time. The measure was constructed to investigate the relationships between technology usage and anxiety, well-being and academic performance, through the assessment of individual perceptions, behaviours and affective states in university students. Moreover, this new measure investigates the possible contextual and psychological mechanisms that mediates these relationships. More specifically, the measure consists of the assessment of:
•Technology usage: devices, activities, social network sites (SNS) and applications.
•Anxiety in relation to the use of devices and SNS.
•Well-being in relation to the use of devices and SNS.
•Academic performance.

Moreover, the measure will capture whether these relationships are mediated by the next factors:
•Multitasking perceptions and frequency.
•Impulsivity in the use of devices and SNS.
•Social comparison using devices and SNS.

To enhance the content validity of the measure, a pilot study and a focus group were conducted. Preliminary results from the pilot study revealed acceptable reliabilities for the measure and strong individual differences emerged on each measure, along with sound indicators of normality. Moreover, although results are provisional, and the sample analysed within the pilot study comprised a fraction of the target sampling aim, promising and interesting correlations were found between some of the constructs of interest. Those participants who perceived that technology was beneficial for their well-being reported more perceptions of multitasking as a beneficial practice (r=.434, p=.034). Furthermore, they also reported a higher frequency of multitasking with any SNS while doing an academic task (r=.551, p=.005). In addition, those who experienced more anxiety due to overload of information also had higher levels of social comparison (r=.447, p=.029).

Results from this new measure could shed light about technology users’ perceptions, and how they engage with devices and SNS. This is important for making theoretical progress regarding the relationships between technology use, anxiety and well-being (Vannucci, Flannery, & Ohannessian, 2017). Advancement in this area of research will increase the knowledge about how to maximize the benefits of technology and to minimize the negative impact (Bragdon & Dowler, 2016), improving researchers and practitioners ability to encourage a more adaptive use of technology.