Influence of Psychological Variables on the Academic Use of Facebook

Abstract

This chapter describes a research study in which data about the uses of Facebook by higher education students were gathered simultaneously with measurements of a set of psychological dimensions (personal and collective self-esteem, self-concept, general self-efficacy, satisfaction with social support and with academic life, and several aspects of academic experiences: interpersonal, career, institutional, personal and course satisfaction). The final result of the study is a path model inspired on the structural model proposed by Mazman and Usluel (2010) in which the psychological variables that have a significant influence on the academic use of Facebook were incorporated. A positive total effect of identity collective self-esteem in the educational use of Facebook was found and a negative total effect was found for public collective self-esteem in the educational usage of Facebook (EUF). Institutional adaptation proved to have a significant positive total effect on students’ willingness to use Facebook for educational purposes. Satisfaction with life was not a direct predictor of the educational use of Facebook. However, it was a direct predictor of the use of Facebook for work-related purposes, which was the strongest predictor of educational use of Facebook. Therefore, although the effect of satisfaction with life in the educational use of Facebook was only indirect, it was nevertheless positive and statistically significant.

Citation

Simões, L. and Borges Gouveia, L. (2012), "Influence of Psychological Variables on the Academic Use of Facebook", Wankel, L.A. and Blessinger, P. (Ed.) Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Social Technologies (Cutting-Edge Technologies in Higher Education, Vol. 6 Part B), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 121-158. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-9968(2012)000006B007