Dark side of social media and academic performance of public sector schools students: Role of parental school support

• Published date: 01 August 2020
• Author: Muhammad Yousaf Raza,Ahsan Ali,Naseer Abbas Khan,Shehar Bano,Ali Nawaz Khan
• Date: 01 August 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2058

ACADEMIC PAPER

Dark side of social media and academic performance of public

sector schools students: Role of parental school support

Muhammad Yousaf Raza

1

| Ali Nawaz Khan

2

| Naseer Abbas Khan

3

|

Ahsan Ali

2

| Shehar Bano

4

1

School of Management, Xiamen University,

Fujian, China

2

School of Economics and Management,

Tongji University, Shanghai, China

3

Huaiyin Institute of Technology of China,

Huaiyin, China

4

School of Management, Hefei University

Technology, Hefei, China

Correspondence

Ali Nawaz Khan, School of Economics and

Management, Tongji University, Shanghai,

China.

Email: alisial@tongji.edu.cn

Present address

Naseer Abbas Khan, Department of Industrial

Economics and Project Management, South

Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Students are regularly engaged in several things at the same time during class and

school time. They are using smartphones, tablets, laptops, and using social media on

these devices while learning and attending class. However, there are some situations

likely influenced by this, current study tests the influence of technostress, cyber-

bullying, and media multitasking in the context of students in technology-saturated

classrooms and how this is affecting their academic performance. This study further

explored the buffering effects of parental school support on the relationship between

technostress, cyberbullying, and student's performance. By using the person-

environment fit model, this study surveyed 248 public sector school students in two

waves and examined the impact of these variables on student's academic perfor-

mance. Results show that technostress, cyberbullying, and media multitasking have a

negative impact on student performance, and school parental support moderates the

negative relationship between technostress and student performance. Implications

and contributions have also been discussed.

1|INTRODUCTION

Social media has entered the lives of many students. A study on

young American users between 18 and 29 years old on social media

usage stated that in 2005, only 12% were using social media, but this

use climbed to 90% in 2015 (Pew Research, 2015). In learning, social

media can be used to share personal, academic interests with other

people, share information with students, and improve e-textbook utili-

ties by linking students with social tools for common objectives

(Kanol & Nat, 2017; Lau, 2017; Mills, 2012). The pervasive social

media make it possible for students to get connected anywhere at any

time. On the one side, the student's dependency on modern social

media carries noted handiness and productivity (Junco, Heiberger, &

Loken, 2011; Kietzmann, Silvestre, McCarthy, & Pitt, 2012; Williams,

Crittenden, Keo, & McCarty, 2012). On the other side, students are

feeling being crowded by irresistible and quickly shifting technologies

(Xiongfei, Khan, Zaigham, & Khan, 2019). This is causing social media

related technostress to a lot of users (Wang, Shu, & Tu, 2008). Several

studies have explored that technostress has a significant negative

influence on performance in industry context (Brooks, 2015; Brooks &

Califf, 2017; Tarafdar, Tu, & Ragu-Nathan, 2010). However, students

are also using social media during the school time, which could also

lead to technostress and other adverse outcomes that ultimately

reduced performance, but scholars have overlooked this possible

connection.

It is indubitable that educational engagements with social media

can be one of the most beneficial things for many school students

because it can be used for efficient and effective learning (Brooks,

2015; Crittenden, Hopkins, & Simmons, 2011; Terblanche, 2011). At

the same time, these activities can create a different kind of stressful

and adverse situations for the students (Brodmerkel & Carah, 2013;

Gabre & Kumar, 2012). Cyberbullying is one of the harmful factors

that student usually faces in the online environment. Cyberbullying

takes place through the information and communication technologies

(ICT), such as smart phones, text messages, internet messaging, email,

social networks, video clips, and pictures, that students use every day

(Mitchell, 2011). Scholars and researcher have identified several nega-

tive outcomes of cyberbullying (role of victim in this study), such as

depression, anxiety, fatigue, stress, suicidal attempts, and other

adverse consequences (Gámez-Guadix, Orue, Smith, & Calvete, 2013;

Received: 20 May 2019 Revised: 1 October 2019 Accepted: 10 November 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2058

J Public Affairs. 2019;e2058. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2058

3

Department of Industrial Economics and

Project Management, South Ural State

University, Chelyabinsk, Russia

4

School of Management, Hefei University

Technology, Hefei, China

Correspondence

Ali Nawaz Khan, School of Economics and

Management, Tongji University, Shanghai,

China.

Email: alisial@tongji.edu.cn

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2058. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 of 11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2058