Academic stress and social network addiction in Peruvian university students

Abstract

Introduction: academic stress and addiction to social networks are current issues that affect many university students in Peru given the technological advancement and competitiveness of modern education. Objective: to analyze the relationship between social network addiction and academic stress in Peruvian university students. Methods: quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional, non-experimental study. Validated and reliable questionnaires were applied to 168 university students who formed a sample with a margin of error of 5 % and a confidence level of 95 %. Results: academic stress was at a medium level while addiction to social networks was at a medium-high level. The most relevant inferential results showed that academic stress had a moderate negative relationship with the dimensions of social network addiction: Obsession (Spearman’s Rho =-0,434, p< 0,001), Lack of control (Spearman’s Rho =-0,462, p< 0,001) and Excessive use (Spearman’s Rho =-0,501, p< 0,001). Conclusions: it was possible to determine a moderate negative relationship between academic stress and addiction to social networks (Spearman Rho =-0,482, p < 0,001), that is, it could be concluded that university students who experience higher levels of academic stress tend to use social networks less addictively.