The Effects of Social Media Use for Varied Purposes on the Academic Achievement, Affective Well-Being and Leadership Development of Foreign-Born College Students

Abstract

With the quick rise of social media’s popularity among the young, colleges and universities have found ways to use social media to recruit prospective students, engage current students, and connect with former ones. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of social media use for varied purposes among a student population often overlooked in research about social media in higher education. This study examined the impact of social media use for seven various purposes on the academic achievement, affective well-being, and leadership development of foreign-born college students. This quantitative study collected data via an anonymous online questionnaire completed by 41 international and immigrant students enrolled in two Southern California community colleges. The data were analyzed using ANOVA tests and simple, ordinal, and multiple regressions. It was found that social media use for solitary play purposes had a negative impact on student academic achievement, and social media use for self-understanding, interaction orientation, and expression purposes had a positive effect on student affective well-being. In addition, overall social media use positively predicted the students’ sense of belonging to their educational institutions, their ability to deal with transitions at their colleges, and their level of comfort and willingness to lead in their college contexts. These key findings have practical implications for practitioners seeking to leverage social media platforms to address the needs of this key portion of their organizational membership. Higher education leadership may find ways to use social media for the benefit of foreign-born students’ academic achievement, personal well-being, and leadership growth.