Mediating Role of Technostress and Exhaustion in the Relationship Between Digital Overload and Student Engagement

Abstract

The present study examined the impact of digital overload on student engagement in correlation to the mediating role of technostress and exhaustion among Pakistani Universities’ students. The S-O-R model was used; the study is a quantitative cross-sectional design, where 300 undergraduate students enrolled into public sector universities of Malakand Division (Pakistan) were taken for data collection. Scales on digital overload (Lee et al., 2016; Loh et al., 2022), technostress (Cao et al., 2018; Lin et al., 2021), exhaustion (Cao et al., 2018; Y u e t al., 2019), and student engagement (Fredricks et al., 2016) were used. Results showed that digital overload was significantly correlated to technostress (r = .41, p < .01) and exhaustion (r = .37, p < .01). Digital overload was found to be weakly but significantly positively correlated to student engagement (r = .25, p < .01). In addition, exhaustion showed a significant mediating role (B = .34, p < .001) in the association between digital overload and student engagement, while technostress was not a significant mediator. Although it had both facilitative and inhibitive psychological effects, digital overload only had a direct positive impact on student engagement; in other words, students were still able to “do” academic work after having engaged in substantial amounts of digital activities, but tired more easily. Findings suggest that universities need to foster digital wellness and provide interventions towards exhaustion to prevent students from disengagement and poor academic performance in reference to SDG no 3 and 4 (Good Health & Wellbeing, Quality Education)

Keywords: S-O-R Framework; University Students; Digital Overload; Technostress; Exhaustion, Student Engagement.