Loneliness and its association with nursing students' academic self-efficacy and performance across five universities: the mediating role of social media addiction.

backgroundThere is a wealth of nursing literature about nursing students' loneliness, self-efficacy, and influence on academic performance; however, the mediating role of social media addiction among these associations remains scant after the pandemic and in a Middle Eastern context.

objectivesTo investigate the mediating effect of social media addiction in the interrelationships between loneliness, academic self-efficacy, and academic performance among nursing students.

methodsCross-sectional and correlational study design was used. Five nursing colleges in Saudi Arabia were selected as the study settings using convenience sampling. Nursing students (n = 775) were consecutively invited to participate and completed three standardized self-report scales (6-item Loneliness Scale, 6-item Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, and the 5-item General Academic Self-Efficacy Scale). For data analysis, the covariance-based structural equation modeling was utilized. Data were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation. Path analysis was conducted to test direct and mediating relationships, and model fit was evaluated using χ

resultsLoneliness was negatively associated with social media addiction (β = - 0.18, p = 0.001) and positively associated with academic self-efficacy (β = 0.14, p = 0.001) and academic performance (β = 0.14, p < 0.05), contrary to the hypothesized directions. Social media addiction was positively associated with academic self-efficacy (β = 0.19, p = 0.001) but negatively associated with academic performance (β = - 0.11, p < 0.05). Social media addiction significantly mediated the indirect effect of loneliness on academic self-efficacy (β = - 0.03, p = 0.005), but not on academic performance. Loneliness explained 3.33% of the variance in social media addiction, while loneliness and social media addiction explained 4.57% and 3.89% of the variance in academic self-efficacy and academic performance, respectively.

conclusionSome findings diverged from theoretical expectations, suggesting that the relationships among loneliness, social media addiction, academic self-efficacy, and academic performance may be context-dependent. Social media addiction mediated only the relationship between loneliness and academic self-efficacy. Nursing educators and policymakers should interpret these findings cautiously and consider multifactorial strategies that address loneliness, problematic social media use, and broader academic and psychosocial support needs among nursing students. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.