Electronic media choices and their relationships to social adjustment among college students

The purpose of this study was to explore potential predictive relationships between college and university students' electronic media choices and their sense of social adjustment to college life. This study reviewed previous theoretical constructs related to socialization among college students. An online questionnaire was then presented to college students that gathered data about their daily online gaming patterns, social media usage, texting activities and television viewing habits. The students' daily electronic media usage of online game playing, social media, and text messaging and television watching served as Independent variables. The use of these four forms of electronic media were used to investigate their potential influences upon responses to social subscale questions featured on the Social Adjustment to College Questionnaire (SACQ) social subscale. The survey responses were gathered from the 166 college student participants and the collected data was analyzed through data through multiple regressions. The results of the data analysis suggested that hours of solitary television viewing have a greater predictive relationship to student social adjustment than college students' online gaming, social media practices or texting patterns. This study suggests that occasional recreational online gaming did not adversely influence college students' social adjustment to campus life.