Technostress and Psychological Well-Being among Undergraduate Students at University Level: A Correlational Study

Abstract

Digital technologies are now at the center of university teaching and learning. They can also cause technostress, a strain that arises when technology demands outpace a person's capacity to cope. This study examined how technostress relates to psychological well-being in undergraduates and how these variables differ across demographic and academic groups. The study used a cross-sectional survey design. Using multi-stage sampling, the study selected 1001 undergraduate students (317 male and 684 female). They were enrolled in the faculties of Education, Arts, and Science at two public and two private universities in Lahore District, Pakistan. The study used a 21-item scale to assess technostress across five creators: overload, complexity, uncertainty, insecurity, and invasion. Well-being was assessed with the 42-item form of the Ryff scales. In a pilot sample of 300 students, internal consistency was .71 for technostress and .880 for well-being. Analyses were run in SPSS version 21 and included correlation, t tests for two groups, and ANOVA for more than two groups.  The pilot study aimed to determine the instrument’s Cronbach's alpha reliability (TS = 0.705 and RSPW = 0.840). Experts were consulted to confirm the instrument's validity. The study tested the hypotheses using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed a weak positive relationship between technostress and psychological well-being among undergraduate students (r = 0.22), which was statistically significant. There was no significant difference between male and female students in technostress and psychological well-being. However, the mean values indicate that females (M = 68.38) have slightly higher technostress than males (M = 67.16). Therefore, universities should foster a supportive digital environment that helps diminish the negative effects of technostress on students’ psychological well-being.