Social Media Addiction and Academic Procrastination with Mediating Role of Cognitive Flexibility among University Students

Abstract

The current study explores the relationship between social media addiction and academic procrastination, with a focus on the mediating role of cognitive flexibility among university students. It aims to investigate the relationship among these variables, assess the predictive role of social media addiction in academic procrastination, and examine the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility. The data for the study was collected from 600 undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18-25 years from different universities in Faisalabad through Convenience sampling. The ethical approvals were taken from relevant committees and informed consent was also taken from the participants. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 24 and Hayes Process Macro. Pearson Product Moment Correlation result reveals that Social Media Addiction significantly positively correlates with academic procrastination and has a significant negative correlation with cognitive flexibility. Academic procrastination negatively correlates with cognitive flexibility. Regression analysis shows that Social Media Addiction significantly predicts academic procrastination. Mediation Analysis reveals that cognitive flexibility partially mediates the relationship between social media addiction and academic procrastination. In light of the findings, interventions with the help of specific objectives should be made to tackle issues dealing with excessive use of social media, based on these interventions there should be training to improve the cognitive flexibility among students as well as educate them with time management skills to minimize cases of academic procrastination.