Article

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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION AND SCHOOL
ADJUSTMENT AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF AHMADU BELLO
UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
BY
HARUNA MUHAMMAD PH.D
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND COUNSELLING
FACULTY OF EDUCATION,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
haroonm900@gmail.com 07036194066
&
DR. S.A ADISA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND COUNSELLING
FACULTY OF EDUCATION,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
NOVEMBER, 2021

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Abstract
The study examined relationship between social media addiction and school adjustment
among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The study was guided
by three null hypotheses. Correlational research design was employed in the study. The
population of the study comprised of the entire undergraduate students of the Faculty of
Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria their number stands at 5,490. A sample of 357
students was drawn in accordance with Research Advisors (2006). Social Media Addiction
Student Form and School Adjustment Scale were the instruments for data collection. The
hypotheses were statistically tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation
Coefficient (r). The findings of the study revealed that there is significant inverse
relationship between social media addiction and school adjustment r = -.519; p=.000,
significant difference exists between social media addiction of male and female students
with the mean of 87.41 for female students and 53.68 for male students, p= .005 indicating
female students having higher social media addiction; significant difference exists between
school adjustment of male and female students with the mean of 65.64 for male students
and 42.12 for female students indicating that male students are more adjusted. It is
recommended that undergraduate students should be sensitized on the negative impact of
social media addiction on school adjustment.
Key Word: Social Media Addiction, School Adjustment, Undergraduate Students,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
Introduction
Human beings have fundamental needs to belong and relate, for which interpersonal
communication is the key (Wang, 2013). In recent decades, with the development of
Information Technology, especially with the rapid proliferation of Internet-based social
media (e.g., Facebook, Whatapp, Twitter, Instagram), the ways of interpersonal
communication have drastically changed (Smith & Anderson, 2018). The ubiquitous social
media platforms and the easy access to the Internet bring about the potential for social
media addiction, namely, the irrational and excessive use of social media to the extent that
it interferes with other aspects of daily life. Social media addiction has been found to be
associated with a host of emotional, relational, health, and performance problems
(Griffiths, 2012).
The advancement in information technology and the existence of interactive social media
have occasioned research interest in the area of problematic use of the new forms of
communication and media. Internet Addiction was a coinage of Goldberg (1996) to

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describe the undesirable consequences emanating from excessive internet usage on
individual lives. Internet addiction shares certain degree of similarity with substance
addiction where addicts suffer mentally and physically. As observed by Griffiths(2000),
this non-substance addiction is however viewed as severe psychological dependency and
behavioural addiction to internet. The concept of addiction follows the medical model.
Addiction, in the medical model relates with bodily and psychological dependence on a
physical substance and not on behavioural pattern. Lemon (2002)argued that addiction
should be widened to cover a broader range of behaviour thus, proposing a subset of
behavioural addiction- the concept of technological addiction. Young (1998) presented a
definition of internet-related disorder called ‘Problematic Internet Use (PIU) and noted that
internet use interfered with addicts’ school adjustment, social lives and professional
performance. Probing further the researcher identified skipping sleep, ignoring family
responsibilities, and showing up late for work as some attendant outcomes. These are
evidences of psychological disorder which meet up with the criteria for impulse control
disorder, mental illness characterized by an uncontrollable desire to perform behaviour
(Lee, 2012).
Young and Rodgers (2015) investigated personality traits of those considered dependent
users of internet and discovered that self-reliant individual has the highest potential in
developing problematic internet uses. Arguing with the cognitive –behavioural theory,
Davis (2001) indicated that both cognitive and behavioural processes work together to
develop negative consequences associated with problematic internet usage. Investigating
some aspects of the addictive potential of social networking sites, Pelling and White
(2010) surveyed 233 teenage students and discovered that addictive tendencies with regard
to social network site were significantly predicted by self-identity and belongingness. This
means that teenagers who identified themselves as social network sites users and those

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who looked for a sense of belongingness on social sites appeared to be at risk of
developing an addiction to social network sites.
Social media addiction can be viewed as one form of Internet addiction, where individuals
exhibit a compulsion to use social media to excess (Griffiths, 2000). Individuals with
social media addiction are often overly concerned about social media and are driven by an
uncontrollable urge to log on to and use social media (Andreassen & Pallesen, 2014).
Studies have shown that the symptoms of social media addiction can be manifested in
mood, cognition, physical and emotional reactions, and interpersonal and psychological
problems (Balakrishnan & Shamim, 2013). It has been reported that social media addiction
affects approximately 12% of users across social networking sites (Alabi, 2012).
Uses and gratification and media dependency theories shed more light on Internet
addiction and its possible consequences on school adjustment. Uses and gratification is
concerned with what people (audience) do with the media. The theory posits that people
are not passive receivers of media messages but active influencers of the message effect.
That is, the consumers of media messages have the freewill to decide how they will use the
media and how it will affect them. As actively influencing the effect process, media
audiences selectively choose, attend to, perceive and retain media messages. Uses and
gratification theory indicates a positive relationship between social media usage and the
level of gratification derived from such activity. Generally, users of social media are
motivated by similar intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Amarasinghe, (2010) listed five
motives of using social media as: meeting new people, entertainment, social events,
maintaining relationships, and media creation. Media dependency theory attempts to
explain the relationship between the content of the mass media, the nature of the society,
and the communication behaviour of audience. The theory postulates that people are
dependent on the mass media for information needs. Now that social media has become

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part of people’s daily life, addiction to it has become the resultant effect of over-
dependency on it for information, sensation, entertainment, satisfaction etc. Besides, there
seems to be a relationship between the desire for gratification and dependency. As
submitted by Sung and LaRose, (2004) internet addiction in general is a “habit” that begins
when the “gratification seeking”, becomes a conditioned response to negative effect, then
such behaviour becomes a goal in itself, thus leading to preoccupation with it.
Many studies on social media usage and mental health have shown that the prolonged use
of social media such as Facebook is positively associated with mental health problems
such as stress, anxiety, and depression and negatively associated with long-term well-being
which may in turn affect school adjustment (Eraslan-Capan, 2015). Importantly, frequent
social media usage does not necessarily indicate social media addiction (Griffiths,
2010) and therefore does not always have negative implications for individuals’ mental
health or academic performance (Pasek & Hargittai, 2015). A key distinction between
normal over-engagement in social media that may be occasionally experienced by many
and social media addiction is that the latter is associated with unfavorable consequences,
this means that when online social networking becomes uncontrollable and compulsive
(Andreassen, 2015).
Social adjustment is an effort made by an individual to cope with standards, values and
needs of a society in order to be accepted. It can be defined as a psychological process. It
involves coping with new standards and values thereby getting along with the members of
society as best one can is called social adjustment.
Adjustment could bedescribed as various dimensions of social and interpersonal relations
in society. Therefore, adjustment can be referred to as the reaction to the demands and
pressures of a social setting imposed upon the individual. Social adjustment is an attempt

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made by an individual to address the standards, values and desires of a society so as to be
accepted. It involves dealing with new standards and values.
Statement of the Problem
Many undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University have been observed
manifesting social adjustment problems which is characterised by lack of friendship
among fellow students, nonchalant attitude towards interaction among themselves during
lectures, finding it difficult to relate and express their views and thought in class and
during group discussion, some students try to avoid social gathering as much as possible
leading missing classes, avoiding libraries and or laboratories, shy away from participating
in tutorials and other school social engagements. This maladjusted social behaviour at
school may be due to students’ excessive attachment with social media as the researchers
closely observe undergraduate student through interaction in classrooms, libraries and the
university environment generally and found that the level of social media usage has
become ubiquitous so much so that they become addicted to it. Against this backdrop, this
paper seeks to find out the relationship between social media addiction and social
adjustment among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Objectives of the study
This study is based on the following objectives:
1. To determine the relationship between social media addiction and social
adjustment among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
2. To find out the difference between social media addiction of male and female
undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

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3. To find out the difference between social adjustment of male and female
undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses are formulated for the purpose of this study:
1. There is no significant relationship between social media addiction and social
adjustment among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
2. There is no significant difference between social media addiction of male and
female students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
3. There is no significant difference between social adjustment of male and female
students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Methodology
This study employed correlational study in investigating relationship between social media
addiction and social adjustment among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria. This design was undertaken in order to discover the degree to which
variables are correlated to each other. In correlational design, a collection of data is done in
order to find out whether or not and to what extent a relationship exists between variables.
Shaughnessy, Zechmeister and Jeanne (2011) explain that correlational design is often
used when researcher wants to assess the relationship between independent and dependent
variables. The population of the study comprises of five thousand four hundred and ninety
male and female (5,490) undergraduate students of the Faculty of Education, Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria with male students comprising of 179 while female students
comprising of 178 respectively. A sample of 357 students was drawn using simple random
sampling technique in congruence with Research Advisors (2006). Social Media Addiction

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scale and Social Adjustment Scale Adapted From Bell (1994) were the instruments for
data collection. Social Media Addiction Student Form has 20 items while School
Adjustment Scale has 20 items both of them are on five Likert scale ranging from strongly
agree, agree, undecided, disagree to strongly disagree. The instruments were validated by
professionals in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, ABU, Zaria
while the reliability coefficient of the two instruments was established using Cronbach
Alpha. Thus, Social Media Addiction scale has the reliability of .81 and a retest of .86,
while and Social Adjustment Scale has the reliability of .71 and a retest of .76. The
instruments were administered by the researchers and the data were statistically analysed
using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient Pearson’s (r).
Hypotheses Testing
The following hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance:
Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between social media addiction and
social adjustment among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University.
This hypothesis was analysed with SPSS using Pearson Product Moment Correlation to
determine the relationship between the variables.
Table 1: Pearson Correlation on the Relationship between Social Media Addiction
and social adjustment among Undergraduate students of ABU, Zaria
Variables N Mean SD r p
Social Media Addiction 357 77.2 4.29 -.519 0.000
social Adjustment 357 47.64
Hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance
Table 1 shows that significant inverse relationship exists between social media addiction
and social adjustment among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria r
= -.519; p=.000. This correlation coefficient indicates that the higher the social media

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addiction, the lower the social adjustment of students and vice versa. Therefore, the null
hypothesis that states that there is no significant relationship between social media
addiction and social adjustment among undergraduate students of ABU, Zaria is hereby
rejected.
Hypothesis 2: There is no significant difference between social media addiction of male
and female students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Table 2: t-test Analysis Comparing Mean Score of Male and Female Students on
Social Media Addiction
Gender N Mean t df MD P
Female 178 87.41 3.443 355 33.73 0.003
Male 179 53.68
Hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance
Table 2 shows that there is significant difference between social media addiction of male
and female undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with the mean of
87.41 for female students and 53.68 for male students, p= .003. This vindicates that female
students are more addicted to social media than their male counterparts. Therefore, the null
hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference between social media
addiction of male and female students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria is hereby
rejected.
Hypothesis 3: There is no significant difference between social adjustment of male and
female students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Table 3: t-test Analysis Comparing Mean Score of Male and Female Students on
Social Adjustment
Gender N Mean t df MD P
Male 179 65.64 7.135 355 23.52 0.006
Female 178 42.12
Hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance

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Table 3 shows that there is significant difference between social adjustment of male and
female undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with the mean of 65.64
for male students and 42.12 for female students, p= 0.006. The p- value 0.006 is less than
0.05level of significance. This vindicates that male students are more socially adjusted in
school than their female counterparts. Therefore, the null hypothesis which states that there
is no significant difference between social adjustment of male and female students in
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria is hereby rejected.
Summary of Findings
The following are the summary of findings:
1- There is significant inverse correlation between social media addiction and school
adjustment r = -.518, p =.000.
2- There is significant difference between social media addiction of male and female
undergraduate students with female students more addicted to Internet than their male
counterparts p= .003.
3- There is significant difference between social adjustment of male and female
undergraduate students with male students more adjusted than female counterparts p
=0.006.
Discussion of Findings
This study found significant inverse relationship between social media addiction and social
adjustment among undergraduate students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. This
finding is in line with the finding of Andreassen (2015) who points out that social network
addiction entails four types of adverse consequences: social adjustment problems,
academic performance problems, emotional problems, problems with relationships, and

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health. Many of the studies cited by Griffiths (2014) also report some of the consequences
of the excessive use of networks: dysfunction in the activities performed during school
period and throughout the day as a result of sleep deprivation, decline in academic
performance and deterioration of relationships with family. Kuss and Griffiths (2011) add
other negative effects such as procrastination, distraction and poor time management.
Interference with other important activities of the individual’s life already indicates a risk
of addiction.
This study found significant difference between social media addiction of male and female
undergraduate of students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The finding suggests that
female students are more addicted to social media than their male counterparts. This
finding corroborates with Dufour, (2016) who found a greater proportion of the girls made
intense use of social media than boys, whereas a greater proportion of the boys made
intense use of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, online games, and other
sites. This result may be justified considering the fact that most female students in Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria use Android and expensive phones than boys and that girls prefer
social media interactions thereby sharing pictures, expressing their mood, and their where
about.
This study finally found significant difference between social adjustment of male and
female students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. This finding indicates that male
students are more socially adjusted than their female counterparts. This could be justified
considering the second finding of this study which explained that female students are more
addicted to social media in ABU, Zaria. As such male students could be more socially
adjusted since they are not addicted to social media.

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Conclusion
Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that significant inverse relationship
exists between social media addiction and social adjustment among undergraduate students
of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. It is also concluded that female students are more
addicted to social media while male students are more socially adjusted in school based on
the empirical evidence put forward by this study.
Recommendations
Based on the conclusion of this study, it is recommended that undergraduate students
should be sensitized on the negative impact of social media addiction on their social
adjustment at school. Educational psychologists and counsellors should employ
psychological techniques such as cognitive restructuring with a view to managing
students’ addiction to social media especially females thereby becoming more socially
adjusted in school.
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