Exploring Psychosocial Determinants of Problematic Internet Use in Class Among Historically Black University Students

Background: As the Internet has become an integral part of our everyday lives, universities have increasingly adopted the Internet in class to assist students and instructors with assignments, research, and communication. While the use of the Internet in class increases for these academic purposes, instructors also have a growing number of students who problematically use the Internet in class for their recreational purposes, including texting, chatting, or web surfing, often leading to conflicts between students and instructors. However, few studies have examined this issue. Thus, this study investigated psychosocial determinants of conflict with instructors in class due to problematic Internet use among Historically Black University students. 

Methods: Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey using convenience and purposive sampling. A total of 322 undergraduate and graduate students in a historically black university (HBCU) participated in this study. The participants were mostly female students (80.7%) with a mean age of 23.4 (SD=6.54). Majority of participants (71.7%) were undergraduate students, and 10.6% reported they are married or cohabit with someone. About 60% of participants were fulltime or part time employees, and 53.2% of participants had an annual household income below $25,500. Hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate psychosocial factors of students’ experiencing conflict with instructors in class due to their Internet use, controlling for the effect of other confounding variables. SPSS version 22.0 was used for the analysis.         

Results: The results showed that about 20% of participants reported they had ever had conflict with their instructors because of their Internet use during class. Among the demographic variables, employment was a significant predictor across the models. The likelihood of having conflict with instructors in class because of Internet use was more than 2 times greater for those employed students than their unemployed counterparts (OR=2.7, CI=1.356-5.409, p=.005). Among the main constructs, the scores of Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and resilience were the significant predictors of having conflict with instructors in class because of Internet use. Namely, those with a higher IAT score were about 2 times more likely to engage in conflict with their instructors in class because of Internet use (OR=1.98, CI=1.394-2.825, p<.001), while those with a higher resilience score were about 40 % less likely to engage in conflict with their instructors in class due to the same reason (OR=.612, CI=.378-.991, p=.046).

Implications: The findings suggest that interventions are needed to reduce conflict in class with educators due to problematic Internet use among HBCU students through alleviating Internet addiction and enhancing resilience. Additionally, the findings highlight the needs of developing university policy in which educators help an increasing number of students who both work and study to build clear boundaries between work and study at school. Future studies could examine other psycho-social-bio variables that contribute to problematic Internet use among students as well as relational conflicts with significant others including families, friends, and coworkers because of their problematic Internet use.