Are students really connected? Predicting college adjustment from social network usage

Social Media in Higher Education

“…When considering sense of belonging and the impact of college transitions, social media can be used as a tool to integrate students into the broader campus community. However, Raacke and Bonds‐Raacke () did find that students’ use of Facebook and MySpace had a negative relationship with university attachment.…”

“…() found that social media assist students in developing relationships and gaining social acceptance from their peers. However, other findings indicate that students’ use of social media to form new relationships is negatively correlated with their social adjustment to college (Raacke & Bonds‐Raacke, ; Yang & Brown, , 2015). For example, in their examination of students’ use of Facebook to maintain or foster relationships and their loneliness, Yang and Brown () found that students who relied on Facebook to develop new relationships were lonelier and not as well adjusted as their college peers who did not, whereas students who used Facebook to maintain relationships were less lonely.…”

“…Beyond Yang and Brown (), several other scholars have examined the relationship between social media use and the loneliness of first‐year students. Researchers have found negative relationships between Facebook use by first‐year students and their loneliness and emotional adjustments to college (Lou et al., ; Raacke & Bonds‐Raacke, ). Conversely, Wohn and LaRose () concluded that Facebook use does not contribute to a student's loneliness during the first semester of college.…”

Longitudinal Study on Social Networks as a Didactic Method

“…There are studies and experiments that indicate the convenience of incorporating social networks into university teaching, supporting face-toface lecture (Castañeda-Quintero, 2010;Donlan, 2014;Gértrudix, 2009;Gewerc-Barujel, Montero-Mesa & Lama-Penín, 2014;Helvie-Mason & Edwards, 2010;Hoyer, Thompson, LeBleu & Collard, 2010;Piscitelli, Adaime & Binder, 2010;Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2013;Toro-Araneda, 2010, Túñez-López & Sixto-García, 2012, through discussions, knowledge transfer (Álvarez & López, 2013), evaluation (García-Suárez, Trigueros-Cervantes & Rivera-García, 2015) or the announcement of topics or ideas (Gallardo-Echenique, Marqués-Molías & Bullen, 2015;Peixoto, 2015).…”

The role of social identities in the mental health, well-being and academic performance of international students: an application of the social identity model of identity change

“…However, as a corollary to these patterns, research by Severiens and Wolff (2008) found that students who feel more at home, who are better connected to fellow students and teachers, and who take part in more school activities tend to achieve better academic results and are more likely to complete their university education. Relatedly, Raacke and Bonds-Raacke (2015) argued that adjustment to higher education environments is critical because this predicts later academic success.…”