Yosra Jarrar’s research while affiliated with Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government and other places

International students navigate a complex ecosystem influenced by various interrelated factors such as academic settings, family influences, social supports, and the process of cultural adjustment. While universities provide institutional support, the direct or indirect effect of family and social support network in the adaptation process and mental wellbeing is paramount. The interplay of acculturative stress, loneliness, perceived social support, and depression among international students warrants extensive study due to its profound impact on mental health and academic outcomes. This research aims to investigate the mediating role of loneliness and the moderating influence of perceived social support in the relationship between acculturative stress and depression among Nigerian university students in Northern Cyprus. Utilizing a cross-sectional quantitative research design, data were collected via a Google Survey from 392 Nigerian international students residing in Northern Cyprus. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing acculturative stress, loneliness, perceived social support, depression, and demographic details. Results indicate that acculturative stress directly influences depression, with loneliness partially mediating this relationship. Additionally, the impact of acculturative stress on loneliness and depression is significantly moderated by participants’ perceived social support. These findings underscore the importance of addressing acculturative stress and fostering social support networks to mitigate depressive symptoms among Nigerian students studying abroad. Further research and interventions aimed at enhancing social support mechanisms are imperative to promote the mental well-being of this population.

This study aims to fill a gap in existing literature by investigating the relationship between academic stress and cyberloafing behavior among university students. By examining 415 final-year undergraduate students from various faculties at Girne American University, the research utilizes a correlational design to analyze the impact of academic stress on cyberloafing, considering the mediating effect of fatigue and the moderating influence of self-control. The findings reveal a significant positive association between academic stress and cyberloafing, with fatigue partially mediating this relationship and self-control moderating the influence. This research offers a novel perspective on understanding and addressing cyberloafing in educational settings, thereby contributing to the existing body of knowledge on this topic. The study’s methodology and findings provide valuable insights into the complex interplay of academic stress, fatigue, self-control, and cyberloafing, offering implications for educational institutions in addressing and mitigating cyberloafing behaviors among students.

Objectives: This paper aims to investigate the relationship between personality traits, gambling behavior, and social media use. Methods: A questionnaire comprised of the Five-Factor Model (Costa & McCrae, 1992), the Gambling Behavior Scale by Jeff and Gregory (2010) and the Social Networking Time Use Scale (Olufadi, 2015) was administered to 718 students in Northern Cyprus. Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were carried out to test if the five personality traits have a significant positive relationship with gambling behavior. Results: Data analysis showed a significant positive relationship between social media use and gambling behavior. The study reported that while the relationship between three personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience) and gambling behavior is partially mediated by social media use, the relationship between agreeableness as a personality trait and gambling behavior is not mediated by social media use. Finally, findings showed that the impact of conscientiousness on gambling behavior is influenced by the frequency and time spent on social media. Conclusions: In light of the reported impact of personality traits on gambling behavior, further research should seek to find out what it is about social media that encourages gambling behavior, and what combination of factors is most likely to force social media users to part with money to play or gamble. Finally, different motivations for social media use can be tested as moderators in the relationship between personality traits and gambling behavior.

In the midst of an ever-changing world that we inhabit today, many facets that were once viewed as ‘intruding’, ‘alien’, or utter anomalies, have turned into integral linchpins of our day-to-day lives, and without them, the modern dynamics of human essence are portrayed as incompetent. Amongst those pivotal factors are the emergence of the Internet, social media platforms, and the inevitable ascendancy of the virtual world. That is, the perception of what is deemed incongruent is primarily dependent on how well one seems to utilize social media, as it is the cutting edge of the contemporary means of social evolution. Indeed, the conception of social engagement has become completely novel nowadays from what it was in the past, and despite the fact that communication has been altered to fit ‘electronic screens’, it has facilitated the mechanisms of communication in a way that is simply undeniable. Howbeit, on the other hand, this cacophony of interactive tools has created one of the virtual world’s most obstreperous dogmas, that is, social media addiction. The rapid changes in external methods of communication have contributed to the stripping of our innate roots of ordeal human communication and thus completely remolded our behaviors in a whirlwind of what seemed like a revolutionary momentum. That is, socialization and the formation of both individual identity and communal solidarity are essentially centered around our online practices, where the dependencies of such shift in communication transmit further into the entirety of our beings and seep into our subconsciousness. Thus, among the notions of social media’s intermingling with human intellect, is the deployment of emotional intelligence (EI) in dealing with social media addiction. Formulating the crux to this research, this paper seeks to shed light on the role of EI in either dampening or arousing the desires of obsessive social media use, especially since there is a major dearth of studies that observe the crucialness of EI management in controlling addictive behaviors on various social media platforms. Through the use of a quantitative research approach, this study examined the role of several motivations for social media use, namely, entertainment, communication, self-expression, and relationship maintenance, in moderating the relationship between EI and social media addiction. This was achieved by distributing questionnaires to 400 participants aged between 18 and 25 in the Kampala Region of Uganda, using a random sampling method. Findings elucidated that EI is negatively correlated to social media addiction, implying that a higher level of EI translates to a lower desire for social media addiction and vice versa, while all four motivations for social media use were significantly correlated with social media addiction. Furthermore, results conveyed that entertainment and relationship management are amongst the top stimulating mediators for the relationship between EI and social media addiction. However, this also implies that if individuals have low levels of EI, it does not necessarily guarantee that they will most likely adopt pathological social media behaviors, simply because the motivations for using such online platforms critically vary from one individual to the other, while also simultaneously keeping an analytical eye on the role of freewill in promulgating this dilemma in possible future research.

Body dissatisfaction has become increasingly common among women and young adults and has only become worse in the digital age, where people have increased access to social media and are in constant competition and comparisons with their “friends” on their different social media platforms. While several studies have looked at the relationship between social media and body dissatisfaction, there is an obvious dearth of empirical studies on the mediating role of social anxiety- a gap this study hoped to address. Using a cross-sectional research design, this study examined the mediating role of social anxiety on the relationship between social media usage and body dissatisfaction. The sample consisted of 432 students from Kampala International University and Victoria University in Uganda. The findings show a significant positive relationship between social media usage and body dissatisfaction. The findings prove that heavy users of social media are significantly more likely to suffer from body dissatisfaction. In a similar vein, the findings show that there is a significant positive relationship between social media usage and social anxiety. This suggests that people that frequently make use of social media have a much higher chance of suffering from social anxiety, that is the inability or difficulty to engage in social interactions, than people that rarely or moderately make use of social media. Finally, findings show that social anxiety mediates the relationship between social media usage and body dissatisfaction. It indicates that people with high levels of social anxiety are more likely to suffer from body dissatisfaction as a direct result of heavy social media usage. These findings imply that although heavy users of social media tend to have a more negative perception of their body, if these same users can properly engage in social interactions, then this might mitigate the negative effects of social media usage (in terms of body dissatisfaction).

This study focuses on the communication strategies employed by the Ugandan government in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a mixed method approach, including interviews, questionnaires and content analysis. A sample size of 400 was drawn for the survey, five community leaders and health workers were interviewed and 270 COVID-19 media reports were used for the content analysis. The findings showed that the government of Uganda did not engage in dialogue at the grassroots level. Secondly, it was found that the media generally reported on the spread of the virus and the number of daily deaths. However, the findings also showed that the media largely supported and complemented the government’s efforts. Finally, little or no effort was made to engage with communities before major preventive and protective measures were announced and enforced by the government. It was suggested that grassroots dialogue and community engagement must be carried out before major decisions are made by the government if they are to be effective in the future.

A review of literature suggests that very few studies have examined how selection, deletion and inclusion of comments in news articles affect audience perception of news credibility, newsworthiness and trustworthiness. Using an experimental methodology, this study seeks to understand how journalistic use of UGCs influences audience perception of news credibility, newsworthiness and trustworthiness. The study also sought to espouse on the two-step flow theory and its relevance to online media; with particular reference to news selection. Four hundred participants from selected Nigerian universities constitute the sample of this study and the findings showed that comments use influenced audience perception of news credibility, newsworthiness and trustworthiness. Also, the findings lent credence to developing research that seeks to prove that the two-step flow story is relevant to online media. The findings of this study showed evidence of the two-step flow of information.

This study aims to assess the efficacy of social media advertising and influencer marketing, using sales, page engagement, brand perceptions and buying intentions as the dependent variables. To achieve the objectives of this study, the researchers ran six advertisements and opted to make use of the same adverts for both the influencer marketing and social media advertising campaigns. The findings of this study indicate that sponsored advertisements are more effective in generating post engagements than influencer marketing posts. Moreover, the study shows that social media users tend to save sponsored advertisements more than they save advertisements by influencers.

The study sought to find out the effect of Technological Readiness Index (TRI) on the adoption of the inDubai application by potential tourists to Dubai. The finding showed a distinct relationship between TRI dimensions and the intention to make use of the inDubai mobile application. The findings of the study further proved that the TRI model as developed by Parasuraman can indeed prove the intention of individuals to adopt a new technology. The study showed that if the first two dimensions (Optimism and Innovation) are present, then a traveler will most likely see the perceived benefits of using the product or technology which in turn will lead to a positive intention to adopt such a technology. The findings also showed that if the last two dimensions (Insecurity and Discomfort) are present then such individuals exhibiting these behaviors are less likely to want to adopt this new technology. This implies that applications like the inDubai application and other similar applications need to address issues that lead to insecurity and discomfort among users if they are to attract a lot of adopters.