EXPLORING THE DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE—AN INTEGRATED UGT-SLT APPROACH WITH GENDER-BASED MULTI-GROUP ANALYSIS

his study investigated the effect of social media addiction on the academic performance of arts and science college students in Kerala. The dimensions of social media addiction were conceptualized by integrating the theoretical models of user gratification theory (UGT) and social learning theory (SLT). The mediating effect of student engagement and academic stress was also examined. Furthermore, the moderating effect of gender has been analysed. For this, 620 responses were collected from arts and science college students through a structured survey instrument using a multi-stage stratified sampling technique. The PLS-MGA technique was used for data analysis. Results indicated that addictive use of social media negatively influences academic performance. The study also confirmed a significant mediating effect of academic stress and student engagement on the relationship between social media addiction and academic performance of higher education students in Kerala. The genderbased multi-group moderating effect did not show significant differences between groups. The outcomes offer significant implications for the higher education institutions, teachers, parents, and the public to consider the inappropriate use of social media, academic stress, and student engagement in social media-based learning.