Exploring the importance of measuring university students’ online self-disclosure behaviours

Key digested message Having only ever known a digitally connected world, emerging adults have differing perceptions of online communication compared to adults. With the majority of university students worldwide being aged 18–24 years, they are categorised as emerging adults and are dealing with the transition to university within a developmentally sensitive stage of life. How effectively students self-disclose to staff online can shape the response from staff (Hayes et al., 2024) and this may impact their mental health and wellbeing. Current research considering university students’ online self-disclosure behaviours is limited, but that which does exist predominantly utilises measures that are not accurately operationalised. The OSDEP Scale (Hayes & Murniece, 2024) is the first quantitative measure operationalised specifically to explore university students’ online self-disclosure behaviours within an online educational context. Findings from future research that use the OSDEP Scale (Hayes & Murniece, 2024) will be more accurate and applicable to the university experience.