Investigating Cyberloafing and Academic Burnout in University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aims: The present study was conducted with university students since it aims to explore the correlation between cyberloafing behavior in educational institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and academic burnout.

Study Design: Correlational survey model

Place and Duration of Study: Faculty of Education, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, between September 2021 and June 2022.

Methodology: The population of the study, which employed correlational survey model, was a group of students attending a state-run Turkish University in İzmir. The sampling consisted of the students accessed by using conventional sampling method. The data for the purposes of the study were collected from 406 university students (249 female and 157 male) by administrating Personal Information Form, Cyberloafing Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Scale. SPSS 28.0 statistical package software was employed to do Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis.

Results: The results of the analyses revealed a positive and significant but weak correlation between “shopping”, “real-time updating” and “gaming/gambling” dimensions of cyberloafing and “exhaustion” and “desensitization” dimensions of academic burnout. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that dimensions of academic burnout along with “gender”, “age”, “year of study”, “academic GPA”, “attendance” and “duration of daily internet use” variables accounted 10.4% of total cyberloafing scale score. Finally, the study revealed that only “competence” dimension, “age”, “academic GPA” and “duration of daily internet use” variables significantly predict cyberloafing behavior.

Conclusion: It was found that as the academic burnout of university students increased, cyberloafing behaviors also increased. In this direction, psychological counseling programs can be developed to reduce the academic burnout of students. In addition, more studies can be conducted with students in different age groups to reveal the relationships between these variables.