EFFECT OF THE TECHNOSTRESS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS (A CASE STUDY OF RAJARATA UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of technostress on university students’ academic performance. The initial research problem for this study was that technostress, a modern phenomenon arising from students' constant use of technology, has significant research evidence showing its impact on students' academic performance. While global studies often highlight both the positive and negative effects of technostress on academic performance, there is a notable lack of studies that focus on this in the Sri Lankan context. The five dimensions of technostress were techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, techno-invasion, techno-overload, and techno-uncertainty through extensive literature support. A deductive approach was applied to construct the model and formulate hypotheses. To examine the impact of technostress, 368 students were drawn from a total population of 8,369 at Rajarata University of Sri Lanka by applying simple random sampling using an online survey for data collection. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses, and t-tests were performed to analyze the data. Overall, the results indicated that technostress had an insignificant impact on students’ academic performance. Specifically, techno-invasion, techno-overload, and techno-uncertainty had a positive impact on students’ academic performance. Conversely, techno-complexity and techno-insecurity negatively correlated with students’ academic performance. Thus, this study reveals the varying impacts of technostress on academic performance, suggesting the need to develop interventions and strategies to manage technostress effectively among undergraduates, ultimately contributing to enhanced academic achievement and student well-being.