Influence of Technostress on Academic Performance of University Medicine Students in Peru during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The current study aims to validate and apply an instrument to assess the relationship between communication overload, social overload, technostress, exhaustion and academic performance. We performed a cross-sectional, analytical study of 2286 university medical students to assess the influence of technostress as a mediator of social media overload, communication overload and mental exhaustion and its detrimental effect on the academic performance of university students in Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research model was validated using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to establish the influence of variables on the model. Communication and social overload were found to positively influence technostress by correlations of 0.284 and 0.557, respectively. Technostress positively influenced exhaustion by 0.898, while exhaustion negatively influenced academic performance by -0.439. Bootstrapping demonstrated that the path coefficients of the research model were statistically significant. The research outcomes may help university managers understand students’ technostress and develop strategies to improve the balanced use of technology for their daily academic activities.

The Impact of University-Related Variables on Students’ Perceived Employability and Mental Well-Being: An Italian Longitudinal Study

“…In the pandemic outbreak, the academic education has been provided in remote learning mode. Consistently with literature [70,81], technostress related to TEL was found to be a risk factor for perceived employability (H4a) and mental well-being (H4b). It must be noted that most participants are digital natives [92] because they were born in a world connected to the internet, and ICTs are part of their daily routines [93].…”

“…This new way of learning usually requires more time, knowledge, and skills, and thus psychological pressures [3,[66][67][68], than the traditional one. As a result, in the pandemic, undergraduates experienced technostress [3,69], which, in turn, has led them to suffer from exhaustion [70], anxiety, and depressive symptoms [71], as well as report poorer academic performance [72]. As claimed by the Person-Environmental (P-E) fit theory [73], every stress does not come separately from the individual or the environment but rather develops from maladaptation between them.…”

Factors associated with knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices towards COVID-19 in health care professionals in Lima, Peru

“…For instance, there is no mention of the effects the lack of KAP has already caused in Peru. Examples of some studies include: Infodemic 1 , 2 , 3 Self-medication 4 , 5 Medicinal plants use 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 Use of unproven treatments such as chlorine dioxide 6 , 10 Issues in children with the development of MIS-C 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 Impact in mental health 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 Technostress 20 Issues in adequate implementation of public health measures 21 , 22 , 23 Furthermore, Peru is leading some interesting aspects compared to Latin America in the implementation of telemedicine 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 …”

Sociodemographic Predictors Associated with the Willingness to Get Vaccinated against COVID-19 in Peru: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…The first confirmed case in Peru was reported on 8 March 2020 [5], and the number of cases rapidly increased despite the measures established by the Peruvian government [6,7]. Multiple publications have illustrated the fragmented healthcare system in Peru [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], which has not been the most effective during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a high number of physicians' deaths [17], limited public policies [18] and detrimental effects to the mental status of the population [19][20][21] and the increase in technostress in university students [22]. Furthermore, Peru has reported discrepancies in the official reports of COVID-19 deaths nationwide [23], poor execution Vaccines 2022, 10, 48 2 of 20 of SARS-CoV-2 testing and reporting [24] and an increased number of COVID-19 cases in children and adolescents [6,25].…”