Investigating the Effect of Cyberloafing on the Sense of Happiness and Academic Engagement of Medical Students

Increasing academic engagement is one of the most important priorities in higher education. It seems that with the increasing use of the Internet, how to use the Internet plays an important role in the level of student academic engagement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of “cyberloafing” on the “sense of happiness” and academic engagement of medical students. This is a descriptive correlational study. The research sample consisted of 195 medical students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences who were selected by random sampling method. The research tools included the triple scales of cyberloafing, academic engagement and happiness, which after calculating their validity and reliability, were distributed between samples and data were analyzed using structural equation model. Cyberloafing has a significant and negative effect on students’ academic engagement (β= -0.14 & t= -2.08) and happiness (β= -0.15 & t= -2.85), while the feeling of happiness has a positive and significant effect on their academic engagement (β= 0.99 & t=12.05). To increase students’s happiness and academic engagement, university authorities should direct the Internets use, and decrease their cyberloafing behavior.