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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.

Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education

Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1614746

Social Media Addiction and Academic Engagement: The Role of Sleep Quality and Fatigue among University Students in Somalia

Provisionally accepted
  • Jamhuriya University of Science and Technology, Mogadishu, Somalia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Purpose: A growing concern over social media addiction (SMA) and its impact on academic performance has highlighted a need to understand the underlying mechanisms. While a negative correlation is established, the pathways of influence remain unclear. This study examines the mediating roles of sleep quality and fatigue in the relationship between SMA and academic performance among university students in Somalia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 566 undergraduate students. The BSMAS, UWES, PSQI, and FAS scales were used to measure SMA, academic performance, sleep quality, and fatigue, respectively. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a model of direct and indirect effects.The findings revealed a significant direct negative relationship between SMA and academic performance. Sleep quality emerged as a significant mediator; SMA was linked to poorer sleep, which in turn predicted lower academic performance. In contrast, while SMA was associated with higher fatigue, fatigue was not a significant mediator in the relationship between SMA and academic performance. Conclusions: SMA appears to harm academic performance through two distinct routes: a direct pathway linked to motivational deficits and self-regulation failure, and an indirect pathway via energy depletion from poor sleep. Fatigue is a consequence but not a causal mechanism for academic decline in our model. Educational institutions should implement interventions targeting both sleep quality and digital self-regulation to mitigate the academic consequences of excessive social media use. Future studies employing longitudinal designs could further clarify the causal dynamics of these relationships.

Keywords: Social media addiction, academic performance, sleep quality, Fatigue, Somalia University students

Received: 19 Apr 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Khalaf, Omar, Mohamud and Abdulle. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Mohamed Abdullahi Ali Khalaf, Jamhuriya University of Science and Technology, Mogadishu, Somalia

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