Investigation of the Relationship between Free Time Management,

Social Media Addiction and Life Satisfaction of University Students

During the COVID-19 Pandemic Process

Roldan S. Cardona

MARY ROVELYN F. CABRALES, PHD ELE-SECTION 2

1. Issues

The study seeks to investigate the relationship between free

time management, social media addiction, and the life satisfaction of
university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is clear from the
abstract of the study that this is relevant, timely and the most
common issue from the year it has been published especially in the
field of education. I agree about its relevance to the topic and the
point of view of which why the study has been conducted. It is also a
significant study that can impact the educational process of the
students and the results could be a basis for future studies.

However, there are several things that could improve the paper.
The following are the critical issues I have in the study:

Introduction: This was made too short. Although it covered the scope
and the background of the study, I think it is much more important to
establish the purpose and highlight the importance of the study. The
introduction should lean more into emphasizing why this research
matters in the context of education. If applicable, it is best that the
introduction should also connect to current issues in education to show
a problem with former theories or reveal a gap in current research.

Literature Review: A good academic paper should have a solid

literature review to bring about clarity and focus to the research
problem. This will in turn create a better research methodology and
will broaden the knowledge base in your research area. Since the
study lacks related studies, it has failed to contextualize the findings of
the research paper. This becomes a weak area that can somehow
affect the readers’ interest on the study.
 Data Collection Instruments: One of the strengths of the paper is
the tools they have employed to carry out the research. Plus, the
reliability test results for scales were tested and analyzed to make sure
that the instrument used is reliable to generate valid and reliable
results. However, some of the items in the “programming” sub-
dimension of the scale consisted of negative statements, which means,
the scoring was reversed. Hence, it should be transformed into positive
statements to avoid confusion among the participants.

Demographics: The demographics show the totality of the

respondents. and has described the distribution of characteristics
found. In the study, they have gender, class, social media usage etc.
However, I think they should also show the specific type of social
media that the participants use to pinpoint exactly where they are
addicted / delve into.

2. Introduction of Main Critique

Since the study was anchored to the multivariate analysis, the

researchers have established a more complete examination of data by
looking at all possible independent variables and their relationships to
one another (Rao 1948). In fact, the paper was able to predict a
relationship between the different variables such as Time
Management, Social Media Addiction, and Life Satisfaction of the
students.

However, since it is leaning towards the educational side, I think

the study will become more significant if they have predicted future
outcomes, improve efficiency, make decisions about policies and
processes, corrected errors, and gain new insights into the productivity
of the learners during the pandemic as well as help administrators to
intervene on the learners’ issues and concerns as to the variables
mentioned.

3. Article Summary to include the following (10 pts):

For me, the researchers have used the most suitable statistics to
answer the research problem. The T-Test results for Independent
Samples are examined to find out if there is a significant difference
between the results of men and women on to Free Time Management
Scale. Specifically, in terms of gender variables, a significant difference
was found in favor of women in the “goal setting and method” sub-
dimension under time management.

Then the Multivariate Analysis of Variance MANOVA test was

used to see if there is a significant difference between the daily social
media usage times and the Social Media Addiction Scale. As a result, a
significant difference was found in the sub-dimensions of
preoccupation, mood regulation, repetition, and conflict of the Social
Media Addiction Scale (Cengiz & Er, 2021).

The key finding of the research is, there is a relationship

between university student participants’ free time management and
social media addiction. However, no relationship was found between
life satisfaction and social media addiction. While a low negative
correlation was found between the total score of life satisfaction and
the free time management programming sub-dimension, no
correlation was found between the sub-dimensions of goal
determination and method, assessment, and free time attitude.

According to Beale (2023), multivariate analyses are used to see

patterns of data, make clear comparisons, remove unwanted
information, and study multiple factors at once. Applications of
multivariate analysis are found in almost all fields. In fact, it has been
enjoyed as a stronghold in the field of education. With the study, the
relationship between university students’ free time management,
social media addiction, and life satisfaction during the COVID-19
pandemic was examined; it is thought to shed light on the relationship
between these concepts.

Although this quantitative data process of using this treatment is

tedious in terms of the interpretation of results, the techniques stand
out in finding the relationships in complex situations (Hanley, 1948).
In the study, the researchers can reveal the relationship between the
mentioned concepts, the study can be carried out with different
sample groups and different variables, and new results and
suggestions can be put forward. The importance of revealing the
relationship between the importance of free time management and the
life satisfaction that individuals can obtain because of free time
 activities or personal preferences is known. When these time periods
constitute important parts of the lives of individuals and when
evaluated with productive outputs, positive results may arise for the
development of certain groups of society such as university students.

4. Your Analysis and Insights about the study.

Through the research study, I have seen how helpful

multivariate analysis as a useful method to determine relationships
and analyze patterns among large sets of data as it takes a whole
multitude of variables into consideration. The study, it connects the
variables specifically, Free Time Management, Social Media Addiction
and Life Satisfaction of University Students. The biggest advantage of
having such a model is that it deems as many factors into
consideration as possible. This results in a great reduction of bias and
provides accurate and specific results that are close to reality. It is
especially effective in reducing the bias if a structured study design is
employed.

Because the study used a large data sample, it is good that it

uses MVA to efficiently do data reduction to ensure the simplification of
the structure of the research. In fact, the study was able to make
simpler the data as much as possible without sacrificing valuable
information, which helps with the interpretation of the findings.

Moreover, since the study is dealing with multiple variables, it

has perfectly sorted and categorized similar ones together based on
common characteristics such as gender, class, Social Media Daily
Usage Time, Weekly Free Time Proficiency Level, and Difficulty making
use of free time or managing time.

Lastly, the study was able to investigate the variables closely as

they try to explore the data and better understand the relationships
between the variables of interest.

5. Reflection: Indicate your insights gained from the review.

  In general, this is a good concept for how the problem of time

management, social media usage, and life satisfaction should be linked.
However, the paper doesn’t appear to pinpoint the significance of finding
the connections between all these, especially on the educational purpose
of the study. In other words, this sounds great on paper, but it doesn’t
translate as easily to everyday life because the study itself lacks a
connecting point that links it to the significance of the study’s contribution
to knowledge, theory, or practice in a field of education.

There isn’t research in the traditional sense for this article because the
pandemic just happened, but the author does include many examples of
work written by those who have written on this subject in the past.
Researchers have cited other research studies about how time
management, social media addiction, and the like. These are good, well-
known examples and authors and I think it adds a great deal of credibility
to the piece.
This article isn’t very straightforward in the beginning because it was
very brief and it’s not until the succeeding paragraphs that you realize
where the article is headed. To have more people be engaged and read
the whole article it needs a new, more concise introduction. Once the
reader gets to the good examples that are relevant to the everyday life of
the students, a good portion of the article will be read by a wider
audience because they will find it significant.
Overall, it is a good, well-written research with an important
message for educational administrators, teachers, and learners in the
field. The piece, when taken as a whole, is relevant and very convincing
in theory but starts slow and never lays out a concrete way of
approaching a problem that has a lot of variables to compare. The
researchers should establish the purpose of the study and its significance
to its contribution to the body of knowledge that will help other people
improve learning and productivity of students.

6. References

Beale, E. M. L., M. G. Kendall, and D. W. Mann. The Discarding of

Variables in Multivariate Analysis. Biometrika. 2023
Dec;54(3/4):357-366. doi:10.2307/2335028. Accessed
August 15, 2021.
 Cengiz, R., & Er, B. (2021). Investigation of the Relationship between
Free Time Management, Social Media Addiction and Life
Satisfaction of University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Process. Journal of Educational Issues, 7(3), 85.
https://doi.org/10.5296/jei.v7i3.19149

Cramer EM, and Bock RD. Multivariate Analysis. Review of Educational

Research. 1966 Dec;36(5):604-617. doi:10.2307/1169484.
Accessed August 15, 2021.

Hanley JA. Appropriate uses of Multivariate Analysis. Annual Review of

Public Health. 1983 May;4:1: 155-180. doi:
10.1146/annurev.pu.04.050183.001103
Rao, C. Radhakrishna. Tests of Significance in Multivariate Analysis.
Biometrika. 1948 May;35(1/2):58-79.
doi:10.2307/2332629. Accessed August 15, 2021.

7. Appendix: The journal article (pdf copy, 2 pts)