Modeling Relationships among University Students' Academic engagement in e-learning, Fear of The Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19), Smartphone Addiction, and Social Support

The current study aimed to reveal the level of university students' academic engagement in e-learning, fear of the coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19). In addition, the study aimed to examine a structural model of the relationships among university students' academic engagement in e-learning, fear of the coronavirus Pandemic, smartphone addiction, social support, and some demographic variables. One thousand four hundred ninety-eight university students participated in the study. The instruments of the study consisted of four scales: Students' Academic Engagement in e-Learning Scale (Lee et al., 2019), Fear of The Coronavirus Pandemic Scale (Amer, 2020), Smartphone Addiction Scale for Adolescents (Kwon, Kim et al., 2013), and 2-Way Social Support Scale (Shakespeare-Finch, & Obst,2011). The results revealed a high level of students' academic engagement in e-learning and fear of the coronavirus Pandemic among the study sample. In addition, the structural model for the relationships among students' academic engagement in e-learning, fear of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), smartphone addiction, social support, and demographic variables reached good fit statistics. There was a positive effect of fear of the Corona pandemic and social support in students' academic engagement in e-learning. However, there was a negative effect of smartphone addiction on students' academic engagement in e-learning.  Students' academic engagement in e-learning was higher for males than for females. There were no differences in students' academic engagement in e-learning due to specialization or year of study. There was no statistically significant relationship between fear of the COVID-19 pandemic and smartphone addiction, but there was a significant moderate positive correlation between fear of the COVID-19 pandemic and social support. Furthermore, there is no statistically significant relationship between smartphone addiction and social support. The study also revealed no statistically significant differences in fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, smartphone addiction, and social support due to gender, specialization, or year of study. Finally, the conclusion explained the implications of the results in the educational context.