The Mediation Effect of College Freshmen’s Communication Ability between SNS Addiction Tendency and College Life Adaptation

The purpose of the study was to examine whether the relationship between SNS addiction tendency and adaptation to college life is mediated by communication ability. A total of 225 college freshmen participated in the study and completed the survey including adaption to college life, SNS addition tendency, and communication ability. As a result of the study, SNS addiction showed a negative correlation with communication skills and adaptation to college life, but communication skills were positively associated with adaptation to college life. In addition, there was the mediation effect only for females by performing Bayesian independent samples t-test to compare each variable by gender. Hence, a mediation analysis was conducted for female students using SNS addiction as an independent variable, communication ability as a mediator, and adaptation to college life as a dependent variable. So, the communication ability's goal-setting influences the relationship between control failure/daily life difficulties and the various factors of adapting to college life. In addition, the message switching of communication ability serves as a mediating factor in the correlation between control failure/daily life disorders and personal mentality. Lastly, virtual world orientation and withdrawal of SNS addiction directly influence interpersonal relationship of adaption to college life. Therefore, it is necessary to develop SNS addition prevention program for college students.