Level of perceived stress and the need to use social media among students on a study abroad placement

This study aims to investigate whether studying abroad alters levels of perceived stress, loneliness, and the need to use social networks. Standardized questionnaires and a question on average daily screentime on social media were used to determine these variables for a group of students on a study abroad program and a group of students who were studying at their home university for a given semester. T-tests showed a statistically significant difference between these groups for the length of social media screentime and the loneliness variables, while no difference was shown for the perceived stress variable. Subsequently, the linear relationships between these variables were also tested, and except for the relationship between loneliness level and daily screentime on social media, all were proven to be statistically significant by correlation tests