Communication technologies, social interactions and campus engagement: Testing a model of communication and social engagement

In order to fully explicate the roles of social interactions that occurred in one's daily life through information and communication technology (ICT) use, social networks, and interpersonal communication and one's engagement with an institution in their attitude or perception in terms of the institution, this dissertation aims at establishing an integrative structural model that specifies relationships among the predictors of interest and three institutional attitude outcomes: supportive attitude, perceived university quality, and perceived university experience. The relational structure is based on models and theories relevant to prediction and determinants of the outcome variables. Specially, the model integrated (1) communication mediation models (e.g., Communication Mediation Model and Citizen Communication Mediation Model) that posit communication activities (media use and interpersonal communication/discussion) have potential to promote citizens' civic and political engagement such as participation in community work and political participation (e.g., voting); (2) the Theory of Relational Cohesion and its theoretical model which posit that social relationships (e.g., repeated successful exchanges among networks) are a source of (positive) emotions such as affective attachment, prompting long-term behavioral person-to-group commitment such as gift-giving and contributions as investment; and (3) communication-infrastructural theory that posit social networks-based communication structure is an essential communication process in the development and sustenance of civic engagement.;A structural equation modeling technique with observed measures (i.e., path analysis) was used to analyze data and test the validity of the proposed structural model obtained from a survey of 243 university students. The SEM is a statistical procedure that can test (confirmatory) and/or estimate (exploratory) potentially complex causal steps or mediating relationships among different variables (MacKinnon, 2008). In addition, the SEM was selected as an appropriate analytical tool for this investigation because the technique could provide researchers with highly flexible ways to examine those complex mechanisms (Kaplan, 2009).;Results indicate that solitary ICT use has various impacts on the institution-related emotional engagement and behavioral engagement, depending on ICT devices (e.g., computer use or smartphone use) and use patterns. As for campus networks, one's campus networks produce a positive impact on the development of institution-related engagement, in general. In addition, interpersonal communication on institution-related issues has positive effects on the development of emotional engagement and behavioral engagement. Finally, both the engagement variables, emotional and behavioral engagement, have positive impacts on institutional engagement outcomes, supportive intention, perceived university quality, and perceived university experience. This dissertation concludes by discussing the implications of these findings and limitations for future research.