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The study published in BMC Psychology on August 10 drew on data from 2,540 male and female students across Saudi public and private universities and found they spend an average of three hours and 28 minutes per day on social media. First-year students logged the highest usage at three hours and 49 minutes while fourth-year students recorded three hours and 19 minutes, according to the Prince Sultan University researchers who contributed to the work. Data collection occurred during September and October 2025 using instruments that included the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the WHO Psychological Well-being Index.
The BMC Psychology study reported that psychological well-being averaged 52.98 out of 100 across the sample, a borderline level with 42.8 percent of participants falling into the low well-being category. Fifth-year students posted the lowest scores at 47.58 while first-year students achieved the highest average of 54.41. First-year participants also reported greater social support than those in their second year of study.
Moderate loneliness and social isolation affected 72.7 percent of respondents in the Prince Sultan University-involved assessment while 56.5 percent showed moderate smartphone dependence and 56.4 percent indicated moderate social support. Forty-four percent of the students maintained high academic engagement despite those measures. Females comprised 60 percent of the sample and males 40 percent yet the research identified no significant gender differences in social isolation, smartphone dependence or psychological well-being.
Greater social isolation corresponded with lower psychological well-being and higher social support aligned with improved well-being, the BMC Psychology publication indicated. Smartphone reliance and university environment did not function as independent factors in the model, which explained less than 1 percent of variation in well-being scores. The analysis uncovered no clear link between psychological well-being and academic engagement.
The sample in the study ranged in age from 18 to 29 with 60.5 percent between 18 and 24 and encompassed fields such as medicine, engineering, humanities and business. Public university students made up 49.7 percent of participants and private university students 50.3 percent. The researchers stressed that the convenience sample and cross-sectional design mean the findings show associations but cannot demonstrate causation.
A 2023 study published in the Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development found that nearly half of Saudi medical students used social media between three and five hours daily, aligning with the recent BMC Psychology results. Earlier research from 2022 on undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia similarly documented intensive social media engagement that varied by gender and purpose. These overlapping patterns point to sustained digital platform reliance among the country’s university population over several years.
The Prince Sultan University team recommended interpreting outcomes strictly within the study’s methodological boundaries and called for additional longitudinal work to track long-term effects. The research adds to broader examinations of how social media intersects with student mental health and academic life in the Kingdom. Such inquiries have grown as digital connectivity has expanded throughout Saudi higher education.
