Abstract
Introduction: Digital technologies have become deeply embedded in family life, offering new means of connection while also raising concerns about “technoference” and diminished relational intimacy. This study examined how university students in the United Arab Emirates perceive the role of digital tools in transforming family social relationships, and whether this perception varies by gender, family status, marital status, age, and college affiliation.
Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical design was used with a random sample of 330 students (162 male, 168 female) from the University of Sharjah during the 2025–2026 academic year. A 42-item, five-point Likert-scale instrument, developed and validated for this study, measured perceived digital impact across four domains of family life. Independent-samples t-tests were used for dichotomous demographic comparisons (gender, family status, age group, college), and one-way ANOVA was used for marital status. Effect sizes (Cohen’s d, η²) were calculated alongside significance tests.
Results: Students reported a high overall level of perceived digital impact (M=3.84, SD=0.893), significantly above the scale midpoint. Age was the strongest differentiating factor: participants aged 27–35 — more likely to carry family and household responsibilities — perceived a substantially greater role for digital tools than younger, ostensibly more “digitally native” peers (d=0.72), a pattern that runs counter to common assumptions about generational technology competence. Family status was also significant, with resident non-citizens, who often sustain family ties across borders, scoring higher than citizens (d=0.33). Gender, marital status, and college affiliation showed no meaningful differences, and within-group variation consistently exceeded between-group differences. The instrument demonstrated strong psychometric properties (Cronbach’s α=0.926; split-half reliability=0.904).
Conclusion: Perceived digital impact on family life is shaped less by broad demographic categories than by life stage and dependence on mediated communication across distance. These findings point toward life-stage- and needs-oriented interventions rather than generic demographic targeting, and offer a psychometrically sound instrument for future research in non-Western, Gulf-region contexts.