Levels of Academic Engagement and Social Media Addiction Among University Students: A Comparative Study Roque Herrera, Yosbanys Alonso García, Santiago Tenelanda López, Dennys Vladimir López Núñez, Juan Antonio Academic engagement Social network addiction College students Social media is a valuable resource in many spheres of life in the 21st century; however, excessive, uncontrolled use is associated with various adverse health conditions. In this study, we used a quantitative approach, an observational design, and a comparative scope to compare levels of academic commitment and social media addiction, and their respective dimensions, grouping participants according to various sociodemographic and educational criteria. A total of participants was 1200 students (65.3% female) with an average age of 21.4 years, from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the National University of Chimborazo, Ecuador, and data were collected using the Ultrecht Academic Commitment Scale and Social Media Addiction Questionnaire. When grouped by major, statistically significant differences were found only for dedication (p = 0.038), lack of control over social media use (p = 0.016), and excessive social media use (p = 0.002). When grouped by social media use, there were statistically significant differences in all the dependent variables, with p-values ranging from 0.000 to 0.011. Regarding the frequency of social media use, no significant differences were found in academic engagement (p ≥ 0.05), while the opposite was observed for social media use. A comparative analysis identified categories with significant differences. The results enabling an accurate diagnosis and the adoption of the most appropriate educational strategies; also serves as a theoretical and methodological basis for further research on the subject. 2026-01-21T10:44:32Z 2026-01-21T10:44:32Z 2026-01-20 journal article Roque Herrera, Y., Alonso García, S., Tenelanda López, D. V., & López Núñez, J. A. (2026). Levels of Academic Engagement and Social Media Addiction Among University Students: A Comparative Study. Social Sciences, 15(1), 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci15010049 2076-0760 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/110027 10.3390/socsci15010049 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional MDPI