Exploring factors influencing digitally disadvantaged students' behavioral intention to use educational television programs

Introduction Educational television programs serve as a potentially accessible learning medium for digitally disadvantaged students, yet the factors shaping their behavioral intention to use such programs remain underexplored. Grounded in the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use 2 (UTAUT2), this study investigates what drives digitally disadvantaged students to form intentions around using educational television programming. Methods Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed as the analytical approach to examine the relationships among seven UTAUT2 constructs and behavioral intention. Results Three constructs-Hedonic Motivation (HM), Habit (H), and Facilitating Conditions (FC)-emerged as meaningful predictors of behavioral intention (BI), with HM being the strongest predictor. Social Influence (SI), Effort Expectancy (EE), Performance Expectancy (PE), and Price Value (PV) failed to reach statistical significance. The model's explanatory capacity for behavioral intention was moderate ( R 2 = 0.347). Discussion For digitally disadvantaged students, the intention to use educational television programs is more influenced by media experience, daily contact, and actual support conditions than by instrumental evaluation, social norms, or price considerations. Beyond extending UTAUT2 to the domain of televised instruction and digitally constrained populations, this investigation yields practical pointers for designing and sustaining accessible learning media.