Digital tools and family relationships among University of Sharjah students

Digital communication is becoming a part of everyday family life, with mixed evidence of its impact on connection and quality of relationships, and little evidence from UAE university students. This study compared students' self-reported roles of digital tools in a family, by gender, residency, marital status, age, and college, while testing scores for means to see if there were any differences. The study employs the theoretical perspective of the Couple and Family Technology (CFT) framework that conceptualizes technology as part of the relational roles, rules, boundaries, and connections of couples and families. The research employed a cross-sectional quantitative method, and 330 students from the University of Sharjah were chosen for the study in the 2025/2026 academic year by distributing a questionnaire consisting of 42 items. The overall mean was 3.84 (SD = 0.893; 95% CI [3.74, 3.94]), indicating a high perceived role. There was no difference between the genders, marital status, or college. Higher scores were reported by residents than citizens (t = 2.704, p = .007, d = .33) and by students aged 27–35 than 18–26 (t = 6.237, p < .001, d = .72). These differences were confirmed using Holm adjustment. Results align with relationally oriented university guidance with regard to the use of technology in an appropriate and purposeful manner within the boundaries. These results offer certain data on the digitally mediated family connectedness among students at universities in the UAE.