Open AccessOrientations to Happiness and University Students’ Engagement during the COVID-19 Era: Evidence from Six American Countries
Author(s) -
María Fernanda Durón-Ramos,
Miguel A. Pérez,
Edgardo René Chacón-Andrade
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
international journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.484
H-Index - 6
ISSN - 2014-3591
DOI - 10.17583/ijep.9198
Subject(s) - happiness , pleasure , psychology , covid-19 , meaning (existential) , student engagement , social psychology , higher education , face (sociological concept) , construct (python library) , sociology , pedagogy , political science , social science , medicine , disease , pathology , neuroscience , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , psychotherapist , programming language
Positive personal characteristics such as happiness or wellbeing can motivate students to elevate their school performance in higher education. Orientation to happiness is a construct that combines three sources of happiness: pleasure, meaning, and engagement, all of which have been identified as a predictor of university student’s engagement. However, most research in this area has been conducted during ideal situations or face-to-face education, and no cross-country research has been published examining the relationship between these two concepts during the COVID-19 era, where online education was predominant. This study aimed to investigate the relation between orientation to happiness and student engagement after twelve months of distance education in a sample of 1723 students from six American countries, including the USA, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. Results indicate that university student´s' engagement is influenced by the orientation to happiness. Further implications of these results are discussed.