Orientations to Happiness and University Students’ Engagement during the COVID-19 Era: Evidence from Six American Countries

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Maria Durón-Ramos, Miguel Perez, Edgardo René Chacón-Andrade
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hipatia Press 2022-02-01
Series:International Journal of Educational Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/ijep/article/view/9198
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:2014-3591