Higher Education in Times of COVID-19: University Students’ Basic Need Satisfaction, Self-Regulated Learning and Well-Being

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Julia Holzer, University of Vienna; Marko Lüftenegger, University of Vienna; Selma Korlat, University of Vienna; Elisabeth Pelikan, University of Vienna; Katariina Salmela-Aro, University of Helsinki; Christiane Spiel, University of Vienna; Barbara Schober, University of Vienna

Version: View help for Version V1

American Educational Research Association Data Repository

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Read Me.pdf	application/pdf	365.2 KB	03/01/2021 08:37:AM
data.sav	application/x-spss-sav	299.3 KB	03/01/2021 08:36:AM

Project Citation:

Holzer, Julia, Lüftenegger, Marko, Korlat, Selma, Pelikan, Elisabeth, Salmela-Aro, Katariina, Spiel, Christiane, and Schober, Barbara. Higher Education in Times of COVID-19: University Students’ Basic Need Satisfaction, Self-Regulated Learning and Well-Being. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-03-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/E133601V1

Project Description

Summary:

In the wake of COVID-19, university students have experienced

fundamental changes of their learning and their lives as a whole. The

present research identifies psychological characteristics associated with

students’ well-being in this situation. We investigated relations of basic

psychological need satisfaction (experienced competence, autonomy,

and relatedness) with positive emotion and intrinsic learning motivation,

considering self-regulated learning as a moderator. Self-reports were

collected from 6,071 students in Austria (Study 1) and 1,653 students in

Finland (Study 2). Structural equation modelling revealed competence as

the strongest predictor for positive emotion. Intrinsic learning motivation

was predicted by competence and autonomy in both countries and by

relatedness in Finland. Moderation effects of self-regulated learning were

inconsistent, but main effects on intrinsic learning motivation were

identified. Surprisingly, relatedness only exerted a minor effect on

positive emotion. The results inform strategies to promote students’

well-being through distance-learning, mitigating negative effects of the

situation.

Funding Sources: Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) and MEGA Bildungsstiftung (COV20-025); Academy of Finland (1308351)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: psychology; well-being; motivation; higher education

Geographic Coverage: Austria, Finland

Collection Date(s): 4/7/2020 – 5/6/2020 (Spring 2020)

Universe:

ad hoc sample of 6,071 Austrian and 1,653 Finnish university students

Data Type(s): survey data

Methodology

Sampling:

ad hoc sample

Collection Mode(s): web-based survey

Scales:

Due to the novelty of the COVID-19 situation, we adapted existing scales or developed

new items to suitably address the current circumstances.

All items in the questionnaire were rated on a 5‐point likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). Participants were instructed to respond to items with respect to the current situation, i.e., learning from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to simplify the interpretation of results, all analyses were conducted with recoded items so that higher values reflected higher agreement with the statements.

Competence was measured with three items adapted from the Work-related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale (W-BNS; Van den Broeck et al., 2010). We adapted the work-related items to the university context.

Autonomy was assessed with three newly developed items that addressed the extent to which students felt that they were self-determined in approaching their studies in the current situation.

Relatedness was measured with three items inspired by the Work-related Basic Need

Satisfaction Scale (W-BNS; Van den Broeck et al., 2010) and the German Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (Heissel et al., 2018). In contrast to competence and autonomy, the items targeting relatedness did not solely refer to the university context, but also to significant others in general.

Self-regulated learning in terms of goal setting and planning one’s learning process was assessed with three items, slightly adapted from the short version of the Learning Strategies of University Students questionnaire (LIST-K; Klingsieck, 2018).

Positive emotion was measured with two items inspired by the Scale of Positive And

Negative Experience (SPANE; Diener et al., 2010) and one item adapted from the optimism subscale of the EPOCH Measure of Adolescent Well-Being

(Kern et al., 2016).

Intrinsic learning motivation was assessed with three items slightly adapted from the

Scales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-LS; Thomas et al., 2018).

Unit(s) of Observation: individuals

Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V1 [2021-03-02]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.