ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an abrupt adoption of online learning worldwide challenging students' scholastic engagement and their ability to self-regulate their learning. Under these unexpected conditions, adaptability (one's capacity to adjust thoughts, behaviors, and emotions in new and uncertain situations) might have sustained students to maintain high engagement and find new learning solutions. Students with high adaptability might also interpret COVID-19-related novelty as an opportunity and show higher posttraumatic growth levels. A longitudinal path analysis showed that in a sample of 435 Italian students (11-18 years old), adaptability at Time 1 positively related to engagement, self-regulated learning, and posttraumatic growth at the end of the school year, indirectly favoring academic achievement, through the mediation of engagement and self-regulated learning. These findings highlight the unique role that adaptability could play in supporting students in unexpected and stressful situations. Fostering students' adaptability could therefore have beneficial effects on their personal growth and academic success. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Adaptability regulates individuals' cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to new, unexpected and uncertain situations, but to date no study has analysed whether adaptability contemporarily favours cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of learning. AIMS: This study aims to address this gap by examining (i) the direct relations between adaptability and achievement emotions, self-regulated learning strategies and academic self-efficacy and (ii) the direct and indirect relations between adaptability and academic achievement and life satisfaction through and over the other study-related factors. SAMPLE: A total of 1083 students (415 males, M age = 13.37, SD age = 1.97, age range = 10-18) in grades 6-12 participated to the study. METHOD: Questionnaires were used to measure students' adaptability, positive and negative achievement emotions, self-regulated learning strategies, academic self-efficacy and life satisfaction. Schools provided grades obtained by each student at the end of the academic year. RESULTS: A path analysis based on 1083 students (10-18 years old) confirmed that adaptability directly relates to the three study-related factors considered and to life satisfaction and indirectly relates to academic achievement and life satisfaction-through the mediation of the other variables. CONCLUSIONS: The results, discussed in accordance with the self-regulated learning theory, enlarge the nomological framework of adaptability and highlight its importance for emotional, behavioural and cognitive aspects of self-regulated learning.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative and positive changes in the general population, with some people experiencing post-traumatic growth after the first wave. Little research has focused, however, on personal factors potentially helping individuals cope with COVID-related difficulties. This study investigates the relations between character strengths, mental health, and post-traumatic growth. DESIGN: Longitudinal (T1: April 2020; T2: December 2020-January 2021). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 254 Italian adults (54 males; mean age = 36.05, SD = 14.04) completed questionnaires on character and mental health at T1, and on mental health and post-traumatic growth at T2. RESULTS: General mental health was worse at T2 than at T1. Structural equation modelling showed that character, as a whole, had a significant direct effect on post-traumatic growth and mental health at T2, and an indirect effect mediated by post-traumatic growth. Furthermore, regression analyses evidenced that the virtue of transcendence was uniquely related to mental health at T2, while humanity was specifically associated with post-traumatic growth (after accounting for the other virtues). CONCLUSION: Individuals' character strengths related to their mental health and post-traumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, with evidence of post-traumatic growth mediating the relation between character and mental health.
ABSTRACT
Little is known about the intraindividual dispositional factors related to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional academic learning outcomes under COVID-19. This study investigated (i) the associations of intraindividual factors, some related to studying (motivation to learn, self-regulated learning, and study resilience), others more general (soft skills, intolerance of uncertainty) with three situational academic learning outcomes (general distress, online self-regulated learning, study-related emotions), and (ii) the effect of time, intraindividual factors, online self-regulated learning, and study-related emotions on distress and achievement over the following three exam sessions. A total of 331 university students took part in the study during the first Italian nationwide lockdown (T1, March-May 2020). Of those, 121 also completed at least one follow-up (T2: August 2020, T3: September 2020, T4: February 2021). At T1, study-related dispositions and soft skills were positively associated with online self-regulated learning and study-related emotions, while study-related dispositions were also negatively associated with general distress. Intolerance of uncertainty was associated positively with general distress and negatively with study-related emotions. Longitudinal effects of T2 and T3 for intolerance of uncertainty and study-related emotions were observed for distress, while those for T4 were study-related dispositions for achievement. Nurturing intraindividual factors can help students cope with a prolonged stressful situation such as a pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an abrupt adoption of online learning worldwide challenging students' scholastic engagement and their ability to self-regulate their learning. Under these unexpected conditions, adaptability (one's capacity to adjust thoughts, behaviors, and emotions in new and uncertain situations) might have sustained students to maintain high engagement and find new learning solutions. Students with high adaptability might also interpret COVID-19-related novelty as an opportunity and show higher posttraumatic growth levels. A longitudinal path analysis showed that in a sample of 435 Italian students (11-18 years old), adaptability at Time 1 positively related to engagement, self-regulated learning, and posttraumatic growth at the end of the school year, indirectly favoring academic achievement, through the mediation of engagement and self-regulated learning. These findings highlight the unique role that adaptability could play in supporting students in unexpected and stressful situations. Fostering students' adaptability could therefore have beneficial effects on their personal growth and academic success. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic forced most Italian athletes to cease their regular training activities, with possible consequences on both mental and physical health. The present study aimed at assessing changes in Physical Activity (PA) from pre- to lockdown, and examining the relationships among lockdown PA, quality of life (mental and physical health), motivation to exercise, psychological distress, intolerance of uncertainty, and body dissatisfaction. Methods: A total of 204 athletes of different sports (91 elite; 110 females; mean age = 22.55, SD = 5.76) answered an online survey investigating demographics, sport-related questions, PA (IPAQ-S), quality of life (SF-12), and psychological variables (BREQ-2, DASS-21, IUS-R, and EDI-3-Body dissatisfaction subscale). Results: Both elite and non-elite athletes significantly reduced their PA intensity and volume (p < 0.001). Elite athletes did not differ from non-elite in terms of total PA intensity and hours of training during lockdown (p > 0.05). Elite and individual athletes showed higher intrinsic motivation to exercise compared to non-elite and team sports (p < 0.01). Female athletes displayed higher distress, worse mental health, and higher body dissatisfaction than males (p < 0.05). Mediation models showed that vigorous PA positively affected both mental (p < 0.05) and physical (p < 0.001) health during lockdown, independently of distress and intolerance of uncertainty. Conclusion: The COVID-19 lockdown was taxing for athletes, particularly professionals; those who were able to practice PA at high intensity during lockdown reported better mental and physical health.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic obliged people around the world to stay home and self-isolate, with a number of negative psychological consequences. This study focuses on the protective role of character strengths in sustaining mental health and self-efficacy during lockdown. Data were collected from 944 Italian respondents (mean age = 37.24 years, SD = 14.50) by means of an online survey investigating character strengths, psychological distress and Covid-19-related self-efficacy one month after lockdown began. Using principal component analysis, four strengths factors were extracted, namely transcendence, interpersonal, openness and restraint. Regression models with second-order factors showed that transcendence strengths had a strong inverse association with psychological distress, and a positive association with self-efficacy. Regression models with single strengths identified hope, zest, prudence, love and forgiveness as the strengths most associated with distress, love and zest as the most related to self-efficacy and zest to general mental health. Openness factor and appreciation of beauty showed an unexpected direct relation with psychological distress. These results provide original evidence of the association of character strengths, and transcendence strengths in particular, with mental health and self-efficacy in a pandemic and are discussed within the field of positive psychology.