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 modeling 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 exerted only a minor effect on positive emotion. The results inform strategies to promote students’ well-being through distance learning, mitigating the negative effects of the situation.
In March 2020 schools in Austria temporarily closed and switched to distance learning to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The resulting situation posed great challenges to teachers, ...guardians and students (Huber and Helm 2020). Research has shown that perceived competence ... affects selfregulated learning (SRL), intrinsic motivation and procrastination, however few studies have considered these variables in context of distance learning among adolescents. This study investigated differences in students who perceived themselves as high vs. low in competence with respect to these constructs. In an online questionnaire, 2652 Austrian secondary school students answered closed questions regarding SRL, intrinsic motivation and procrastination as well as open-ended questions about challenges, successes and need for support in distance. Structural equation modeling was applied for the quantitative analysis which was complemented by thematic analysis for the qualitative questions .... Results showed that students who experienced themselves as highly competent use SRL strategies (goal setting and planning, time management, metacognitive strategies) more often and are more intrinsically motivated than students with lower perceived competence. They also procrastinate less. Furthermore, qualitative analysis revealed that although all students face similar challenges (e.g., independent learning, time and task management, learning on the computer, lack of contact with teachers and peers), students who perceived themselves as highly competent seemed to cope better, and have less need for support. Implications for distance learning and future research are discussed. (Orig.).
Im März 2020 wurden in Österreich Schulen vorübergehend geschlossen und auf Lernen auf Distanz umgestellt, um die Ausbreitung des Coronavirus (COVID-19) einzudämmen. Die daraus resultierende Situation stellte Lehrer, Erziehungsberechtigte und Schüler*innen vor große Herausforderungen .... Obwohl bisherige Forschung gezeigt hat, dass wahrgenommene Kompetenz selbstreguliertes Lernen (SRL), intrinsische Motivation und Prokrastination beeinflusst, haben sich nur wenige Studien mit diesen im Kontext des Lernens auf Distanz bei Jugendlichen befasst. Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte die Unterschiede zwischen Schüler*innen, die sich selbst als hoch vs. niedrig kompetent wahrnahmen und inwieweit diese Variablen hierfür eine Rolle spielen. In einem Online-Fragebogen beantworteten 2652 österreichische Schüler*innen der Sekundarstufe geschlossene Fragen zu SRL, intrinsischer Motivation und Prokrastination sowie offene Fragen zu Herausforderungen und Erfolgen beim Lernen auf Distanz und dem damit zusammenhängenden Unterstützungsbedarf. Für die quantitative Analyse wurde ein Strukturgleichungsmodell berechnet, welches durch eine thematische Analyse der qualitativen Fragen ergänzt wurde .... Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass Schüler*innen, die sich selbst als hochkompetent erleben, häufiger SRLStrategien (Zielsetzung und Planung, Zeitmanagement, metakognitive Strategien) anwenden und höhere intrinsische Motivation aufweisen, als Schüler*innen mit geringer wahrgenommener Kompetenz. Sie prokrastinieren außerdem weniger. Darüber hinaus ergab die qualitative Analyse, dass, obwohl alle Schüler*innen mit ähnlichen Herausforderungen konfrontiert sind (z. B. selbständiges Lernen, Zeit- und Aufgabenmanagement, Lernen am Computer, mangelnder Kontakt mit Lehrern und Gleichaltrigen), jene Schüler*innen, die sich selbst als hochkompetent wahrnehmen, besser damit zurechtkommen und weniger Unterstützung benötigen. Implikationen für das Lernen auf Distanz und zukünftige Forschung werden diskutiert. (Orig.)
Although adolescence is characterized by increasing individuation, parental support represents an important resource especially in early adolescence. This multi-informant study examined the role of ...parental self-efficacy in providing emotional and instrumental support when early adolescents partially learned from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a resources model of coping, we examined effects of parental self-efficacy on early adolescents' reports of self-regulated learning (SRL), learning self-efficacy, and positive emotions, mediated via early adolescents’ problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Assumptions were tested among 263 Austrian parent-child dyads. While the mediation assumption was rejected, we identified positive associations between emotional support and SRL, and between problem-focused coping and SRL, learning self-efficacy, and positive emotions. Instrumental support negatively related to SRL, suggesting benefits of emotional over instrumental support.
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic quickly necessitated digital learning, which bore challenges for all pupils but especially for groups disadvantaged in a virtual classroom. As some studies ...indicate persistent differences between boys and girls in use of technologies and related skills, the aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in the digital learning environment students faced in spring 2020. Previous studies investigating gender differences in digital learning largely used biological sex as the only indicator of gender. This study includes both biological sex and gender role self-concept in order to investigate the role of gender in different components of this stereotyped domain in a more differentiated way. A total of 19,190 Austrian secondary school students (61.9% girls,
= 14.55, SD
= 2.49, age range 10-21) participated in an online study in April 2020 and answered questions regarding their competence beliefs, intrinsic value, engagement, and perceived teacher support in digital learning during the pandemic-induced school closures. Results showed higher perceived teacher support, intrinsic value, and learning engagement among girls than boys, while no significant sex differences were found in competence beliefs regarding digital learning. Furthermore, our results indicated clear benefits of an androgynous gender role self-concept for all studied components of digital learning. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.
New technologies have great potential to facilitate students' understanding and appreciation of one of the most abstract and challenging school subjects - physics. This study aimed to examine the ...effects of a game-based virtual reality teaching method on secondary school students' self-beliefs, interest, and performance in physics through a quasi-experimental design using pre- and post-test data. The evaluation is based on the systemic actiotope model that explains a person's goal-oriented actions by an interplay of their environment, action repertoire (i.e., students' performance and interest in physics), and subjective action space (i.e., students' self-efficacy, self-concept, and implicit theories regarding physics).
A game-based virtual reality App to be used with Google cardboards was developed containing 10 teaching units from the secondary school physics class curriculum. Participants in the control group were taught using traditional teaching methods, while students in the experimental group went through the VR with the teacher and conducted the prepared VR experiments in addition to the traditionally presented content. Three tests measured students' physics performance during the semester. In addition, students answered questionnaires assessing their interest, self-efficacy, self-concept, and entity implicit theories regarding physics before and after the intervention, resulting in a Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design.
There were no significant differences between the control and experimental group in test scores on the first and second tests but compared to the control group, the experimental group achieved higher scores on the third test. In addition, the results indicate differential effects of the game-based virtual reality teaching method on students' interest and self-efficacy regarding physics to the advantage of students identifying as male, but no effects on students' self-concept, and entity implicit theories regarding physics.
The results of our pilot study suggest that incorporating innovative didactic methods into secondary school physics classes could potentially contribute to higher performance in and motivation for physics during this crucial period of adolescence when students develop educational and career aspirations. However, game-based virtual reality teaching methods seem to favor students identifying as male, which should be considered in their development and presentation. Other practical implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus urged all members of the society to adopt COVID-responsible behavioral patterns and practice them in everyday life. Given the variability in its adoption, it is ...critical to understand psychological factors associated with socially responsible behavior during the pandemic. This might be even more important among adolescents, who are less endangered by the virus but contribute to its spread. In this article, we focus on adolescent boys' and girls' agency and communion orientations to explain the level of importance they attribute to the instituted measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus (personal norm), as well as their behavioral adherence to those measures. In total, 12,552 adolescents (67.6% girls, Mage = 15.06, SDage = 2.44, age range 10-21) answered inventory assessing adolescents' agentic and communal orientation (GRI-JUG) and items related to personal norm regarding the instituted measures and behavioral adherence to the measures. The results showed a small positive role of communion in both boys' and girls' personal norm and behavioral adherence, whereas agency played a very small negative role in boys' and girls' personal norm and boys' behavioral adherence to measures. Nevertheless, these findings could indicate the importance of enhancing communal traits and behaviors in both genders in order to assure socially responsible behavior during the pandemic.
The sudden switch to distance education to contain the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered adolescents' lives around the globe. The present research aims to identify ...psychological characteristics that relate to adolescents' well-being in terms of positive emotion and intrinsic learning motivation, and key characteristics of their learning behavior in a situation of unplanned, involuntary distance education. Following Self-Determination Theory, experienced competence, autonomy, and relatedness were assumed to relate to active learning behavior (i.e., engagement and persistence), and negatively relate to passive learning behavior (i.e., procrastination), mediated via positive emotion and intrinsic learning motivation. Data were collected via online questionnaires in altogether eight countries from Europe, Asia, and North America (N = 25,305) and comparable results across countries were expected. Experienced competence was consistently found to relate to positive emotion and intrinsic learning motivation, and, in turn, active learning behavior in terms of engagement and persistence. The study results further highlight the role of perceived relatedness for positive emotion. The high proportions of explained variance speak in favor of taking these central results into account when designing distance education in times of COVID-19.
Occupational gender segregation is still a persistent problem in the labor market. This study investigates gender differences in gender typicality and prestige of occupational aspirations in early ...adolescence, as well as the role of agency and communion in these differences. In total, 2779 adolescents (age 11–15) reported their occupational aspirations, later coded for gender typicality and prestige. Participants also described themselves spontaneously with three attributes, then coded in terms of agency and communion. The results showed significant gender differences in a stereotypical direction for 40% of the occupations named, with boys expressing a clear preference for male-dominated and girls for female-dominated occupations. Conversely, the results revealed higher aspirations among girls regarding occupational prestige. Communion was found to be a significant mediator between gender and aspirations to typically feminine occupations, while agency mediated the relationship between gender and the prestige of aspirations. The findings’ implications for theory and practice are discussed.
It has been repeatedly shown that the extent to which individuals adopt stereotypically masculine and feminine traits in their self-concept impacts their health and well-being. This is especially ...important in adolescence, when developmental changes and social pressures to conform to stereotypical gender roles can affect psychological functioning. However, previous studies investigating relationship between gender role self-concept and well-being in adolescents focused mostly on general well-being rather than well-being in specific contexts. Given that school is one of the most important contexts for adolescents' development and well-being, the aim of this study was to investigate differences between adolescents with different gender role self-concepts (masculine, feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated) in
. In line with the new conceptualization of well-being uniting hedonic (pleasure attainment and pain avoidance) and eudemonic (self-actualization and having meaningful purpose in one's life) approaches, the present study used a measure of school-related well-being encompassing five domains suggested in the EPOCH (Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness and Happiness) model as well as a superordinate well-being factor. A total of 999 Austrian adolescents (52.2% girls,
= 13.79,
= 1.53) answered inventories assessing adolescents' gender role self-concept (GRI-JUG) and school-related well-being (EPOCH-G-S). The results supported the androgyny model of well-being, showing clear advantages of having both positive masculine and feminine qualities in one's self-concept for optimal levels of school-related well-being. In addition, our results indicated the strong importance of femininity in adolescence and the school context. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Studies have shown that affective states could be used as diagnostic information for the assessment of situational demands and that, as such, they can regulate resource mobilization. Accordingly, it ...was found that negative feelings cause overestimation of situational demands, which then leads to effort mobilization during performance on easy tasks but disengagement on difficult tasks. The present research investigated whether this emotion–motivation link could explain the usual differences in achievement on easy and difficult tasks under stereotype threat (ST). In Study 1, participants in ST, no‐ST, and no‐ST with fear induction conditions had to resolve a series of easy logical problems. As expected, ST and no‐ST‐fear groups reported higher effort investment and achieved better performance than the no‐ST group. In the following two studies, the no‐ST‐fear condition was replaced by an ST condition in which the informative potential of threat‐related feelings was prevented before the task performance. Although participants under ST reported similar elevation in anxiety, the expected increase in easy task performance (Study 2) and decrease in difficult task performance (Study 3) were observed only in the standard ST groups. Taken together, our findings suggest that threat‐related feelings could govern motivational processes and account for the effect of ST.
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