DOI: 10.3886/e133601
title: Higher Education in Times of COVID-19: University Students’ Basic Need Satisfaction, Self-Regulated Learning and Well-Being

description: In the wake of COVID-19, university students have experienced<br>fundamental changes of their learning and their lives as a whole. Thepresent research identifies psychological characteristics associated withstudents’ well-being in this situation. We investigated relations of basicpsychological need satisfaction (experienced competence, autonomy,and relatedness) with positive emotion and intrinsic learning motivation,considering self-regulated learning as a moderator. Self-reports werecollected from 6,071 students in Austria (Study 1) and 1,653 students inFinland (Study 2). Structural equation modelling revealed competence asthe strongest predictor for positive emotion. Intrinsic learning motivationwas predicted by competence and autonomy in both countries and byrelatedness in Finland. Moderation effects of self-regulated learning wereinconsistent, but main effects on intrinsic learning motivation wereidentified. Surprisingly, relatedness only exerted a minor effect onpositive emotion. The results inform strategies to promote students’well-being through distance-learning, mitigating negative effects of thesituation.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Due to the novelty of the COVID-19 situation, we adapted existing scales or developednew 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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>Relatedness was measured with three items inspired by the Work-related Basic NeedSatisfaction 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.<br><br>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).<br><br>Positive emotion was measured with two items inspired by the Scale of Positive AndNegative 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).<br><br>Intrinsic learning motivation was assessed with three items slightly adapted from theScales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-LS; Thomas et al., 2018).
description: web-based survey;
description: ad hoc sample of 6,071 Austrian and 1,653 Finnish university students.
description: ad hoc sample