Fostering Academic Engagement in Post-graduate Students: Assessing the Role of Positive Emotions, Positive Psychology, and Stress

Association of stress and emotional well-being in non-medical college students: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Stress among college students is a well-explored area with profound implications for their emotional well-being. Despite extensive research, the literature presents inconsistent and mixed findings regarding its relationship with emotional well-being, particularly focusing on medical students. Moreover, there is no meta-analytic study to address this inconsistency. To bridge these gaps, this study conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the nuanced association between stress among non-medical college students and their emotional well-being. The systematic review utilized databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, search engine: Google Scholar, and gray literature sources: ProQuest and Research Gate. The dataset consisted of 46 eligible studies (k), comprising 26,214 participants across 20 countries. The mean age was 21.86 (k = 32), with females constituting 60 % (k = 45). The majority of studies employed a cross-sectional/correlational design. The estimated pooled correlation is found to be -0.27 (95 % CI: -0.33, -0.21, p < .01; I2 = 97.5 %, k = 46). Subgroup analysis revealed significant influences of the type of stress (p < .01), emotional well-being (p < .01), tools (p < .01) used, significance status of findings (p < .001), and demographic factors - country (p < .001) and income level (p < .05). The study found an inversely significant and moderate association between stress and emotional well-being in non-medical college students, consistent with existing literature. Significant moderation by study and demographic variables suggests substantial heterogeneity among studies, highlighting potential influences from demographics, methodologies, and populations.

The effects of psychological capital, work engagement and job autonomy on job performance in platform flexible employees

The performance of platform flexible employees is a core element that contributes to the rapid growth of the sharing economy platform. It is crucial to explore strategies to improve employees' performance with the growing competition among these platforms. Only a handful of research evidence has been found evaluating platform flexible employees' psychological capital and work engagement to improve their performance. In order to remedy the gap, we draw on self-determination theory to develop a moderated mediation model, which examines how psychological capital affects platform flexible employees' job performance. We employed hierarchical regression analysis to test the theoretical model and carried out two rounds of surveys, resulting in 474 valid paired questionnaires. The questionnaire assessed the psychological capital, work engagement, job performance, and job autonomy of flexible platform employees. The results indicate that work engagement plays a mediating role between psychological capital affects platform flexible employees' job performance. Moreover, job autonomy moderates the mediating effect. The findings not only contribute to the literature on employees' psychological capital and job performance, but also broaden the research scope of self-determination theory, and provide new ideas for improving the job performance of platform flexible employees.

Highest order moderation of extraversion and neuroticism into the relationship between job stress and flourishing: Mediated by readiness to change among Chinese medical teachers

This study investigates the mediating role of Readiness to Change in the relationship between job stress and flourishing among Chinese medical teachers, as well as the highest order moderation of Extraversion and Neuroticism into this relationship. The research utilized a quantitative approach, surveying a sample of Chinese Medical Education teachers (N = 500) consisted of 342 males and 158 females with an age range between 30 and 65 (M = 43.69; SD = 9.31). The average tenure in the education landscape was 12.39 years (SD = 10.91) through an online platform. The primary aim was to explore how readiness attitudes influence the well-being and work capacity of Teachers in high-stress medical teaching environments. The survey incorporated self-assessment instruments to measure job stress, Readiness to Change attitudes, levels of flourishing, and personality traits (Extraversion and Neuroticism). Statistical analyses, including mediation models, were employed to test the relationships between these variables. Preliminary findings suggest a significant mediating role of Readiness to Change into the effects of job stress on flourishing and a moderation of extraversion into this relationship. The findings also failed to support the moderation of Neuroticism into the relationships, while the Higher order moderation showed a statistical marginal value. This indicates that effective readiness attitudes may not only mitigate the negative impacts of job stress but also enhance personal well-being and professional capacity. These results hold critical implications for the development of support systems and interventions aimed at fostering resilience and adaptive skills among medical teachers. Such initiatives could potentially improve job satisfaction, mental health, and teaching effectiveness in medical education settings. The study contributes to the growing body of literature on occupational stress and coping mechanisms in the educational sector, particularly within the field of medical education.

Challenge-Hindrance Stressors and Academic Engagement Among Medical Postgraduates in China: A Moderated Mediation Model

Background

Improving academic engagement of medical postgraduates is crucial for enhancing the quality of learning and the development of medical education. Due to medical postgraduates face high levels of stress and rigorous demands, yet the mechanisms linking challenge-hindrance stressors to academic engagement in this context remain largely unexplored. This study aims to explore the comprehensive relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement among medical postgraduates in China.

Methods

Data were collected from 437 medical postgraduates in China, to investigate their challenge-hindrance stressors, emotional exhaustion, learning, relaxation and academic engagement. Among these postgraduates, 40.3% were male and 59.7% were female, with the mean age of the participants being 25.71 years. Statistical procedures were conducted using Mplus 8.3, ensuring a robust analysis of the data collected.

Results

Our study showed that both challenge and hindrance stressors are significantly positively correlated with emotional exhaustion among Chinese medical postgraduates, and emotional exhaustion is negatively associated with academic engagement. Emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement. Learning plays a protective role, moderating the challenge stressors and emotional exhaustion relationship and its indirect effect on academic engagement. However, relaxation was not identified as a significant moderating factor in this context.

Conclusion

Our findings not only revealed emotional exhaustion as a potential mechanism underlying the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement but also validated the moderating role of learning in mitigating the adverse effects of challenge stressors on emotional exhaustion and academic engagement among Chinese medical postgraduates. This comprehensive insight into the complex dynamics between different stressors and academic engagement provides both theoretical and empirical evidence for medical universities. It underscores the importance of interventions to enhance academic engagement in stressful environments and serves as a valuable reference for the development of reasonable assessment systems. These contributions are crucial for fostering a supportive educational atmosphere and promoting the well-being of medical postgraduates.

Exploring positive psychology intervention and mindfulness-based intervention in nature: impact on well-being of school students in India

Introduction

Enhancing the well-being of urban school students is a growing challenge. The online mode of teaching during and post-pandemic era has increased students' daily screen time. As they spend more time indoors, they tend to disconnect from nature even more, adversely impacting their well-being. This study aimed to design and execute two well-being interventions-a positive psychology intervention (PPI) and a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) in natural settings for urban school students in India.

Methods

One hundred eighty participants (aged 17-20) from a senior secondary school were randomly assigned to three groups: PPI, MBI, and a control group (CTR). Participants self-reported their levels of well-being, gratitude, inclusion of nature in self, sense of connectedness, resilience, awareness, perceived stress, and positive and negative emotions using a survey questionnaire at two times-pre- and post-interventions. Repeated-measures ANOVA was employed across time and groups, and post hoc analyses for group differences were carried out through the Bonferroni test.

Results

Results indicate that both PPI and MBI interventions, when executed in natural settings, enhance student well-being, gratitude, inclusion of nature in self, sense of connectedness, resilience, awareness, positive emotions and decreased levels of perceived stress, and negative emotions.

Discussion

The study provides valuable insights for school authorities, policymakers, and urban planners to include natural settings in school premises and offer well-being interventions for students to connect with nature consciously.

How does workplace support promote postdoctoral career growth? A conservation of resources perspective

Background

Postdoctoral researchers are critical to scholarly advancements, and promoting postdoctoral career growth is an endogenous path to help postdocs break through the "encircled city of scientific research". However, further research is needed to fully explore the mechanisms that connect workplace support to postdoctoral career growth.

Methods

Drawing from the Conservation of Resources theory, this study proposes a chain mediation model that demonstrates how workplace support enhances career growth by connecting psychological capital with work-life balance. To understand the motivation and career growth of postdocs in China, we conducted two questionnaires in 2021 and 2023 with the support of relevant stations.

Results

Analyzing 367 questionnaires from Chinese postdocs, our research indicates that workplace support has a positive impact on career growth. Additionally, both psychological capital and work-life balance are key factors that contribute to career growth, serving as separate mediators and as part of a chain of mediators.

Discussion

This study validates the appropriateness of the Conservation of Resources theory in the study of the influence mechanism of postdoctoral career growth and proposes targeted strategies for academic institutions to improve support systems, promoting more effective career development pathways.

Network analysis of affect, emotion regulation, psychological capital, and resilience among Chinese males during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background

Previous studies have confirmed that both affect and emotion regulation strategies are closely associated with psychological capital (PsyCap) and resilience. These factors are assumed to buffer the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, especially among males. However, these interactions have not been closely examined to date. To fill this gap, this paper explores the dimension-level relationships of these psychological constructs among Chinese males during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and identified critical bridge dimensions using network analysis.

Methods

A total of 1,490 Chinese males aged 21–51 years completed self-report scales assessing emotion regulation strategies, affect, PsyCap, and psychological resilience. Two regularized partial correlation networks, namely the affect and emotion regulation-PsyCap network and the affect and emotion regulation-psychological resilience network, were then constructed to examine links between the dimensions of these constructs. The bridge expected influence (BEI) index was also calculated for each node to identify important bridge nodes.

Results

Positive affect, negative affect, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression showed distinct and complex links to various dimensions of PsyCap or psychological resilience. In both networks, positive affect, cognitive reappraisal, and negative affect were identified as critical bridge nodes, with the first two having positive BEI values and the third having a negative value.

Conclusion

The findings elucidate the specific role of the dimensions of emotion regulation or affect in relation to PsyCap and psychological resilience, which facilitates further understanding of the mechanisms underlying these interrelationships. These findings also provide implications for developing effective intervention strategies to increase PsyCap and psychological resilience.

Impact of Teachers’ Commitment to the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Sustainable Teaching Performance

In the field of education, ongoing processes, and optimal schoolwork outcomes require educational leadership, especially in developing countries, due to the lack of sustainable teaching performance and effective leadership. The present study aims to examine the mediating role of teachers’ commitment to transformational leadership and sustainable teaching performance. The sample of the study was selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Out of the 450 copies distributed to the participants, only 374 were retrieved as valid. The hypotheses of the study were tested using PLS–SEM. The findings showed a positive effect of transformational leadership on teachers’ commitment. Moreover, transformational leadership was also found to positively impact teachers’ performance. In contrast, the teachers’ commitment was revealed to positively affect sustainable teaching performance. Finally, the study showed that the teachers’ commitment mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and sustainable teaching performance. This study is unique for being among the few studies that examine the effects of principals’ transformational leadership. It provides educational leaders and policymakers with significant insights by providing a roadmap that aids in understanding the most influential factors on teaching performance sustainability. Consequently, this study holds significant practical relevance for leaders in the field of education and policymakers, as they provide valuable insights into policies and practices that can be implemented to foster sustainability in the school environment.

Analyzing the impact of psychological capital and work pressure on employee job engagement and safety behavior

Introduction

Buildings and infrastructure are the primary focus of the construction industry, which also includes related activities such as design, planning, demolition, renovation, maintenance, and repair. Safety performance is crucial to the industry's ability to work effectively in spite of hazardous conditions on the job site during any given project. Improving construction workers' safety performance in Malaysia requires an in-depth examination of the interplay between workers' psychological capital, work pressure, employee engagement, and safety participation.

Methods

Administrative and field workers from different divisions across Malaysia's six regions were randomly sampled to collect data for this study. The workers were given a total of 500 questionnaires, of which 345 were returned to the team of researchers. Based on the data analysis, there is an effective interaction between the factors tested toward safety performance.

Results

According to findings, psychological capital positively and significantly affected workers' work engagement. Also, work engagement greatly impacted both workers' safety performance outcomes. Also, as expected, worker pressure significantly and negatively affected workers' safety performance.

Discussion

Insights gained from this research have helped us better organize work and involve employees in safety activities/policies to boost workplace safety performance. The study also suggested that firms should reduce their employees' workloads because doing so would not lower their Psychological Capital but would instead fortify them to better carry out their duties in a risk-free manner.

The relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction and university students’ academic engagement: The mediating effect of emotional intelligence

Introduction

Basic psychological needs satisfaction (BPNS) and Emotional intelligence (EI) have been underscored as helpful psychological constructs in explaining academic engagement. However, the joint interaction of BPNS with EI abilities to explain academic engagement has not been tested. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the interactive role of BPNS with EI abilities in the prediction of academic engagement in a sample of Chinese university students.

Methods

A questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of 466 university students. The data were analyzed using the SPSS (version 21.0) software. The first analysis consisted of descriptive statistics (including mean and standard deviation) and Pearson’s correlations among BPNS, EI, and academic engagement. Through structural equation modeling (SEM), direct and indirect effects were calculated.

Results

The results showed that BPNS was positively associated with academic engagement and that only the Use of emotion dimension of EI mediated these associations.

Discussion

These results suggest that important interventions incorporated with BPNS and EI abilities, especially the use of emotion ability, may be performed to promote university students’ academic engagement.

An International Study of Correlates of Women's Positive Body Image

Positive body image (PBI) has received attention in the recent research literature. Despite this, its role in daily functioning in different cultural contexts, particularly its potential relationship with academic outcomes, is still lacking. This study aimed to offer an international perspective on the association between PBI and body mass index (BMI), perceived academic achievement, and educational aspirations, as well as the mediating role of self-esteem. A cross-national study was conducted in eight European countries with a total of 2653 female university students. Participants completed an online survey measuring PBI (conceptualized as body appreciation), self-esteem, perceived academic achievement and aspirations, and body mass index (BMI). Results revealed differences in PBI between countries (low magnitude). PBI correlated negatively with BMI in all national groups (low-to-moderate magnitude). Mediation analysis showed that self-esteem mediated the association between PBI and academic variables. Findings from this study suggest that building students’ self-esteem and PBI can be a suitable way to boost academic success.