Emotional experiences and study motivation among Italian university students during the second wave of COVID-19

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between emotional experiences and study motivation in a group of nonworking and never-infected university students, during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants: Participants (N = 353; aged M = 21.5; SD = 2.8) were mostly female (76.2%) Italian university students. Methods: They completed an online assessment that included self-report measures of fear during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, intolerance of uncertainty, optimism, and study motivation. Results: Our findings showed that older students were more optimistic than younger students. Besides, fear of COVID-19, intolerance of uncertainty, and pessimism predicted worse study motivation. Conclusions: Greater psychological support should be reserved for younger students to prevent emotional experiences that might affect the learning goal.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• fear
• intolerance of uncertainty
• optimism
• study motivation

Acknowledgement

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of Italy and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Kore University of Enna.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.