Psychosocial profiles of university students’ emotional adjustment, perceived social support, self-efficacy belief, and foreign language anxiety during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Objective

The aim of the study was to understand Chinese university students’ psychological development during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Method

Four online surveys, i.e., emotional adjustment, perceived social support, self-efficacy belief, and anxiety in English learning, were administered to 585 university students in China. The data were analyzed through a latent profile analysis.

Results

Three profiles were identified: high adaptation, moderate adaptation, and low adaptation. The students with high adaptation (n = 276, 47.1%) possessed a more positive self-efficacy belief and demonstrated lower levels of anxiety. In contrast, the students with low adaptation (n = 82, 14%) possessed a less positive self-efficacy belief and demonstrated higher levels of anxiety.

Conclusion

The findings highlight the need of psychological interventions to support the psychological development of vulnerable groups of learners within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEY POINTS

What is already known about this topic:

(1) Anxiety is an important factor that influences the learning of foreign languages.

(2) Self-efficacy and perceived social support help students cope with stress.

(3) Emotional adjustment helps to reduce foreign language anxiety.

What this paper adds:

(1) Students with low adaptation possessed lower levels of self-efficacy belief and demonstrated higher levels of anxiety.

(2) Teachers need to pay special attention to the psychological development of vulnerable groups of learners within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

(3) Teachers are advised to develop interventions that enhance students’ self-efficacy beliefs and offer tailored interventions on emotional adjustment strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional adjustment
• self-efficacy belief
• social support
• foreign language anxiety
• learning
• English

Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided in part by the University of Macau Start-Up Research Grant (SRG2019-00175-FED). The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the University of Macau, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets are available from the corresponding author on reasonable requests.

Compliance with ethical standards

This study was approved by the Research Committee – Panel on Research Ethics at the University of Macau, China.

Informed consent was obtained from the participants online.

We are not allowed to share the data to protect the identity of the participants and to follow the requirement of the Research Committee – Panel on Research Ethics.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Macau Start-up Research Grant [SRG2019-00175-FED].