OALibJOpen Access Library Journal2333-9705Scientific Research Publishing10.4236/oalib.1108941OALibJ-118273ArticlesBiomedical&Life Sciences Business&Economics Chemistry&Materials Science Computer Science&Communications Earth&Environmental Sciences Engineering Medicine&Healthcare Physics&Mathematics Social Sciences&Humanities A Study on University Students’ Psychological Capital and Academic Performance: Autonomous Motivation as the Mediator JianjinLiu1ShiyaoHuang1Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China30052022090612028, May 202227, June 2022 30, June 2022© Copyright 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. 2014This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This research examined the relationship among Psychological Capital (PsyCap), Autonomous Motivation (AM) and Academic Performance (AP) in university settings. A sample of 225 college students ( M age = 21.34, 169 females) was collected from G University and data analysis showed that: 1) PsyCap as a whole composite can positively predict grade point average (GPA) and AM; 2) Only hope showed a significant association with GPA among the 4 individual constructs of PsyCap (hope, resilience, self-efficacy, optimism); 3) Hope and self-efficacy were positive predictors while resilience was a negative predictor of AM; 4) AM had a mediating role between PsyCap and GPA. Implications for possible educational intervention to improve college students’ academic performance, especially the role of hope, were also discussed.

Psychological Capital Autonomous Motivation Academic Performance Grade Point Average (GPA) Self-Determination Theory (SDT)1. Introduction

Excellence in academic achievement is considered as an important predictor of individuals’ later career success (Fugate et al., 2004) [1] and how to promote students’ academic performance (AP) has been a central issue in educational research. One of the most significant and widely investigated predictors of students’ achievement is academic motivation. Self-Determination Theory (SDT, Deci & Ryan, 2000) [2] is a widely accepted motivational theory that regards competency, autonomy, and relatedness as human beings’ basic psychological needs. From the perspective of SDT, students are more likely to succeed if they possessed a higher level of autonomous motivation (AM) (Deci & Ryan, 2015) [3]. This new motivational perspective quickly generated a bulk of research that confirmed the positive impact of AM on students’ AP in the past decades.

Since Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) [4] helped catalyze the change in psychology, turning the focus from repairing damage to creating a more positive subjective experience, there was a research boon in the new area―Positive Psychology. Drawing from this new field of study, Luthans et al. (2006) [5] developed the idea of Psychological Capital which consisted of hope, self-efficacy, optimism and resilience. They picked up these four psychological resources based on the criteria of Positive Organizational Behaviour (state-like, valid measurement and performance impact). This new concept has been applied in the industrial-organizational background firstly and has been found to be related to many types of positive work performance. Given that school, to some extent, is also an organization, Luthans et al. (2012) [6] began examining its beneficial role in the context of university students, hence turning researchers’ attention to the academic contexts. As they hypothesized, subsequent studies showed a positive association between PsyCap and students’ academic achievement (Burhanuddin et al., 2019) [7].

Motivation was a factor many researchers were concerned about and has been proved to be an important factor in predicting students’ academic performance. However, consistent research pointed out that lacking motivation is becoming an increasingly common problem among university students in Chinese setting (Hou et al., 2010 [8]; Zhan & Ju, 2013 [9]). By definition, the four individual constructs of PsyCap (hope, self-efficacy, optimism and resilience) can affect one’s motivation whereas only a few studies examining the association between students’ motivation and PsyCap (Siu et al., 2014 [10]; Datu & Valdez, 2018 [11]). What’s more, there is theoretical evidence to support the hypothesized model that PsyCap has a positive influence on students’ AP by the mediation of AM (Datu & Valdez, 2018) [11]. Unfortunately, the studies that linked students’ PsyCap with AP by motivation were scarce, not to mention that by AM.

The main goal of the present research is to testify the model that PsyCap can predict students’ academic performance with the mediation of AM. Given that prior studies support the view that both PsyCap and AM are malleable (De Naeghel et al., 2016) [12], it will be conducive to finding out implication for educators to help improve students’ AP by intervening in their AM and PsyCap if the working mechanism among PsyCap, AM and AP of students can be well understood.

2. Literature Review2.1. Psychological Capital and Academic Performance

Comprising of self-efficacy, resilience, hope and optimism, the PsyCap has gained researchers’ attention in the educational contexts. Derived from Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1997) [13], self-efficacy refers to the belief that an individual possesses toward given tasks, and it has been acknowledged as a robust predictor of students’ academic achievement and motivation across different cultures. Hope is defined as a positive motivational state based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals)’ (Snyder et al., 2002) [14]. It was believed to predict overall grade point averages of freshmen (Snyder et al., 2002) [14]. Representing by a generalized positive outlook or an ability to maintain positive expectancies towards future (Solberg et al., 2009 [15]; Valentine et al., 2004 [16]), optimism was found to be able to predict better performance in academics (Chemers et al., 2001) [17]. Resiliency refers to one’s capability to bounce back from disadvantaged circumstances (Luthar et al., 2000) [18], enabling students to sustain high academic performance despite unfavorable conditions (Leary & DeRosier, 2012) [19].

The results were not consistent when researchers examined the correlation between the individual elements of PsyCap and students’ academic performance. As Feldman and Kubota (2014) [20] pointed out that general hope acted as a positive predictor of academic hope and academic self-efficacy of students, and they were both positively associated with academic performance directly, whereas there was no significant association between GPA and optimism.

There are also studies looking at relationship between individual construct of PsyCap and academic performance. The existing research demonstrated that hope played a more important role than both optimism and self-efficacy in the prediction of students’ academic performance (Feldman & Kubota., 2015 [20]; Rand et al., 2020 [21]). However, the effects of self-efficacy, optimism and resiliency (Kotzé & Kleynhans, 2013) [22] on students’ performance of exams were not invariably significant statistically, and even contradictory results were found.

The idea of combining these four elements resulted in a surge of interest and PsyCap was widely investigated in working places. As expected, the bulk of research proved that PsyCap was positively related to performance of employees. Then considering that students’ tasks in the school can somewhat be interpreted as work of employees, Luthans et al. (2012) [6] did the first exploratory study in the academic contexts and they reported the predictive role of PsyCap to GPA among business students. Subsequent studies confirmed the beneficial role of PsyCap in academic background. The extant literature suggested that PsyCap is highly related to positive outcomes of students in school such as GPA (Datu & Valdez, 2018 [11]; Luthans et al., 2012 [6]; Martínez et al., 2019 [23]), motivation (Datu & Valdez, 2018 [11]; Siu et al., 2014 [10]), meaning-coping strategies (Martínez et al., 2019) [23], study-related positive emotions (Carmona?Halty et al., 2018) [24], academic engagement (Datu et al., 2016 [25]; Martínez et al., 2019 [23]), grit (Luthans et al., 2019) [6] and learning empowerment (You, 2016) [26].

Among these optimal outcomes, students’ academic performance is one of the most frequent topics scholars paid attention to. A substantial number of studies recognized PsyCap as a positive predictor of students’ academic performance which many researchers chose to use GPA as an indicator. Different models regarding how PsyCap predicted students’ grades were proposed. Luthans et al (2012) [6] only simply tested the predictive role of PsyCap in the prediction of GPA. It was evidenced that autonomous motivation mediated the relationship between former PsyCap and later academic performance (Datu & Valdez, 2018) [11]. A recent study (Martinez et al., 2019) [23] found students who engaged more in their study intended to show higher PsyCap, which later affected their performance. According to the existing research, PsyCap was usually operationalized as a mediator between some desirable academic outcomes and academic achievement.

Compared with the well-established relationship between PsyCap and academic performance inwesternbackground, the correlation was not fully investigated in China. Most studies involving PsyCap focused on the mechanism that how it works among employees. But it is also an emerging perspective to investigate the influence of PsyCap in Chinese academic setting. So far, Chinese scholars have built mechanisms among students’ PsyCap, academic performance and other outcomes such as academic engagement (Zhou & Mao, 2021) [27], learning strategies (Zhang et al., 2011) [28], achievement goal orientation (Wang et al., 2011) [29] and learning burnout (Fu & Zhang, 2010) [30], albeit top articles regarding PsyCap in the context of schools remain scarce, particularly for that in higher education background.

What’s more, when it comes to the analysis of PsyCap, the majority of scholars, be they western or eastern, analyzed the overall influence of PsyCap (Dawkins et al., 2013) [31]. Luthans et al. (2006) [5] supposed that these four elements work synergistically. But few scholars explore how exactly the four elements work together to facilitate academic performance, except Rego et al. (2010) [32] discovered that only hope, resilience and optimism were significant in the regression analysis and the predictive effect was stronger if the four components were put individually compared with when the composite scores of PsyCap was put in.

2.2. Autonomous Motivation and Academic Performance

In the earlier studies, the researchers mostly investigated motivation by contrasting intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. However, self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) [2] categorized motivation based on the level of autonomy towards tasks. This is a continuum between intrinsic motivation at one end to amotivation at the other end. The traditional extrinsic motivation was further divided into 4 types of motivation in terms of how much the motivation is internalized.

In fact, autonomous motivation refers to the impetus for behaviors one acts out of personal choice. Integrated regulation, a type of fully internalized extrinsic motivation, involves a full sense of volition. Being less internalized, identified regulation happened when individual accept the value of the behaviour. Although extrinsic, these two kinds of motivation are volitional, having internal locus of causality (Deci & Ryan, 2015) [3]. The most autonomous type of motivation, intrinsic motivation is evidenced when one was enacted by the internal pleasure and satisfaction of the behavior. Deci and Ryan (2015) [3] postulated that students with higher level of autonomy are more likely to experience desirable academic outcomes. Indeed, the significant role of Autonomous Motivation (AM) played in fostering academic performance in the educational context has been acknowledged by empirical research across cultures and different level of education (Deci et al., 1991 [33]; Jeno et al., 2018 [34]; Taylor et al., 2014 [35]). However, controlled motivation (CM), consisting of introjected regulation (caused by guilt, ego or self-esteem), external regulation (caused by extrinsic contingencies like rewards), takes place when behavior is performed when motivated by rewards or external pressure.

The investigation of relation between AM and AP is an emerging perspective in educational literature. Researchers provided consistent evidence for the positive predictive role of AM across different levels of education. Siu et al. (2014) [10] examined the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation between PsyCap and engagement which was proved to facilitate students’ AP in subsequent works. Datu and Valdez (2018) [11] verified the impact of different motivational orientations towards AP, revealing the positive role of AM and negative role of controlled motivation and amotivation. In a meta-analysis study (Taylor et al 2014) [35], both intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were found to be robust antecedents of students’ school achievement throughout 18 studies assessing the relationship between motivation and school achievement.

In the context of Chinese schools, similar results can be observed. Liang et al (2020) [36] lead to similar conclusion that intrinsic motivation demonstrated its significant role in predicting students’ study engagement. The direct effect between academic motivation and the exam results was statically significant (Qin et al., 2013) [37]. It is also an increasingly popular perspective to examine students’ performance in school from the perspective of SDT. Li et al. (2020) [38] uncovered that the relative autonomy index (the autonomy level of students’ motivation) of students was a powerful predictor of their average exam marks among nursing university students. When the targeted sample turned to middle school students, the same result also occurred (Dong & Liu, 2016) [39]. But as what was found, both studies correlated AM with academic performance, and those talking about AP from the perspective of self-determination theory against Chinese education background, are still limited.

2.3. Relationship between PsyCap and AM

Luthans et al. (2006) [5] posited that PsyCap is a motivational construct when they proposed the concept. People with high self-efficacy and hope are easily to be motivated to work hard because they tend to believe their effort will be paid, and resilience makes people regain the motivation in adversity, and optimism encourages them to expect good results in any circumstances. Indeed, the subsequent studies corroborated with this statement. Intrinsic motivation was proved to be a mediator between PsyCap and study engagement (Siu et al., 2014) [10]. Datu and Valdez (2016) [25] developed the model and found PsyCap emerge as a positive predictor of AM and a negative one of amotivation. But the number of studies trying to explore this reciprocal relationship between motivation and PsyCap is scarce. Although believed as a motivational capacity, PsyCap was seldom related to motivation among the existing educational research, let alone AM.

Even though few studies explored the model that students’ PsyCap exerts an influence on students’ AP, there is still theoretical evidence for the mediating role of AM between PsyCap and students’ AP. Siu et al. (2014) [10] first linked intrinsic motivation between students’ PsyCap and academic engagement. Inspired by them, Datu et al. (2018) [11] decided to add academic performance to the model and replaced the intrinsic motivation with AM, verifying the mediating role of AM between PsyCap and AM.

3. Research Hypotheses

There are several goals to achieve in this study. The first is to examine the relationship between PsyCap and academic performance to see whether the results can be converged with that has been established in the western culture, thus contributing to the Chinese literature regarding the effect of PsyCap in the context of education. Based on the studies reviewed above, the present study has the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: Students’ PsyCa is a positive predictor of students’ academic performance. (H1)

There are not enough statistics supporting the optimal prediction of PsyCap with AM, albeit PsyCap was considered as a motivational state at the very beginning (Luthans et al., 2006) [5]. Thus, the following is hypothesized:

Hypothesis 2: Students’ PsyCap is a positive predictor of students’ autonomous motivation. (H2)

Inconsistent results from research concerning the impact of autonomous motivation upon students’ academic performance from a SDT perspective indicates that more studies need to be done to confirm the generalizability of the established theory. Thus, the following is hypothesized:

Hypothesis 3: Students’ autonomous motivation is a positive predictor of students’ academic performance. (H3)

In the light of findings of prior studies involving the 3 variables studied in this research (Datu et al., 2018 [11]; Siu et al., 2014 [10]), the mechanism linking PsyCap and academic performance with autonomous motivation as a mediator has theoretical support. So the following is hypothesized.

Hypothesis 4: Autonomous Motivation is a mediator between PsyCap and academic performance. (H4)

Considering that the extant considerable literature concerning PsyCap mainly emphasized on overall effect on students’ academic outcomes and few further analyzed how much variance each construct accounts for the overall prediction and the interplay of the 4 subcomponents during the prediction, this study is going to compare the effect of each component in the prediction of academic performance and autonomous motivation. Given the results found in prior studies, the current study gives the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 5: self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism are positive predictors of students’ academic performance. (H5)

4. Method4.1. Sample and Procedure

286 questionnaires were collected through online platform, all of which were only targeted for students from a comprehensive university in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province. A total of 225 questionnaires were left to analyze after discarding incomplete or unreliable questionnaires. The participants included 56 men and 169 women. There were 59 sophomores, 79 seniors and 87 juniors. Freshmen were not included because they just entered into college and no GPA could be reported.

4.2. Instruments4.2.1. Measurement of Psychological Capital

The research adopted Positive PsyCap Questionnaire which were developed by Zhang and his colleagues (2010) [28] based on that by Luthans et al. (2006) [5]. The questionnaire comprises of seven items measuring self-efficacy (Cronbach α = 0.86) and resilience (Cronbach α = 0.75), six items for hope (Cronbach α = 0.84) and optimism (Cronbach α = 0.83), rated on 7-point Likert scale.

4.2.2. Measurement of Autonomous Motivation and Controlled Motivation

These two types of motivation were assessed using the revised version of the Academic Motivation Scale by Chen (2007) [40]. The questionnaire (Cronbach α = 0.84) is scored from 1 to 5 points, consisting of 28 questions in 7 dimensions: intrinsic motivation (to know, toward accomplishment and to experience stimulation), extrinsic motivation (identified regulation, introjected regulation and external regulation) and amotivation. The integrated motivation was not included in this scale because the pilot study indicated that integrated regulation did not show statistical difference with identified regulation (Vallerand et al., 1992) [41].

4.2.3. Indicator of Academic Performance

Given that many researchers used students’ GPA as an indicator of their academic performance, the current study also adopted the same procedure. Participants were asked to report their overall GPA in the electronic questionnaire based on their knowledge of the purpose of the research and their willingness to report.

4.3. Data analytic Approach

All data were analyzed by IBM SPSS 24. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for reliability analysis of each scale. Correlational analysis was conducted to examine the established relationship among the three variables: PsyCap, autonomous motivation and GPA. The hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to test the role of overall PsyCap and individual construct in predicting the GPA and autonomous motivation. The mediation model by which PsyCap correlates with GPA was tested using the procedure Process.

5. Results5.1. Preliminary Analysis

Descriptive analysis and bivariate correlation between all variables involved in this study were shown in Table 1 and Table 2. The means and standard error of each study variables were reported (Table 1). As expected, students’ PsyCap was positively related to GPA (r = 0.20, p < 0.01) autonomous motivation (r = 0.53, p < 0.01). AM was strongly related to students’ GPA (r = 0.29, p < 0.01). Although positive, CM evinced a less strong relation with GPA and PsyCap. And amotivation was negatively associated with PsyCap (r = −0.47, p < 0.01) and GPA (r = −0.261, p < 0.01).

The correlation between subcomponents of PsyCap (hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience) and Academic Motivation were shown in Table 2. Hope, self-efficacy and optimism were found to be related to students’ GPA, while resilience showed no statistical significant correlation with GPA.

A one-way ANOVA and independent T-test were conducted to examine whether there was a difference in those major variables across different grades

Correlations among major variables
Cronbach’s αMSDr
1234
1 GPA-3.670.191
2 PsyCap0.91120.1117.960.20**1
3 AM0.9231.334.150.29**0.53**1
4 CM0.7030.603.790.14*0.18**0.49**1
5 Amotivation0.828.933.44−0.261**−0.471**−0.501**−0.125

Note: AM = Autonomous Motivation, CM = Controlled Motivation; *significant at p < 0.05; **significant at p < 0.01.

 ReferencesFugate, M., Kinicki, A. and Ashforth, B. (2004) Employability: A Psycho-Social Construct, Its Dimensions, and Applications. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65, 14-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.005Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (2000) The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (2015) Self-Determination Theory. In: Smelser, N.J. and Baltes, P.B., Eds., International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Second Edition, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 486-491. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.26036-4Seligman, M.E.P. and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000) Positive Psychology: An Introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5Luthans, F., Youssef, C. and Avolio, B. (2006) Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Competitive Edge. Oxford University Press, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195187526.001.0001Luthans, B.C., Luthans, K.W. and Jensen, S.M. (2012) The Impact of Business School Students’ Psychological Capital on Academic Performance. Journal of Education for Business, 87, 253-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2011.609844Burhanuddin, N.A.N., Ahmad, N.A., Said, R.R. and Asimiran, S. (2019) A Systematic Review of the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) Research Development: Implementation and Gaps. International. Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 8, 133-150. https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARPED/v8-i3/6304Hou, W.J., Shi, S.M. and Zhang, J.B. (2010) Research on the Causes and Countermeasures of the Lack of Learning Motivation of Local College Students. Education and Vocation, 26, 64-66.Zhan, H.W. and Zhai, Y.H. (2013) College Students’ Lack of Learning Motivation and Educational Reform. Heilongjiang Researches on Higher Education, 31, 174-176.Siu, O., Bakker, L. and Jiang, A. (2014) Psychological Capital among University Students: Relationships with Study Engagement and Intrinsic Motivation. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15, 979-994. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9459-2Datu, J., King, R. and Valdez, J. (2018) Psychological Capital Bolsters Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Studies. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13, 260-270. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1257056De Naeghel, J., Van Keer, H., Vansteenkiste, M., Haerens, L. and Aelterman, N. (2016) Promoting Elementary School Students’ Autonomous Reading Motivation: Effects of a Teacher Professional Development Workshop. The Journal of Educational Research (Washington, D.C.), 109, 232-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2014.942032Bandura, A. (1997) Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. Freeman, New York.Snyder, C.R., Shorey, H.S., Cheavens, J., Pulvers, K.M., Adams, V.H. and Wiklund, C. (2002) Hope and Academic Success in College. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 820-826. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.94.4.820Solberg, N.L., Evans, D.R. and Swgerstrom, S.C. (2009) Optimism and College Retention: Mediation by Motivation, Performance, and Adjustment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 1887-1912. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00508.xValentine, J.C., DuBois, D.L. and Cooper, H. (2004) The Relation between Self-Beliefs and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review. Educational Psychologist, 39, 111-133. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3902_3Chemers, M.M., Hu, L.T. and Garcia, B.F. (2001) Academic Self-Efficacy and First Year College Student Performance and Adjustment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 55-64. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.93.1.55Luthar, S.S., Cicchetti, D. and Becker, B. (2000) The Construct of Resilience: A Critical Evaluation and Guidelines for Future Work. Child Development, 71, 543-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164Leary, K.A. and DeRosier, M.E. (2012) Factors Promoting Positive Adaptation and Resilience during the Transition to College. Psychology, 3, 1215-1222. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.312A180Feldman, D. and Kubota, M. (2015) Hope, Self-Efficacy, Optimism, and Academic Achievement: Distinguishing Constructs and Levels of Specificity in Predicting College Grade-Point Average. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 210-216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.11.022Rand, K.L., Shanahan, M.L., Fischer, I.C. and Fortney, S.K. (2020) Hope and Optimism as Predictors of Academic Performance and Subjective Well-Being in College Students. Learning and Individual Differences, 81, Article ID: 101906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101906Kotzé, M. and Kleynhans, R. (2013) Psychological Well-Being and Resilience as Predictors of First-Year Students’ Academic Performance. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 23, 51-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2013.10820593Martínez, I.M., Youssef-Morgan, C.M., Chambel, M.J. and Marques-Pinto, M. (2019) Antecedents of Academic Performance of University Students: Academic Engagement and Psychological Capital Resources. Educational Psychology, 39, 1047-1067. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2019.1623382Carmona-Halty, M., Salanova, M., Llorens, S. and Schaufeli, W. (2019) How Psychological Capital Mediates between Study-Related Positive Emotions and Academic Performance. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20, 605-617. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9963-5Datu, J. and Valdez, A. (2016) Psychological Capital Predicts Academic Engagement and Well-Being in Filipino High School Students. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 25, 399-405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-015-0254-1You, J. (2016) The Relationship among College Students’ Psychological Capital, Learning Empowerment, and Engagement. Learning and Individual Differences, 49, 17-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.05.001Zhou, Z.Z. and Mao, J.P. (2021) The Relationship between College Students’ Social Mobility Beliefs and Learning Investment: The Role of Achievement Goal Orientation and Psychological Capital. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 29, 156-160.Zhang, K., Fu, L.F. and Wang, J.X. (2011) The Relationship between Psychological Capital, Learning Strategies and College Students’ Academic Performance. Psychological Exploration, 31, 47-53.Wang, Y.F., Li, Y.J. and Huang, Y.X. (2011) A Study on the Relationship between College Students’ Psychological Capital, Achievement Goal Orientation and Academic Achievement. Higher Education Exploration, No. 6, 128-136+148.Fu, L.F. and Zhang, K. (2010) The Relationship between Positive Psychological Capital and Learning Burnout of College Students. China Journal of Health Psychology, 18, 1356-1359.Dawkins, S., Martin, A., Scott, J. and Sanderson, K. (2013) Building on the Positives: A Psychometric Review and Critical Analysis of the Construct of Psychological C Apital. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86, 348-370. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12007Rego, A., Marques, C., Leal, S., Sousa, F. and Cunha, M.P. (2010) Psychological Capital and Performance of Portuguese Civil Servants: Exploring Neutralizers in the Context of an Appraisal System. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21, 1531-1552. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.488459Deci, E., Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L. and Ryan, R. (1991) Motivation and Education: The Self-Determination Perspective. Educational Psychologist, 26, 325-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.1991.9653137Jeno, L., Danielsen, A. and Raaheim, A. (2018) A Prospective Investigation of Students’ Academic Achievement and Dropout in Higher Education: A Self-Determination Theory Approach. Educational Psychology (Dorchester-on-Thames), 38, 1163-1184. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2018.1502412Taylor, G., Jungert, T., Mageau, G., Schattke, K., Dedic, H., Rosenfield, S. and Koestner, R. (2014) A Self-Determination Theory Approach to Predicting School Achievement over Time: The Unique Role of Intrinsic Motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39, 342-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.08.002Liang, X.L., He, J., Zhou, J.J. and Liu, P.P. (2020) The Influence of Cognitive Ability on Academic Achievement: A Mediation Model. Psychological Development and Education, 36, 449-461.Qi, L., Wang, X.Q. and Zhang, D.J. (2013) The Developmental Characteristics of Middle School Students’ Sense of Meaning of Life and Its Relationship with Learning Motivation and Academic Achievement. Journal of Southwest University (Natural Science), 35, 165-170.Li, H., Liu, L. and Zhong, L.L. (2020) Construction and Verification of Learning Motivation Model for Nursing Undergraduates Based on Self-Determination Theory. Journal of Nursing Science, 35, 77-80.Dong, C.M. and Liu, B.Y. (2016) The Influence of Self-Determination Motivation on Academic Engagement of Junior 2 Students: The Mediating Role of Achievement Goals. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 14, 57-63.Chen, B.H. (2007) On College Students’ Learning Delay. Master’s Thesis, East China Normal University, Shanghai.Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L., Blais, M., Briere, N., Senecal, C. and Vallieres, E. (1992) The Academic Motivation Scale: A Measure of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and a Motivation in Education. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52, 1003-1017. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052004025Preacher, K.J. and Hayes, A.F. (2008) Asymptotic and Resampling Strategies for Assessing and Comparing Indirect Effects in Multiple Mediator Models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879-891. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879Hobfoll, S.E. (2002) Social and Psychological Resources and Adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307-324. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.6.4.307Caleon, I., Wui, S., Tan, M., Chiam, G., Soon, L. and King, J. (2015) Cross-Cultural Validation of the Academic Motivation Scale: A Singapore Investigation. Child Indicators Research, 8, 925-942. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-014-9298-7Markus, H. and Kitayama, S. (1991) Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224Ortega-Maldonado, A. and Salanova, M. (2018) Psychological Capital and Performance among Undergraduate Students: The Role of Meaning-Focused Coping and Satisfaction. Teaching in Higher Education, 23, 390-402. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2017.1391199Hazan Liran, B. and Miller, P. (2019) The Role of Psychological Capital in Academic Adjustment among University Students. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20, 51-65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9933-3Gareau, A. and Gaudreau, P. (2017) Working Memory Moderates the Effect of the Integrative Process of Implicit and Explicit Autonomous Motivation on Academic Achievement. British Journal of Psychology, 108, 701-720. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12239Kusurkar, R.A., Ten Cate, Th.J., Vos, C.M.P., Westers, P. and Croiset, G. (2013) How Motivation Affects Academic Performance: A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 18, 57-69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-012-9354-3Tian, Q., Deng, S.C. and Guo, J. (2012) The Influence of Self-Determination Motivation on Test Anxiety: Different Mediating Effects of Procrastination. Psychological Science, No. 5, 1096-1101.Helweg-Larsen, M.A. and Shepperd, J. (2001) Do Moderators of the Optimistic Bias Affect Personal or Target Risk Estimates? A Review of the Literature. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 74-95. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0501_5Meneghel, I., Martínez, I., Salanova, M. and Witte, H. (2019) Promoting Academic Satisfaction and Performance: Building Academic Resilience through Coping Strategies. Psychology in the Schools, 56, 875-890. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22253Schunk, D.H. (1995) Self-Efficacy, Motivation, and Performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 7, 112-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209508406961Ferreira, R.J., Adolph, V., Hall, M. and Buttell, F. (2019) Predictors of Individual Resilience: Gender Differences among African Americans. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 16, 347-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2019.1604282Davidson, O., Feldman, D. and Margalit, M. (2012) A Focused Intervention for 1st-Year College Students: Promoting Hope, Sense of Coherence, and Self-Efficacy. The Journal of Psychology, 146, 333-352. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2011.634862Li, H. (2017) The “Secrets” of Chinese Students’ Academic Success: Academic Resilience among Students from Highly Competitive Academic Environments. Educational Psychology (Dorchester-on-Thames), 37, 1001-1014. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2017.1322179