The Impact of COVID-19 Anxiety affected the Academic Motivation, Life-Orientation, and Meaning in Life of University Students

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Cayubit This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4589037/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Despite the declaration of the end of the global health emergency related to COVID-19, the disease remains a significant concern worldwide. However, little is known about how COVID-19 anxiety influences the presence and search for meaning, optimism-pessimism, and academic motivation of university students. This research addresses this gap by determining whether COVID-19 anxiety is a significant predictor of meaning in life, life orientation, and academic motivation. A cross-sectional predictive study was conducted involving 557 samples and the results showed that COVID-19 anxiety negatively impacted amotivation, presence of meaning and life orientation. On the other hand, result also showed that searching for meaning was positively influenced by COVID-19 anxiety. These key findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on how COVID-19 anxiety affected the general well-being of university students. Academic Motivation COVID-19 Anxiety Life Orientation Meaning in Life Introduction The mental health impact of the pandemic cannot be denied, and it is expected to persist even after it is over [11]. Although things have returned to pre-pandemic times, it cannot be ignored that COVID-19 persist. As the virus continuous to evolve, there is still a lingering possibility of new variants and if these are proven to be more contagious, government may result again to sporadic physical distancing measures, curfews, localized, and nationwide lockdowns to mitigate its impact. These continuous changes along with the fear of contracting the virus made a lot of people, including university students, anxious [67]. Like other sectors, education was severely affected by COVID-19, it was forced to close its physical classrooms, innovate, and conduct classes online. This “new” mode of learning caught both university students and teachers off guard and the then sudden and prolonged shift to something unfamiliar with the continuous threat of the virus caused them anxiety. Anxiety is a common response, characterized by fear, apprehension, and worry, about something that is unfamiliar and threatening. This was exactly the response of many students to the pandemic; at that time, COVID-19 made not only their present but also their future uncertain. This situation gravely contributed to the worrisome state of their well-being because even before the pandemic, the anxiety and stress levels of university students were already a public health concern [21]. COVID-19 aggravated this as they became more anxious due to the major change in their social environment and the disruption of their educational and occupational routines and goals. The idea that disasters, emergencies, and extraordinary events can heighten anxiety is not new since past studies show how these occurrences severely affected and was associated with the psychological symptoms, emotional, and psychological well-being of the affected population [11; 18; 49; 66; 73]. However, despite these existing precedents, there is still an increased concern about COVID-19 related anxiety and its long-term impacts [10; 48; 51]. University students who experienced COVID-19 related anxiety and other mental-health related concerns are well documented in the literature across the world: Turkey [21]; China [13]; Argentina [63]; Bangladesh [31]; Taiwan [2]; Saudi Arabia [35]; Jordan [45]; Philippines [1]; UAE [55]; Iran [40]; France [30]; Sweden [33]; Brazil [38]; Mexico [20]; and Australia [53] lending support to any endeavor that seek to investigate its impact on university students. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 anxiety on students is crucial because anxiety has been shown to affect behavior, thought processes, and dispositions. Of a particular concern is the impact of COVID-19 anxiety on the academic motivation, life orientation, and meaning in life of university students since these are vital facets not only for their academic success but their well-being as well. Meaning in life is a psychosocial factor that promotes subjective well-being, positive mental health, and good psychological health [6]. Tracing its roots from existential psychology, meaning in life as a construct is believed to be composed of a motivational (search for meaning or SM) and a cognitive aspect (presence of meaning or PM) [62]. SM refers to the desire to acquire or further understand the meaning of life or goals while PM deals with understanding the purpose and goal in life; collectively, both aspects sheds light on how individuals view or consider their life meaningful [17]. This positive state lends credence to the ability of individuals to overcome life’s challenges, adversities, and difficulties but may also be detrimental if lost because it results to feelings of hopelessness and depression [27; 72]. I propose the argument that this is what happened during the pandemic. Before the on-set of COVID-19, university students would have had a clear sense of educational and occupation directions and purposes where they centered all their activities and efforts enroute to the completion of their desired degrees and other academic goals, however, the pandemic changed all this. COVID-19 disrupted not only their regular routine but also casted doubt on their future and threatened not only their health and well-being but their loved ones as well. The uncertainty, stress, and anxiety brought about by the pandemic affected or damaged their sense of meaning in life [5]. This happened because university students were overwhelmed by stress as they tried to understand the present and how it will affect their future. Another psychosocial factor of concern is their life orientation. Life orientation refers to the general outlook in life (pessimism or optimism) of university students. These are distinct modes of thinking that are best conceptualized as a continuum with many degrees of emotions [12]. University students who are optimistic tend to have a positive and favorable expectations of their future while those who are pessimists tend to see the things more negatively and bleak. This was a concern then because given the prolonged duration of the pandemic remaining optimistic was challenging, but this was something to be desired among university students since optimism is found to improve health, work performance, educational attainment, and other factors related to social mobility [57]. Past studies show that those whose views are more positive tend to be more successful [19; 59] while those who are pessimists and hold negative attitudes are more prone with depression and anxiety [56]. Recognizing that the pandemic may also affect learning related variables, I also investigated how COVID-19 anxiety impacted the academic motivation of university students. Due to the recency of the pandemic, there are limited studies examining how COVID-19 anxiety affects academic motivation, nonetheless, studies about different types of anxiety and academic motivation exists. Research in this area indicate that the motivation and school performance are linked to anxiety and other similar internalizing symptoms and problems [22]. This happens because these internalizing symptoms and problems affects learners’ ability to think and concentrate [3]. As regards the effect of test anxiety on motivation, literature shows contrasting views as there are those that highlights the negative impact of test anxiety on motivation [25; 44] while others argue about its positive effects [23; 50]. This happens when learners adopt additional compensatory mechanisms to succeed [24]. Though mixed findings in this area exists, finding out if a pandemic related anxiety can influence academic motivation is important since motivation remains a strong predictor of student success [26; 28]. It will also provide valuable evidence on to mitigate the effect of the next pandemic on the motivation of university students. The present study This research aimed to investigate how COVID-19 anxiety affected the academic motivation, life orientation, and the meaning in life of university students. Drawing from the cognitive theory of Beck [9], it was hypothesized that since university students may be preoccupied with negative thoughts about COVID-19 and its related issues, they were more prone to experience stress and anxiety which in turn affected their thought processes, disposition, and behavior. This framework argues that maladaptive behaviors are caused by extreme emotions brought about by dysfunctional thoughts. This means the internal thoughts and perception of individuals has a large influence on their emotions which then influences how they think and behave in their environment [9]. Method Design This research is quantitative non-experimental in nature, specifically, cross-sectional predictive [ 32 ]. It analyzed how COVID-19 anxiety impacted the academic motivation, life orientation, and meaning in life university students by performing multiple regression analyses. They are as follows: (1) components of meaning in life (SM and PM) were regressed on COVID-19 anxiety; (2) life orientation was regressed on COVID-19 anxiety; and (3) components of academic motivation were regressed on COVID-19 anxiety. Participants A total of 557 university students agreed to participate in the study. Their ages ranged from18 to 21 years ( M = 19.58; SD = 1.07); majority were female ( n = 407 or 73.07%) while the rest were males ( n = 150 or 26.93%). They were selected based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) age must be 18 years and above; and (2) must be official enrolled at the time of data gathering while those who were COVID-19 positive and on quarantine were excluded from participating. Measures Coronavirus Pandemic Anxiety Scale. A 15-item screening tool used to assess the severity of COVID-19 anxiety. This validated and reliable scale is appropriate only for individuals with experiences outside the home and is not applicable to those who are in quarantine [ 11 ]. It makes use of a 4-point Likert scale in answering, it ranges from 0 (never/not at all) to 3 (nearly everyday in the past two weeks). Meaning in Life Questionnaire. A validated scale with 10 items designed to measure the components of meaning in life (presence of and search for meaning) . The component Presence of Meaning refers to how much individuals feel their lives have meaning while the Search for Meaning deals with how individuals strive to find meaning and understanding in their lives [61; 62; 64]. The scale is answered using a Likert scale ranging from Absolutely True (1) to Absolutely Untrue (7). It is one of the most valid and reliable instrument measuring meaning in life. In terms of psychometric properties, CFA results have confirmed its two-factor structure and that these two-factors are significantly and positively correlated. It is also internally sound and consistent based on its Cronbach’s alpha of 0.82 (presence of meaning) and 0.88 (search for meaning) and test-retest stability coefficient of 0.70 for presence of meaning and 0.73 for search for meaning [39; 62]. Revised Life Orientation Test. This is a 10-tem validated scale that measures the optimism and pessimism of people (Scheier et al., 1994). Though originally developed with 12 items, additional research showed however that the revised version was able to retain the unidimensional structure of the construct with good fit [14; 56]. The scale is also stable and reliable with a Cronbach’s alpha values of .76 and .79 [ 56 ]. LOT-R is answered on a 5-point Likert scale (0 to 4 or I disagree a lot to I agree a lot). Academic Motivation Scale. A valid and reliable 28-item scale that assesses the intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation levels of college students towards the completion of their studies [ 68 ]. It makes use of a 7-point Likert scale in answering from 1 (does not correspond at all) to 7 (corresponds exactly) based on the general question Why do you go to school? [69; 70]. When released, AMS C-28 had satisfactory levels of internal consistency (.81) and temporal stability over a one-month period ( r = .79); overtime, the scale has demonstrated good test-retest reliability with correlations ranging from .70 to .90 over periods of one week to six months [ 69 ]. The scale also demonstrated high convergent and discriminant validity [ 69 ] and this was confirmed by latest research that investigated that appropriateness and validity of the scale [ 34 ]. This research also found evidence of favorable reliability scores and internal consistency of AMS C-28 [ 34 ]. Procedure and Data Analysis Given the limited mobility of people and various restrictions that were in place at the time of the data gathering, the present study was conducted online using Google Forms. Participants were recruited from different online classes of a university and must satisfy the inclusion criteria to be part of the sample. A total of 557 self-reported data from 557 research participants were collated, analyzed, and interpreted. Data gathering was done in batches, the participants were oriented and briefed about the nature, objectives, benefits, and limitations of the research via the preliminary information that formed part of the online questionnaire. On the average, research participants spent 20 to 30 minutes in answering the online questionnaire. The data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and linear regression to find out if COVID-19 anxiety affected Meaning in Life, Life Orientation, and Academic Motivation. Results Descriptive Statistics Table 1 Descriptive and Correlation Results of the Research Variables Variables M SD (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (1) COVID-19 Anxiety 20.86 9.78 - (2) MLQ-P 22.30 6.65 − .133** - (3) MLQ-S 27.51 5.54 .132** .184** - (4) LOT 18.32 3.94 − .140** .539** .171** - (5) IM 62.11 12.92 .079 .494** .351** .378** - (6) EM 69.70 9.77 .125 .240** .249** .278** .531** - (7) AM 10.94 6.06 .161** − .460** − .109* − .391** − .332 − .278** - Note : N = 557; ** p < .01; * p < .05; MLQ-P = Meaning in Life Presence; MLQ-S = Meaning in Life Search; LOT = Life Orientation; IM = Intrinsic Motivation; EM = Extrinsic Motivation; AM = Amotivation In terms of the relationship between the variables, result shows that the higher the COVID-19 anxiety experienced by university students, the more they question the meaning and purpose of their lives, the consequence of this is a more exerted effort to find meaning and understanding. Similarly, those who are anxious are also pessimists in term of their general life outlook. Finally, the more COVID-19 anxious one becomes, the likelihood of becoming amotivated in their studies increases while no significant relationship was observed between COVID-19 anxiety and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation respectively (see Table 1 ). Regression Analysis Several regression analyses were performed to check the predictive ability of COVID-19 anxiety on the meaning in life, life orientation, and motivation. The first analysis involved regressing meaning in life on COVID-19 anxiety; result shows that COVID-19 anxiety negatively predicted MLQ-P [ F (1,556) = 9.978, R 2 = 0.016, p < 0.05] where the former accounts for 1.6% of the variance in the latter. Result also shows that COVID-19 anxiety positively predicted MLQ-S [ F (1,556) = 9.809, R 2 = 0.016, p < 0.05] accounting also for 1.6% of the variance. Life orientation was also regressed on COVID-19 anxiety, result shows that the general outlook in life was negatively predicted by COVID-19 anxiety [ F (1,556) = 11.091, R 2 = 0.018, p < 0.05] accounting for 1.8% of the variance in LOT. COVID-19 anxiety also positively predicted amotivation of the university students [ F (1,556) = 14.759, R 2 = 0.024, p < 0.05] where it can explain 2.4% of the variance. Result also shows that COVID-19 anxiety did not significantly affect the intrinsic motivation [ F (1,556) = 3.521, R 2 = 0.005, p = .061] and extrinsic motivation [ F (1,556) = 2.360, R 2 = 0.002, p = .125] of the participants. Evaluating their respective beta weights, four out of six of these weights were significant. It is an indication that the unique contribution of COVID-19 anxiety on MLQ-P, MLQ-S, LOT, and AM were significant, this also confirms four out of six hypotheses that I formulated and tested. Table 2 Regression Analysis Results of the Research Variables Variables COVID-19 Anxiety (IV) B SEB β t MLQ-P − .090 .029 − .133 -3.159* MLQ-S .075 .024 .132 3.132* LOT − .056 .017 − .140 -3.330* IM .105 .056 .079 1.877 EM .065 .042 .065 1.536 AM .100 .026 .161 3.842* Note : N = 557; * p < .05; MLQ-P = Meaning in Life Presence; MLQ-S = Meaning in Life Search; LOT = Life Orientation; IM = Intrinsic Motivation; EM = Extrinsic Motivation; AM = Amotivation Discussion This study investigated how COVID-19 anxiety affected the meaning in life, life orientation, and academic motivation of university students. Given the novelty of COVID-19 anxiety the findings of this research have important implications in the mental health, well-being, and the ability of university students to successfully complete their studies. The results confirmed the first hypothesis and demonstrated how COVID-19 anxiety affected the search for and presence of meaning in life in a university student sample. Analyzing the result shows that COVID-19 anxiety significantly reduced the belief of university students that their lives have meaning and purpose. This is not surprising because past research shows that loss of meaning in life is a consequence of tough and difficult times [ 27 ]. The pandemic was particularly difficult and tough for university students as COVID-19 did not only disrupt their daily lives, educational plans, and goals, it also threatened what they consider as their protective factors like family, relationship, friends, and even their own personal safety and health, the result of which was the heightened experience of anxiety. This pandemic related anxiety was their direct response to the forced isolation, threat to life and safety, and the uncertain future they experienced because of COVID-19. I put forth the argument that because of the overwhelming anxiety experienced by university students, there once intact sense of purpose and meaning in life were shattered because of a shift in focus from the things that they used to consider as important, which was slowly taken away by the virus and the government lockdowns and restrictions, to simply surviving. This means that the COVID-19 anxiety they experienced affected their comprehension about things that they used to consider as having a value and significance [8; 29; 60]. This change in perspective is because meaning in life is also a function of the university students’ current state and may fluctuate from day to day [ 61 ] depending on their feelings of satisfaction, fulfillment, and the appreciation of what matters in life [ 8 ]. On the other hand, result also shows that the experience of symptoms of COVID-19 anxiety also resulted in an increase effort to strive and find meaning and understanding in their lives. This too is expected since meaning in life exist in a continuum from searching for to presence of meaning in life, thus when one is low, the other component is expected to be high. When COVID-19 anxiety shattered their existing meaning in life, the next logical scenario for university students was to assess their current state, determine a new goal or purpose enroute to finding their new meaning in life and begin feeling a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment again as they now focus on what matters based on their current state. This is a clear example of the possible behavioral manifestation and application of the cognitive, motivational, and affective components of meaning in life. Likewise, this is also in line with the Frankl’s [ 27 ] view that man continues to find meaning regardless of health, wealth, or circumstances because the search for meaning in life is man’s ultimate test. My second hypothesis was also confirmed; results show that the heightened experience of COVID-19 anxiety may lead to the fostering of a negative view or outlook in life for university students. This pessimistic tendency is supported by previous findings that highlights the relationship between anxiety and pessimism [4; 7; 16; 36; 65; 70]. This suggests that though university students have the potential for optimism rather than pessimism, the COVID-19 anxiety they experienced along with what was perceived to be a dire situation of the pandemic led to feelings of doubt about life in general and developed negative thoughts and feelings about what the future hold. Though literature has stated optimism-pessimism is more of a general concern rather than situational [ 15 ], I argue that this may not always be the case especially if the specific issue or situation is uncontrollable, life changing, or life threatening with long term effects, just like the COVID-19 pandemic. This result has important implications in their well-being because past studies show that it is generally better to be optimistic than pessimistic since the former is associated more with adaptive outcomes [ 7 ]. Optimists are not only confident but also persistent even when faced with difficulties and challenges which means that since university students appear to be pessimist, they may have difficulty adjusting and coping stressors brought about by difficult times and may not be that confident dealing with unexpected challenges [7; 41; 52]. Finally, results also show that COVID-19 anxiety is not significantly associated with the intrinsic and extrinsic academic motivation of university students but is significantly connected with their academic amotivation. This suggests that during the height of the pandemic, university students who experienced COVID-19 anxiety saw their motivation levels drop resulting to a state of amotivation where engagements, effort, and enjoyment ranged from minimum to none. This is consistent with previous work where amotivated learners were found to have reduced activities [ 46 ]; low effort and enjoyment [ 42 ]; lack of persistence and drive [ 47 ]; does not value academic tasks [ 37 ]; and increased boredom [ 43 ]. This happens because university students felt powerless, lacked control, and incapable of attaining their desired academic goals [54; 70] not only because of their feelings of COVID-19 anxiety but also because of the pandemic situation in general. During that time, schools were forced to closed and all class activities were conducted online. The sudden shift of modality coupled with the lack of assurance about the pandemic situation, and when will they be able to return to face-to-face classes or when will their universities open again to allow them to complete their chosen degree also contributed to the loss of motivation. Conclusion, Limitations, and Future Directions The goal of this research was to find out how COVID-19 anxiety affected the meaning in life, life orientation, and academic motivation of university students. The chosen variables are deemed important as they are not only known predictors of student success but their overall well-being as well. As such determining the factors that will affect them will not only provide valuable insights to education stakeholders and policy makers, but it will also help the education sector to become better prepared to mitigate the impact of the next pandemic since the predictor variable that was used is directly tied to COVID-19. Based on the data gathered, COVID-19 anxiety negatively affected the motivation of university students. It also had an impact in their life orientation where the experience of this specific anxiety made the sample pessimist. Finally, COVID-19 anxiety result to university students questioning their sense of purpose and goals but at the same time directed them to search for new purpose and directions in response to their current situation. This work however is not without limitations; first the possible systematic order effect during the scale administration was not controlled since all participants answered the scales in the same order. Second, scale administration was done online using online survey platforms which took away the opportunity for me to observe the participants in accomplishing the scales themselves and responding to their queries immediately. Though every effort was exerted via the informed consent, reminders, and guidelines in answering the scales, it would have been still better had the scales been administered face-to-face. Lastly, there was no attempt to segregate the participants based on their COVID-19 situation which could have influence their responses in CPAS-11. It is therefore recommended that these limitations are addressed in future research whenever applicable. Likewise, future investigations may also consider gender differences and other demographic variables that could have an impact on the results. Finally, education stakeholders, institutions, and or policy makers may opt to prepare mitigating measures that will combat anxiety and other negative impacts of future pandemics or similar events to ensure that the educational and occupational goals of learners are severely interrupted. Mitigating measures related to promoting and safeguarding learners well-being during times of crises should also be considered. Declarations Funding: There is no funding source. Conflict of interest / Competing interests: I declare that I have no conflict of or competing interests. Ethics statement : This research was reviewed and approved by the evaluation committee of the Research Center for Social Sciences and Education of the University of Santo Tomas in accordance with the then policy in the ethical conduct of social science research. Data availability: The data that supports the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author, RFOC, upon reasonable request. Code availability: Not applicable Authors' contributions : Not applicable References Acob, J. R. U., Arifin, H., & Dewi, Y. S. (2021). Depression, anxiety, and stress among students amidst COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Philippines. 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Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy. 40 , 85–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-009-9132-6 Xiang, Y.-T., Yang, Y., Li,W., Zhang, L., Zhang, Q., Cheung, T., & Ng, C. H. (2020). Timely mental health care for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is urgently needed. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7 (3), 228–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30046-8 Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. 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Cayubit","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA2UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYPCCAzwM7A1gFiOQYiNOCw/PASBFihYGHokEIrWYtzc//MzbdkfGXvKN8ecPDDayGw7wHnuAT4vMmWPG0rxtz3h4pHPMJA4wpBlvOMCXboBPi4REDgNQy2GwFqDDDiduOMBjJkFAC/NvsBbJM8YfDjD8J0oLG8QWCR4DoMMOEKGF55iZ5ZxzQL+cSSuTOGOQbDzzMF8afi3szY9vvCm7Y8/efnjzh4oKO9m+473H8GoBASYeOBMUVMw8uJXCAOMPVD4RWkbBKBgFo2BEAQBKUEaJhk/SvwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Santo Tomas","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ryan","middleName":"Francis O.","lastName":"Cayubit","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-06-16 08:44:54","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4589037/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4589037/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":60051863,"identity":"386db8ca-feb1-4f43-b4c6-f7a2818d0306","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-11 06:26:04","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":511292,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4589037/v1/99c66691-57fb-4dfd-a980-ecb03ae9c1af.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The Impact of COVID-19 Anxiety affected the Academic Motivation, Life-Orientation, and Meaning in Life of University Students","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe mental health impact of the pandemic cannot be denied, and it is expected to persist even after it is over [11]. Although things have returned to pre-pandemic times, it cannot be ignored that COVID-19 persist. As the virus continuous to evolve, there is still a lingering possibility of new variants and if these are proven to be more contagious, government may result again to sporadic physical distancing measures, curfews, localized, and nationwide lockdowns to mitigate its impact. These continuous changes along with the fear of contracting the virus made a lot of people, including university students, anxious [67]. Like other sectors, education was severely affected by COVID-19, it was forced to close its physical classrooms, innovate, and conduct classes online. This \u0026ldquo;new\u0026rdquo; mode of learning caught both university students and teachers off guard and the then sudden and prolonged shift to something unfamiliar with the continuous threat of the virus caused them anxiety.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnxiety is a common response, characterized by fear, apprehension, and worry, about something that is unfamiliar and threatening. This was exactly the response of many students to the pandemic; at that time, COVID-19 made not only their present but also their future uncertain. This situation gravely contributed to the worrisome state of their well-being because even before the pandemic, the anxiety and stress levels of university students were already a public health concern [21]. COVID-19 aggravated this as they became more anxious due to the major change in their social environment and the disruption of their educational and occupational routines and goals. The idea that disasters, emergencies, and extraordinary events can heighten anxiety is not new since past studies show how these occurrences severely affected and was associated with the psychological symptoms, emotional, and psychological well-being of the affected population [11; 18; 49; 66; 73]. However, despite these existing precedents, there is still an increased concern about COVID-19 related anxiety and its long-term impacts [10; 48; 51]. University students who experienced COVID-19 related anxiety and other mental-health related concerns are well documented in the literature across the world: Turkey [21]; China [13]; Argentina [63]; Bangladesh [31]; Taiwan [2]; Saudi Arabia [35]; Jordan [45]; Philippines [1]; UAE [55]; Iran [40]; France [30]; Sweden [33]; Brazil [38]; Mexico [20]; and Australia [53] lending support to any endeavor that seek to investigate its impact on university students.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnderstanding the impact of COVID-19 anxiety on students is crucial because anxiety has been shown to affect behavior, thought processes, and dispositions. Of a particular concern is the impact of COVID-19 anxiety on the academic motivation, life orientation, and meaning in life of university students since these are vital facets not only for their academic success but their well-being as well. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeaning in life is a psychosocial factor that promotes subjective well-being, positive mental health, and good psychological health [6]. Tracing its roots from existential psychology, meaning in life as a construct is believed to be composed of a motivational (search for meaning or SM) and a cognitive aspect (presence of meaning or PM) [62]. SM refers to the desire to acquire or further understand the meaning of life or goals while PM deals with understanding the purpose and goal in life; collectively, both aspects sheds light on how individuals view or consider their life meaningful [17]. This positive state lends credence to the ability of individuals to overcome life\u0026rsquo;s challenges, adversities, and difficulties but may also be detrimental if lost because it results to feelings of hopelessness and depression [27; 72]. I propose the argument that this is what happened during the pandemic. Before the on-set of COVID-19, university students would have had a clear sense of educational and occupation directions and purposes where they centered all their activities and efforts enroute to the completion of their desired degrees and other academic goals, however, the pandemic changed all this. COVID-19 disrupted not only their regular routine but also casted doubt on their future and threatened not only their health and well-being but their loved ones as well. The uncertainty, stress, and anxiety brought about by the pandemic affected or damaged their sense of meaning in life [5]. This happened because university students were overwhelmed by stress as they tried to understand the present and how it will affect their future.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother psychosocial factor of concern is their life orientation. Life orientation refers to the general outlook in life (pessimism or optimism) of university students. These are distinct modes of thinking that are best conceptualized as a continuum with many degrees of emotions [12]. University students who are optimistic tend to have a positive and favorable expectations of their future while those who are pessimists tend to see the things more negatively and bleak. This was a concern then because given the prolonged duration of the pandemic remaining optimistic was challenging, but this was something to be desired among university students since optimism is found to improve health, work performance, educational attainment, and other factors related to social mobility [57]. Past studies show that those whose views are more positive tend to be more successful [19; 59] while those who are pessimists and hold negative attitudes are more prone with depression and anxiety [56].\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecognizing that the pandemic may also affect learning related variables, I also investigated how COVID-19 anxiety impacted the academic motivation of university students. Due to the recency of the pandemic, there are limited studies examining how COVID-19 anxiety affects academic motivation, nonetheless, studies about different types of anxiety and academic motivation exists. Research in this area indicate that the motivation and school performance are linked to anxiety and other similar internalizing symptoms and problems [22]. This happens because these internalizing symptoms and problems affects learners\u0026rsquo; ability to think and concentrate [3]. As regards the effect of test anxiety on motivation, literature shows contrasting views as there are those that highlights the negative impact of test anxiety on motivation [25; 44] while others argue about its positive effects [23; 50]. This happens when learners adopt additional compensatory mechanisms to succeed [24]. Though mixed findings in this area exists, finding out if a pandemic related anxiety can influence academic motivation is important since motivation remains a strong predictor of student success [26; 28]. It will also provide valuable evidence on to mitigate the effect of the next pandemic on the motivation of university students.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe present study\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research aimed to investigate how COVID-19 anxiety affected the academic motivation, life orientation, and the meaning in life of university students. Drawing from the cognitive theory of Beck [9], it was hypothesized that since university students may be preoccupied with negative thoughts about COVID-19 and its related issues, they were more prone to experience stress and anxiety which in turn affected their thought processes, disposition, and behavior. This framework argues that maladaptive behaviors are caused by extreme emotions brought about by dysfunctional thoughts. This means the internal thoughts and perception of individuals has a large influence on their emotions which then influences how they think and behave in their environment [9].\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Method","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eDesign\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis research is quantitative non-experimental in nature, specifically, cross-sectional predictive [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e32\u003c/span\u003e]. It analyzed how COVID-19 anxiety impacted the academic motivation, life orientation, and meaning in life university students by performing multiple regression analyses. They are as follows: (1) components of meaning in life (SM and PM) were regressed on COVID-19 anxiety; (2) life orientation was regressed on COVID-19 anxiety; and (3) components of academic motivation were regressed on COVID-19 anxiety.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eParticipants\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eA total of 557 university students agreed to participate in the study. Their ages ranged from18 to 21 years (\u003cem\u003eM\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;19.58; \u003cem\u003eSD\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.07); majority were female (\u003cem\u003en\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;407 or 73.07%) while the rest were males (\u003cem\u003en\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;150\u003c/em\u003e or 26.93%). They were selected based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) age must be 18 years and above; and (2) must be official enrolled at the time of data gathering while those who were COVID-19 positive and on quarantine were excluded from participating.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eMeasures\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eCoronavirus Pandemic Anxiety Scale.\u003c/b\u003e A 15-item screening tool used to assess the severity of COVID-19 anxiety. This validated and reliable scale is appropriate only for individuals with experiences outside the home and is not applicable to those who are in quarantine [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e]. It makes use of a 4-point Likert scale in answering, it ranges from 0 (never/not at all) to 3 (nearly everyday in the past two weeks).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eMeaning in Life Questionnaire.\u003c/b\u003e A validated scale with 10 items designed to measure the components of meaning in life \u003cem\u003e(presence of and search for meaning)\u003c/em\u003e. The component \u003cem\u003ePresence of Meaning\u003c/em\u003e refers to how much individuals feel their lives have meaning while the \u003cem\u003eSearch for Meaning\u003c/em\u003e deals with how individuals strive to find meaning and understanding in their lives [61; 62; 64]. The scale is answered using a Likert scale ranging from Absolutely True (1) to Absolutely Untrue (7). It is one of the most valid and reliable instrument measuring meaning in life. In terms of psychometric properties, CFA results have confirmed its two-factor structure and that these two-factors are significantly and positively correlated. It is also internally sound and consistent based on its Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s alpha of 0.82 (presence of meaning) and 0.88 (search for meaning) and test-retest stability coefficient of 0.70 for presence of meaning and 0.73 for search for meaning [39; 62].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eRevised Life Orientation Test.\u003c/b\u003e This is a 10-tem validated scale that measures the optimism and pessimism of people (Scheier et al., 1994). Though originally developed with 12 items, additional research showed however that the revised version was able to retain the unidimensional structure of the construct with good fit [14; 56]. The scale is also stable and reliable with a Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s alpha values of .76 and .79 [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR56\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e56\u003c/span\u003e]. LOT-R is answered on a 5-point Likert scale (0 to 4 or I disagree a lot to I agree a lot).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eAcademic Motivation Scale.\u003c/b\u003e A valid and reliable 28-item scale that assesses the intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation levels of college students towards the completion of their studies [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR68\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e68\u003c/span\u003e]. It makes use of a 7-point Likert scale in answering from 1 (does not correspond at all) to 7 (corresponds exactly) based on the general question \u003cem\u003eWhy do you go to school?\u003c/em\u003e [69; 70]. When released, AMS C-28 had satisfactory levels of internal consistency (.81) and temporal stability over a one-month period (\u003cem\u003er\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.79); overtime, the scale has demonstrated good test-retest reliability with correlations ranging from .70 to .90 over periods of one week to six months [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR69\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e69\u003c/span\u003e]. The scale also demonstrated high convergent and discriminant validity [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR69\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e69\u003c/span\u003e] and this was confirmed by latest research that investigated that appropriateness and validity of the scale [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e34\u003c/span\u003e]. This research also found evidence of favorable reliability scores and internal consistency of AMS C-28 [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e34\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eProcedure and Data Analysis\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eGiven the limited mobility of people and various restrictions that were in place at the time of the data gathering, the present study was conducted online using Google Forms. Participants were recruited from different online classes of a university and must satisfy the inclusion criteria to be part of the sample. A total of 557 self-reported data from 557 research participants were collated, analyzed, and interpreted. Data gathering was done in batches, the participants were oriented and briefed about the nature, objectives, benefits, and limitations of the research via the preliminary information that formed part of the online questionnaire. On the average, research participants spent 20 to 30 minutes in answering the online questionnaire. The data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and linear regression to find out if COVID-19 anxiety affected Meaning in Life, Life Orientation, and Academic Motivation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eDescriptive Statistics\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDescriptive and Correlation Results of the Research Variables\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"10\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c10\" colnum=\"10\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSD\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e(1)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e(2)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e(3)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e(4)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e(5)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e(6)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e(7)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e(1) COVID-19 Anxiety\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e20.86\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9.78\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e(2) MLQ-P\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e22.30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6.65\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.133**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e(3) MLQ-S\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e27.51\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.54\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.132**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.184**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e(4) LOT\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e18.32\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.94\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.140**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.539**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.171**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e(5) IM\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e62.11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12.92\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.079\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.494**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.351**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.378**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e(6) EM\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e69.70\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9.77\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.125\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.240**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.249**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.278**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.531**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e(7) AM\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10.94\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6.06\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.161**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.460**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.109*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.391**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.332\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.278**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"10\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote\u003c/em\u003e: N\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;557; **\u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.01; *\u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.05; MLQ-P\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Meaning in Life Presence; MLQ-S\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Meaning in Life Search; LOT\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Life Orientation; IM\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Intrinsic Motivation; EM\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Extrinsic Motivation; AM\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Amotivation\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn terms of the relationship between the variables, result shows that the higher the COVID-19 anxiety experienced by university students, the more they question the meaning and purpose of their lives, the consequence of this is a more exerted effort to find meaning and understanding. Similarly, those who are anxious are also pessimists in term of their general life outlook. Finally, the more COVID-19 anxious one becomes, the likelihood of becoming amotivated in their studies increases while no significant relationship was observed between COVID-19 anxiety and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation respectively (see Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec9\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eRegression Analysis\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeveral regression analyses were performed to check the predictive ability of COVID-19 anxiety on the meaning in life, life orientation, and motivation. The first analysis involved regressing meaning in life on COVID-19 anxiety; result shows that COVID-19 anxiety negatively predicted MLQ-P [\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e (1,556)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;9.978, \u003cem\u003eR\u003c/em\u003e\u003csup\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.016, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05] where the former accounts for 1.6% of the variance in the latter. Result also shows that COVID-19 anxiety positively predicted MLQ-S [\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e (1,556)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;9.809, \u003cem\u003eR\u003c/em\u003e\u003csup\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.016, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05] accounting also for 1.6% of the variance. Life orientation was also regressed on COVID-19 anxiety, result shows that the general outlook in life was negatively predicted by COVID-19 anxiety [\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e (1,556)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;11.091, \u003cem\u003eR\u003c/em\u003e\u003csup\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.018, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05] accounting for 1.8% of the variance in LOT. COVID-19 anxiety also positively predicted amotivation of the university students [\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e (1,556)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;14.759, \u003cem\u003eR\u003c/em\u003e\u003csup\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.024, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05] where it can explain 2.4% of the variance. Result also shows that COVID-19 anxiety did not significantly affect the intrinsic motivation [\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e (1,556)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;3.521, \u003cem\u003eR\u003c/em\u003e\u003csup\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.005, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.061] and extrinsic motivation [\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e (1,556)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;2.360, \u003cem\u003eR\u003c/em\u003e\u003csup\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sup\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.002, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.125] of the participants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEvaluating their respective beta weights, four out of six of these weights were significant. It is an indication that the unique contribution of COVID-19 anxiety on MLQ-P, MLQ-S, LOT, and AM were significant, this also confirms four out of six hypotheses that I formulated and tested.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRegression Analysis Results of the Research Variables\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"4\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCOVID-19 Anxiety (IV)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eB\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSEB\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eβ\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003et\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMLQ-P\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.090\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.029\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.133\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-3.159*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMLQ-S\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.075\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.024\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.132\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.132*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLOT\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.056\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.017\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.140\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-3.330*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eIM\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.105\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.056\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.079\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.877\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEM\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.065\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.042\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.065\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.536\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAM\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.100\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.026\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.161\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.842*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote\u003c/em\u003e: N\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;557; *\u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.05; MLQ-P\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Meaning in Life Presence; MLQ-S\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Meaning in Life Search; LOT\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Life Orientation; IM\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Intrinsic Motivation; EM\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Extrinsic Motivation; AM\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;Amotivation\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study investigated how COVID-19 anxiety affected the meaning in life, life orientation, and academic motivation of university students. Given the novelty of COVID-19 anxiety the findings of this research have important implications in the mental health, well-being, and the ability of university students to successfully complete their studies.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe results confirmed the first hypothesis and demonstrated how COVID-19 anxiety affected the search for and presence of meaning in life in a university student sample. Analyzing the result shows that COVID-19 anxiety significantly reduced the belief of university students that their lives have meaning and purpose. This is not surprising because past research shows that loss of meaning in life is a consequence of tough and difficult times [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e27\u003c/span\u003e]. The pandemic was particularly difficult and tough for university students as COVID-19 did not only disrupt their daily lives, educational plans, and goals, it also threatened what they consider as their protective factors like family, relationship, friends, and even their own personal safety and health, the result of which was the heightened experience of anxiety. This pandemic related anxiety was their direct response to the forced isolation, threat to life and safety, and the uncertain future they experienced because of COVID-19. I put forth the argument that because of the overwhelming anxiety experienced by university students, there once intact sense of purpose and meaning in life were shattered because of a shift in focus from the things that they used to consider as important, which was slowly taken away by the virus and the government lockdowns and restrictions, to simply surviving. This means that the COVID-19 anxiety they experienced affected their comprehension about things that they used to consider as having a value and significance [8; 29; 60]. This change in perspective is because meaning in life is also a function of the university students’ current state and may fluctuate from day to day [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR61\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e61\u003c/span\u003e] depending on their feelings of satisfaction, fulfillment, and the appreciation of what matters in life [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, result also shows that the experience of symptoms of COVID-19 anxiety also resulted in an increase effort to strive and find meaning and understanding in their lives. This too is expected since meaning in life exist in a continuum from searching for to presence of meaning in life, thus when one is low, the other component is expected to be high. When COVID-19 anxiety shattered their existing meaning in life, the next logical scenario for university students was to assess their current state, determine a new goal or purpose enroute to finding their new meaning in life and begin feeling a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment again as they now focus on what matters based on their current state. This is a clear example of the possible behavioral manifestation and application of the cognitive, motivational, and affective components of meaning in life. Likewise, this is also in line with the Frankl’s [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e27\u003c/span\u003e] view that man continues to find meaning regardless of health, wealth, or circumstances because the search for meaning in life is man’s ultimate test.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMy second hypothesis was also confirmed; results show that the heightened experience of COVID-19 anxiety may lead to the fostering of a negative view or outlook in life for university students. This pessimistic tendency is supported by previous findings that highlights the relationship between anxiety and pessimism [4; 7; 16; 36; 65; 70]. This suggests that though university students have the potential for optimism rather than pessimism, the COVID-19 anxiety they experienced along with what was perceived to be a dire situation of the pandemic led to feelings of doubt about life in general and developed negative thoughts and feelings about what the future hold. Though literature has stated optimism-pessimism is more of a general concern rather than situational [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e15\u003c/span\u003e], I argue that this may not always be the case especially if the specific issue or situation is uncontrollable, life changing, or life threatening with long term effects, just like the COVID-19 pandemic. This result has important implications in their well-being because past studies show that it is generally better to be optimistic than pessimistic since the former is associated more with adaptive outcomes [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e]. Optimists are not only confident but also persistent even when faced with difficulties and challenges which means that since university students appear to be pessimist, they may have difficulty adjusting and coping stressors brought about by difficult times and may not be that confident dealing with unexpected challenges [7; 41; 52].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFinally, results also show that COVID-19 anxiety is not significantly associated with the intrinsic and extrinsic academic motivation of university students but is significantly connected with their academic amotivation. This suggests that during the height of the pandemic, university students who experienced COVID-19 anxiety saw their motivation levels drop resulting to a state of amotivation where engagements, effort, and enjoyment ranged from minimum to none. This is consistent with previous work where amotivated learners were found to have reduced activities [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e46\u003c/span\u003e]; low effort and enjoyment [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e]; lack of persistence and drive [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e47\u003c/span\u003e]; does not value academic tasks [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e37\u003c/span\u003e]; and increased boredom [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e43\u003c/span\u003e]. This happens because university students felt powerless, lacked control, and incapable of attaining their desired academic goals [54; 70] not only because of their feelings of COVID-19 anxiety but also because of the pandemic situation in general. During that time, schools were forced to closed and all class activities were conducted online. The sudden shift of modality coupled with the lack of assurance about the pandemic situation, and when will they be able to return to face-to-face classes or when will their universities open again to allow them to complete their chosen degree also contributed to the loss of motivation.\u003c/p\u003e "},{"header":"Conclusion, Limitations, and Future Directions","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe goal of this research was to find out how COVID-19 anxiety affected the meaning in life, life orientation, and academic motivation of university students. The chosen variables are deemed important as they are not only known predictors of student success but their overall well-being as well. As such determining the factors that will affect them will not only provide valuable insights to education stakeholders and policy makers, but it will also help the education sector to become better prepared to mitigate the impact of the next pandemic since the predictor variable that was used is directly tied to COVID-19. Based on the data gathered, COVID-19 anxiety negatively affected the motivation of university students. It also had an impact in their life orientation where the experience of this specific anxiety made the sample pessimist. Finally, COVID-19 anxiety result to university students questioning their sense of purpose and goals but at the same time directed them to search for new purpose and directions in response to their current situation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis work however is not without limitations; first the possible systematic order effect during the scale administration was not controlled since all participants answered the scales in the same order. Second, scale administration was done online using online survey platforms which took away the opportunity for me to observe the participants in accomplishing the scales themselves and responding to their queries immediately. Though every effort was exerted via the informed consent, reminders, and guidelines in answering the scales, it would have been still better had the scales been administered face-to-face. Lastly, there was no attempt to segregate the participants based on their COVID-19 situation which could have influence their responses in CPAS-11. It is therefore recommended that these limitations are addressed in future research whenever applicable. Likewise, future investigations may also consider gender differences and other demographic variables that could have an impact on the results. Finally, education stakeholders, institutions, and or policy makers may opt to prepare mitigating measures that will combat anxiety and other negative impacts of future pandemics or similar events to ensure that the educational and occupational goals of learners are severely interrupted. Mitigating measures related to promoting and safeguarding learners well-being during times of crises should also be considered.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding:\u003c/strong\u003e There is no funding source.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConflict of interest / Competing interests:\u003c/strong\u003e I declare that I have no conflict of or competing\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003einterests.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics statement\u003c/strong\u003e: This research was reviewed and approved by the evaluation committee of the Research Center for\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSocial Sciences and Education of the University of Santo Tomas in accordance with the then policy in the ethical conduct of social science research.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData availability:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eThe data that supports the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author,\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRFOC, upon reasonable request.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCode availability:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eNot applicable\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthors\u0026apos; contributions\u003c/strong\u003e: Not applicable\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcob, J. 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The Lancet Psychiatry, \u003cem\u003e7\u003c/em\u003e(3), 228\u0026ndash;229. \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30046-8\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30046-8\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"discpsy","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Psychology](https://www.springer.com/44202)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Discover Psychology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Academic Motivation, COVID-19 Anxiety, Life Orientation, Meaning in Life","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4589037/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4589037/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eDespite the declaration of the end of the global health emergency related to COVID-19, the disease remains a significant concern worldwide. However, little is known about how COVID-19 anxiety influences the presence and search for meaning, optimism-pessimism, and academic motivation of university students. This research addresses this gap by determining whether COVID-19 anxiety is a significant predictor of meaning in life, life orientation, and academic motivation. A cross-sectional predictive study was conducted involving 557 samples and the results showed that COVID-19 anxiety negatively impacted amotivation, presence of meaning and life orientation. On the other hand, result also showed that searching for meaning was positively influenced by COVID-19 anxiety. These key findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on how COVID-19 anxiety affected the general well-being of university students.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The Impact of COVID-19 Anxiety affected the Academic Motivation, Life-Orientation, and Meaning in Life of University Students","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-07-11 06:17:55","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4589037/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2024-08-25T11:00:46+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"295417787845660662250038388367691541307","date":"2024-08-16T11:47:30+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2024-07-29T07:09:28+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"17736118946818829901712138611354200511","date":"2024-07-16T07:48:19+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"124837876096502484619975764100373253545","date":"2024-07-15T08:05:49+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"271358245298351397034140128746918618826","date":"2024-07-15T00:09:57+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"146990328609547052285127178634975820796","date":"2024-07-12T13:27:09+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"128378809991488884705098163843878252848","date":"2024-06-28T13:39:38+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2024-06-28T02:55:19+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2024-06-21T02:42:13+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2024-06-21T02:39:24+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Discover Psychology","date":"2024-06-16T08:43:32+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"discpsy","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Psychology](https://www.springer.com/44202)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Discover Psychology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"700d53ee-2a9c-4bd9-863a-4cd7173bad2c","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 11th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-11-11T06:23:42+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-07-11 06:17:55","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4589037","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4589037","identity":"rs-4589037","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}