Self-Determination During Campus Closure: Longitudinal Trends in Undergraduate Students' Need Satisfaction and Intrinsic Learning Motivation

• In Event: Learning and Motivation in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Higher education systems around the world have enforced campus closures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Such measures can be expected to threaten students’ basic psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy, and consequently the development of intrinsic learning motivation. We investigated these assumptions in longitudinal data spanning the first four semesters of undergraduate students in two cohorts at one German university starting in 2013 and 2019 (cohort 1: normal study conditions; cohort 2: affected by campus closure). We used propensity score modeling to ensure comparability between both cohorts. Growth curve modeling indicated a more maladaptive development of need satisfaction and intrinsic learning motivation for students who studied during the pandemic compared to students who studied under normal conditions.

Authors

• Stefan Janke, University of Mannheim

• Laura A. S. Messerer, University of Mannheim

• Martin Daumiller, University of Augsburg