Flow as a Key Predictor of Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese University Students: A Chain Mediating Model

Jun Wu; Mei Xie; Yao Lai; Yanhui Mao; Laszlo Harmat

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.743906

Flow as a Key Predictor of Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese University Students: A Chain Mediating Model

Front Psychol. 2021 Nov 16:12:743906. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.743906. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Jun Wu¹, Mei Xie¹, Yao Lai², Yanhui Mao^{3

4}, Laszlo Harmat⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Foreign Languages, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
² School of Economics and Management, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
³ Institute of Applied Psychology, Psychological Research and Counseling Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
⁴ Department of Psychology and Behavior Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.

Abstract

The present study investigated a conceptual model by testing flow experience and subjective well-being of university students during Coronavirus Diseas-19 (COVID-19) via considering their underlying mechanisms of academic self-efficacy and self-esteem. A total of 1,109 Chinese university students completed a questionnaire containing scales of subjective well-being, flow, academic self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Results yielded from the structural equation modeling analysis indicated a significant and positive association between flow experience and subjective well-being, and such an association was sequentially mediated by academic self-efficacy and self-esteem. Findings also provided empirical evidence for the proposed model highlighting the significant role of flow experience at the higher educational context in predicting subjective well-being of Chinese university students, and how such a relation can be supported by suggested mediating roles academic self-efficacy and self-esteem played.

Keywords: Chinese university students; academic self-efficacy; flow experience; self-esteem; subjective well-being.