Mediating Effect of Academic Emotion Regulation on the Relationship Between Self-Determined Learning Motivation and Learning Flow in Nursing Students in Remote Online Classes

Abstract

Purpose: This descriptive research study explores the relationship between remote online classes, nursing students’ self-determined learning motivation and learning flow, to identify the mediating effect of academic emotion regulation.Methods: The study sample comprised 147 third- and fourth-year nursing students from two universities in Jeonbuk State, all of whom had clinical practice experience. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance were conducted using SPSS/WIN 23.0 for data analysis. Hayes’ PROCESS macro Version 3.5 was used to verify the significance of the indirect effects of the variables.Results: Self-determined learning motivation had a significant positive effect on the mediating variable, academic emotion regulation(β=.21, p=.001), and on learning flow. Additionally, academic emotion regulation significantly positively influenced learning flow. When considering the mediating effect of academic emotion regulation, the indirect effect size between self-determined learning motivation and learning flow was .07, with a bootstrapping confidence interval ranging from 0.02 to 0.13, excluding zero, which was statistically significant, indicating a mediating effect.Conclusion: The findings confirm that academic emotion regulation is a crucial variable that can enhance students’ learning flow, thereby maximizing educational effectiveness during rapid changes in online education methods. Consequently, educational programs should be developed that consider the emotional aspects of learning to improve academic emotion regulation. Furthermore, universities should establish educational policies and measures that expand various digital education platforms to reflect and respond to the online education environment.