Personal Attributes Contributing to Chinese EFL Students' Well‐being: Uncovering the Role of Mindfulness and Grit

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe role of students' well‐being in their academic development and growth has been reported in the literature. Nonetheless, most of the previous studies have revolved around the predictive role of interpersonal factors in students' well‐being, and the influence of personal factors is overlooked. To bridge this gap, this study probed the role of two personal attributes, namely mindfulness and grit, in English students' well‐being. To accomplish this, three valid questionnaires were sent to 623 Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) students chosen from different language institutes in China. Following that, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were implemented to analyse the potential associations between mindfulness, grit, and well‐being, as well as the role of mindfulness and grit in Chinese students' well‐being. The results demonstrated that Chinese students' well‐being was tightly associated with their mindfulness and grit. Students' grit and mindfulness could uniquely predict 59% and 64% of students' well‐being changes, respectively. The complexity and dynamic nature of positive emotions and personal attributes may also be reasons for the obtained predicting role. It is asserted that L2 practitioners should strike a balance between personality‐related factors and psychological ones to facilitate their students' well‐being.