Relationship between incivility behavior, subjective well-being and the mediating role of emotions: A case study at universities in Vietnam

Abstract

The psychology of young people is of interest to academia, but it is difficult to measure this subject's psychological formation mechanisms. However, ensuring their psychological well-being is an urgent task because this is the primary source of labour in the future of society. Current studies often focus on positive factors affecting people's subjective well-being. At the same time, negative aspects have not been given due attention to the impact of incivility behaviours in the surroundings. Therefore, this study was conducted to understand the relationship between rude behaviour at university and students' subjective well-being under the mediated influence of perceived emotions. Survey data was collected by convenient sampling method with a survey designed on Google Forms and sent links to student forums in Vietnam. Data were collected from 600 students studying at universities in Ho Chi Minh City and analyzed using PLS-SEM to test the research hypotheses. Research results show that incivility in educational environments impact students' emotions, affecting their subjective well-being. In particular, incivility has the strongest negative effect on the emotional exhaustion of students but do not affect their regulation of emotion. In addition, this study also confirmed the effect of emotional support and compassion on the above relationship in the role of mediator or moderator.