Abstract
The COVID-19 outbreak has been a worldwide challenge for the higher education community. Under lockdown measures, meeting students’ needs and encouraging their engagement in academic work have never been more urgent and challenging. In this study, we investigated the relationship between students’ satisfaction with institutional strategies, students’ optimism and pessimism, satisfaction with basic psychological needs, engagement in academic work, intention to drop out from studies, depression, and well-being. We conducted an online self-report study on N = 477 German college and university students (77.25% females, mean age = 23.96 years, SD = 4.78). The results of structural equation models showed that students’ satisfaction with institutional strategies was positively related to their basic psychological need satisfaction and engagement. Students’ optimism was positively associated with need satisfaction and engagement, whereas pessimism was negatively associated with them. Furthermore, students’ academic engagement was negatively linked to dropout intentions, whereas psychological need satisfaction was linked to depression and well-being. The findings of this study suggest that acknowledging students timely about the institutional strategies of examinations and courses and supporting students to engage academic activities are important institutional tasks during crisis.
Highlights
Since March 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak has appeared to turn our world upside down
We investigated the relationship between student’s satisfaction with institutional strategies during the COVID-19 outbreak, students’ optimism and pessimism, satisfaction with basic psychological needs, engagement with academic work, intention to drop out from studies, as well as psychological well-being and ill-being
We focus on German college and university students’ basic psychological needs and investigate whether institutional strategies can foster students’ need satisfaction and contribute to their academic and psychological adjustment during the COVID-19 crisis
Summary
To slow down the spread, social activities have been minimized in numerous countries. The undertaken restrictions usually include social distancing and the closure of many public places such as restaurants, libraries, and educational institutions. The psychologically debilitating effect of lockdown restrictions can be explained by, for example, the theory of Self-Determination (Deci and Ryan, 2000), which postulates that human beings strive for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Satisfying these needs is vital to individuals’
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
