Psychological Problems and Academic Motivation in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study One Year after the COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy

This study was aimed at exploring students' psychological condition (operationalized through psychological distress and perceived loneliness) one year after the COVID-19 lockdown and testing its role in predicting academic motivation. The possible mediating role of emotional regulation in this relationship was also investigated. A non-random sample of university students completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing their psychological distress, feelings of loneliness, emotion regulation strategies, and academic motivation. Structural equation modeling multi-group analysis was used to examine the relation between variables. The final sample comprised 479 students (62.8% female, Mage = 22.16 ± 2.79 years) from several degree courses attending Italian universities. Of these, 56.6% and 41.5% of the participants showed high levels of psychological distress and perceived loneliness, respectively. Psychological distress and loneliness were positively associated with problems with emotion-regulation abilities and negatively associated with academic motivation. The lack of emotional awareness, in turn, reduced their academic motivation levels. Analysis of the indirect effects showed that psychological distress affected academic motivation via awareness (β = -.02, p < .05 and β = -.03, p < .05 in males and females, respectively). Overall, the model was able to predict academic motivation in university students, explaining a reasonable percentage of the variance (14% for males and 17% for females). These results indicate a meaningful effect of students' psychological condition on academic motivation. Implications for the definition and implementation of actions to support students in managing psychological problems and feelings of loneliness and to foster students' psychological health in university settings are discussed.