Abstract
Vietnam’s continuing economic transformation has sharply increased the demand for highly-qualified business graduates. Vietnamese universities have responded to this increase in demand by improving the quality of their programs and raising their performance standards. The degree to which high-quality competitive programs increase students’ satisfaction with their educational experience is determined by their psychological hardiness in learning, their learning motivation, and their assessments of the functional value of business education. This study gathered survey data from a convenience sample of 1,024 business students in Vietnam, then validated measures of four constructs: Quality of College Life, psychological hardiness in learning, learning motivation, and perceived functional value of business education. The relationships among the constructs were estimated by Structural Equation Modeling. The results demonstrate that psychological hardiness in learning and learning motivation have statistically significant positive impacts on students’ perceived Quality of College Life. The impacts are significantly stronger for students with higher assessments of the functional value of a business education. These findings suggest that universities could enhance the Quality of College Life and academic performance by offering programs to cultivate students’ psychological hardiness in learning and their learning motivation, and by providing them with objective information about the functional value of business careers.
References
Bartone, P. T., Eid, J., Johnsen, B. H., Laberg, J. C., & Snook, S. A. (2009). Big five personality factors, hardiness, and social judgment as predictors of leader performance. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30(6), 498–521.
Blumenfeld, P. C., Kempler, T. M., & Krajcik, J. S. (2006). Chapter 28: Motivation and cognitive engagement in learning environment. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 475–488). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Britt, T. W., Adler, A. B., & Barton, P. T. (2001). Deriving benefits from stressful events: The role of engagement in meaningful work and hardiness. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6, 53–63.
Cha, K. -H. (2003). Subjective well-being among college students. Social Indicators Research, 62(1), 455–477.
Chow, H. P. H. (2005). Life satisfaction among university students in a Canadian prairie city: A multivariate analysis. Social Indicators Research, 70(2), 139–150.
Cole, M. S., Field, H. S., & Harris, S. G. (2004a). Student learning motivation and psychological hardiness: Interactive effects on students’ reactions to a management class. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3(1), 64–85.
Cole, M. S., Harris, S. G., & Field, H. S. (2004b). Stages of learning motivation: Development and validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(7), 1421–1456.
Cole, M. S., Bruch, H., & Vogel, B. (2006). Emotion as mediators of the relations between perceived supervisor support and psychological hardiness on employee cynicism. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 27(4), 463–484.
Coyne, I. T. (1997). Sampling in qualitative research. Purposeful and theoretical sampling; merging or clear boundaries? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26, 623–630.
Cummins, R. A. (2010). Subjective wellbeing, homeostatically protected mood and depression: A synthesis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 1–17.
Cummins, R. A., & Nistico, H. (2002). Maintaining life satisfaction: The role of cognitive bias. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 37–69.
Diseth, A., Pallesen, S., Brunborg, G. S., & Larsen, S. (2010). Academic achievement among first semester undergraduate psychology students: the role of course experience, effort, motives and learning strategies. Higher Education, 59(3), 335–352.
Furr, S. R., Westefeld, J. S., McConnell, G. N., & Jenkins, J. M. (2001). Suicide and depression among college students: A decade later. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 32, 97–100.
Kahle, L. (1989). Using the list of value (LOV) to understand consumers. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 6(3), 5–12.
Kobasa, S. C., & Puccetti, M. C. (1983). Personality and social resources in stress resistance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 839–850.
Kobasa, S. C., Maddi, S. R., & Kahn, S. (1982). Hardiness and health: A prospective study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 168–177.
Kumar, N., Stern, L. W., & Anderson, J. C. (1993). Conducting interorganizational research using key informants. Academy of Management Journal, 36(6), 1633–1651.
LeBlanc, G., & Nguyen, N. (1999). Listening to the customer’s voice: Examining perceived service value among business college students. International Journal of Educational Management, 13(4), 187–198.
Ledden, L., Kalafatis, S. P., & Samouel, P. (2007). The relationship between personal values and perceived value of education. Journal of Business Research, 60, 965–974.
Maddi, S. R. (1999). Comments on trends in hardiness research and theorizing. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 51, 67–71.
Maddi, S. R. (2002). The story of hardiness: Twenty years of theorizing, research and practice. Consulting Psychology Journal, 54(3), 175–185.
Muthen, B., & Kaplan, D. (1985). A comparison of some methodologies for the factor analysis of non-normal Likert variables. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 38(2), 171–189.
Nguyen, T. D. (2009). Signal quality and service quality: A study of local and international MBA programs in Vietnam. Quality Assurance in Education, 17(4), 364–376.
Nguyen, T. T. M., & Nguyen, T. D. (2010). Determinants of learning performance of business students in a transitional market. Quality Assurance in Education, 18(4), 304–316.
Noe, R. A. (1986). Trainees’ attributes and attitudes: Neglected influences on training effectiveness. Academy of Management Review, 11(4), 736–749.
Pintrich, P. R. (2003). Motivation and classroom learning. In W. M. Reynolds & G. E. Miller (Eds.), Handbook of psychology (pp. 103–122). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Posadzki, P., Musonda, P., Debska, G., & Polczyk, R. (2009). Psychosocial conditions of quality of life among undergraduate students: a cross sectional survey. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 4, 239–258.
Rowold, J. (2007). The impact of personality on training-related aspects of motivation: Test of a longitudinal model. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 18(1), 9–31.
Sandstrom, S., Edvardsson, B., Kristensson, P., & Magnusson, P. (2008). Value in use through service experience. Managing Service Quality, 18(2), 112–126.
Sezgin, F. (2009). Relationships between teacher organizational commitment, psychological hardiness and some demographic variables in Turkish primary schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 47(5), 630–651.
Sirgy, M. J., Grzeskowiak, S., & Rahtz, D. (2007). Quality of college life of students: Developing and validating a measure of well-being. Social Indicators Research, 80, 343–360.
Steenkamp, J. -B. E. M., & van Trijp, H. C. M. (1991). The use of LISREL in validating marketing constructs. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 8(4), 283–299.
Tharenou, P. (2001). The relationship of training motivation to participation in training and development. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74(5), 599–621.
Vaez, M., Kristenson, M., & Laflamme, L. (2004). Perceived quality of life and self-rated health among first-year university students: A comparison with their working peers. Social Indicators Research, 68(2), 221–234.
Verbrugge, L. M., & Asconi, F. J. (1987). Exploring the iceberg: Common symptoms and how people care for them. Medical Care, 25, 539–569.
Wiebe, D. J., & McCallum, D. M. (1986). Health practices and hardiness as mediators in the stress-illness relationship. Health Psychology, 5, 425–438.
Zullig, K. J., Huebner, E. S., & Pun, S. M. (2009). Demographic correlates of domain-based life satisfaction reports of college students. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 229–238.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported in part by a grant from the UEH International School of Business (Grant No. UEH.ISB.11.002) to Tho D Nguyen.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nguyen, T.D., Shultz, C.J. & Westbrook, M.D. Psychological Hardiness in Learning and Quality of College Life of Business Students: Evidence from Vietnam. J Happiness Stud 13, 1091–1103 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9308-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9308-0