Are all students happy and productive? The contribution of Academic Psychological Capital to the relationship between Student Engagement and Academic Performance in an online university learning context

Abstract

The complexity of the relationship between students' student engagement and academic performance has been extensively approached. However, following the concept of Sustainable Productivity and Well-being Synergy, this relationship is beginning to raise new issues. The present study aims to contribute to the happyproductive student research by addressing the existence of different types of relationships between student engagement and academic performance (also called as patterns), and studying the influence of Academic Psychological Capital (PsyCap) on the four patterns in an online university context. The sample consisted of 357 Spanish university students (71.4% female) from a Spanish online university. Results showed that: 1) There are 4 patterns of relationship between student engagement and academic performance: happy-productive, unhappy-unproductive, unhappy-productive, and happy-unproductive student; 2) PsyCap (i.e., efficacy, optimism, hope) increases the probability of being in the happy-productive student pattern. Based on the results, we suggest some changes in the educational policies and the importance of programs to develop personal resources such as PsyCap for university students, in order to promote happy-productive students.