Orientations to Happiness and University Students' Engagement during the COVID-19 Era: Evidence from Six American Countries

Positive personal characteristics such as happiness or wellbeing can motivate students to elevate their school performance in higher education. Orientation to happiness is a construct that combines three sources of happiness: pleasure, meaning, and engagement, all of which have been identified as a predictor of university students' engagement. However, most research in this area has been conducted during ideal situations or face-to-face education, and no crosscountry research has been published examining the relationship between these two concepts during the COVID-19 era, where online education was predominant. This study aimed to investigate the relation between orientation to happiness and student engagement after twelve months of distance education in a sample of 1723 students from six American countries, including the USA, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. Results indicate that university students' engagement is influenced by the orientation to happiness. Further implications of these results are discussed.