Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Jun 21;10:924711. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.924711. eCollection 2022.
Utilizing the principle of "learning by doing," service-learning (SL) course provides a platform for university students to apply academic knowledge in serving the community, reflecting on the serving experiences, deepening their understanding of the knowledge, and further improving their competence, responsibility, wellbeing, and meaning in life (MIL). This study reported university students' changes in psychological wellbeing (positive youth development attributes), subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction), and MIL after taking a SL subject during the COVID-19 pandemic through a one-group pretest-posttest design. Based on the data collected from 229 students (mean age = 20.86 ± 1.56 years, 48.0% females), repeated-measures multivariate general linear model (GLM) analyses revealed that students showed significant positive changes in wellbeing and MIL. In addition, pretest MIL scores positively predicted posttest scores of the two wellbeing measures but not vice versa. As predicted, improvement in MIL among students was closely associated with the positive changes in both psychological and subjective wellbeing measures. These findings suggest that SL participation during the pandemic may promote students' life meaning and foster their wellbeing. Furthermore, MIL and wellbeing may improve simultaneously, and MIL enhancement may further contribute to improvement in psychological and subjective wellbeing. The findings further prove that SL is an effective pedagogy in higher education settings in promoting youth positive development.
利用“做中学”的原则，服务学习（SL）课程为大学生提供了一个将学术知识应用于服务社区的平台，让他们反思服务经验，深化对知识的理解，并进一步提高他们的能力、责任感、幸福感和生活意义（MIL）。本研究通过单组前后测设计，报告了大学生在 COVID-19 大流行期间修读 SL 课程后，在心理幸福感（积极青年发展属性）、主观幸福感（生活满意度）和 MIL 方面的变化。基于从 229 名学生（平均年龄=20.86±1.56 岁，48.0%为女性）收集的数据，重复测量多元一般线性模型（GLM）分析显示，学生的幸福感和 MIL 均呈现显著积极变化。此外，前测 MIL 分数与后测两个幸福感衡量标准的分数呈正相关，但反之则不然。正如预测的那样，学生的 MIL 改善与心理和主观幸福感衡量标准的积极变化密切相关。这些发现表明，大流行期间的 SL 参与可能会促进学生的生活意义并培养他们的幸福感。此外，MIL 和幸福感可能会同时提高，而 MIL 的增强可能会进一步促进心理和主观幸福感的提高。这些发现进一步证明，SL 是高等教育环境中促进青年积极发展的有效教学法。
