The Impact of COVID-19 Anxiety affected the Academic Motivation, Life-Orientation, and Meaning in Life of University Students

Abstract Despite the declaration of the end of the global health emergency related to COVID-19, the disease remains a significant concern worldwide. However, little is known about how COVID-19 anxiety influences the presence and search for meaning, optimism-pessimism, and academic motivation of university students. This research addresses this gap by determining whether COVID-19 anxiety is a significant predictor of meaning in life, life orientation, and academic motivation. A cross-sectional predictive study was conducted involving 557 samples and the results showed that COVID-19 anxiety negatively impacted amotivation, presence of meaning and life orientation. On the other hand, result also showed that searching for meaning was positively influenced by COVID-19 anxiety. These key findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on how COVID-19 anxiety affected the general well-being of university students.