Self‐leadership is regarded as an important factor in students’ active learning and academic achievement. However, although self‐leadership has been widely studied and recognized in the general education system, the self‐leadership of students in the vocational education system has rarely been studied. Therefore, based on self‐regulated learning theory and the PERMA model, this study explored the relationship between self‐leadership, two types of learning motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic), and the level of flourishing of Chinese vocational undergraduate students. To achieve this goal, 395 Chinese vocational undergraduate students were invited to participate in an online survey using convenience sampling techniques, and structural equation modeling was employed for validation. Results indicated that students with stronger self‐leadership capabilities are more likely to demonstrate positive learning motivation and experience higher levels of flourishing during the learning process. These findings have significance for guiding educational practice. Teachers and educators can cultivate students’ self‐leadership by designing and implementing specific teaching strategies, thereby helping them succeed in the vocational education system.
Ye et al. (2025) studied this question.