“The Sum Is Greater Than the Parts?”—The Role of Student Covitality in Flourishing

Esther Yuet Ying Lau, Xingzhou Zhang, Rong-wei Sun and John Chi-Kin Lee ()
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Esther Yuet Ying Lau: The Education University of Hong Kong
Xingzhou Zhang: The Education University of Hong Kong
Rong-wei Sun: Tung Wah College
John Chi-Kin Lee: The Education University of Hong Kong

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2024, vol. 25, issue 5, No 7, 22 pages

Abstract: Abstract Existing studies have revealed associations of positive psychological traits with human thriving and flourishing. However, how these traits co-occur—known as covitality—and how it relates to flourishing remain relatively unexplored. This study aimed to investigate how student covitality as a second-order construct of four school experience-grounded positive psychological traits, namely gratitude, optimism, zest and persistence, predicts flourishing among primary school students. Participants were fourth to sixth graders (N = 1,107, 36.2% Grade 4, 32.8% Grade 5, and 31.0% Grade 6; 50.4% female) from 34 primary schools in Hong Kong (7.1% Hong Kong Island, 36.4% Kowloon, and 56.5% New Territories). In this study, structural equation modelling showed that student covitality as a second-order construct predicted flourishing directly (β = .594), and also indirectly through resilience (β = .111) and prosocial behaviour (β = .062). The findings suggest that student covitality as a latent construct better captures the mechanisms that drive student flourishing than the four individual first-order constructs of positive psychological traits. This study sheds light on future efforts in the field of children’s flourishing to consider school-related covitality as a critical variable in research and to develop school-based strategies that promote covitality in practice.

Keywords: Positive traits; Flourishing; Resilience; Prosocial behaviour; Children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-024-00759-2

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