EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION, SUBJECTIVE HAPPINESS AND ACHIEVEMENT STRIVING AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The pursuit of academic success is a paramount goal for undergraduate students and has gained increasing attention due to the challenging academic and socio-emotional demands students face during their university studies. Emotional exhaustion and subjective happiness are recognised as influential factors in undergraduate student well-being and academic performance. Therefore, this study assessed the influence of emotional exhaustion and subjective happiness on achievement striving among undergraduates in public universities in Lagos State.  The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and used stratified and random sampling techniques to select the 370 participants of this study. Three validated scales were used for data collection, which was pilot tested through test-re-test. The scales: Subjective Happiness Scale, Students’ Emotional Exhaustion Scale, and Achievement striving scale demonstrated good internal consistency reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .810, .690 and .701 respectively. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested. Analysis of data was done using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression analysis fixed at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed no significant combined contribution of emotional exhaustion and subjective happiness on undergraduates' achievement striving (R = .106; R2 = .011; Adj R2 = .005; F (2,338) = 1.930; P = .147 > .05). There was a non-significant relative contribution of subjective happiness (? = .103, t = 1.900, p > .05) and emotional exhaustion (? = -.025, t = .456, p > .05) to achievement striving. Also, no significant bivariate relationships exist between achievement striving and emotional exhaustion (r = -.027, p > .05) as well as subjective happiness (r = .103, p > .05).The study concluded that emotional exhaustion and subjective happiness did not predict undergraduates' achievement striving. Therefore, there is compelling evidence from the outcome of this study to suggest that self-belief in one's abilities and personal achievement-seeking are beneficial for academic success. This research indicates once more how promising it is to put validated intervention into practice with the goal of improving students' domain-specific ability-beliefs in the classroom. Keywords: Achievement striving, emotional exhaustion, subjective happiness, undergraduates, university