Effects of Academic Resilience and Interpersonal Competence on the Happiness of Nursing Students

Shin, Sujin; Hwang, Eunhee

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of academic resilience and interpersonal competence on the happiness of nursing students. A descriptive design was used to study 158 nursing students in nursing school through convenience sampling. IBM SPSS ver. 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used to analyze data for descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance, Tukey post hoc test, Pearson's correlations, and multiple regressions. The results showed that the level of nursing students' happiness was lower than that of college students in other majors, but academic resilience and interpersonal competence among nursing students were relatively high. Nursing students' happiness was positively correlated with academic resilience and interpersonal competence. The factors affecting happiness were academic resilience (Î²=0.459, p < 0.001), satisfaction with major (Î²=0.272, p=0.006), perceived subjective health status (Î²=0.223, p=0.013), and interpersonal competence (Î²=0.185, p=0.003). Explained variance for happiness was 56.4%, and academic resilience was the most influential factor in the happiness of nursing students. Nursing students are caring human beings and should be able to pursue a happy life; therefore, it is necessary to improve satisfaction levels with the nursing major, guide students to excel in their academic achievement, prepare health education programs, and design curriculum that inspires confidence in interpersonal relationships.