Self-Regulation of Motivation and Confinement by COVID-19: A Study in Spanish University Students

Abstract

(1) Background: confinement by COVID-19 in 2020 meant that face-to-face teaching changed to virtual teaching. The goal of this study was to test how confinement affected to self-regulation of motivation (SRM); (2) Methods: a longitudinal design was used to obtain information from 75 university students in three moments: before confinement, 20 days after confinement, and 40 days after confinement. The SRM Strategies Questionnaire and the Pittsburgh Sleep Index were used to evaluate the study variables; (3) Results: the SRM decreased as confinement progressed. Moreover, those students who had higher levels of SRM before confinement, showed worse sleep quality 20 days after. There was no interaction effect between moments and gender and between moments and work situation on any of the dimensions of the SRM. There were gender differences (women scored higher) in almost all of the SRM dimensions in the three moments, but there were no differences dependent on the work situation (i.e., only study or study and work); (4) Conclusions: the change from face-to-face classes to virtual learning decreased the SRM of university students and was related to worse sleep quality. Women showed higher levels of SRM than men, but these levels were reduced to the same extent in both genders.