Evaluation of a psychological capital intervention aimed at improving flourishing of first year students at a selected university in the Western Cape
Abstract
This study evaluates whether psychological capital can improve the flourishing of first-year students at a selected university in the Western Cape. The problem is that recently many students entering South African universities come from poor backgrounds where there is an extreme disparity in terms of schooling, classes, financial issues, and other resources. Despite efforts by the government to expand free education to ensure that more Black students enter universities and ensure equity, many of these students continue to drop-out of the university in the first-year of study. Existing research reveals that these dropout rates for first-year students are about 30%. This has emerged as a problem and to address this challenge this study would employ Psychological Capital (PsyCap), a construct proposed to influence academic performance, academic adjustment, flourishing, student engagement, happiness, and satisfaction with life.