IDENTIFICATION OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OPTIMISM DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The pandemic COVID-19 has disrupted global society and its order, including the
educational sector. Reports from other countries indicated the pandemic situations
increased the levels of stress and anxiety among college students. Sometimes, a difficult
situation does not always cause negative responses. Some studies suggested the pandemic
may affect positive attitudes and optimism. This study aimed to identify the factors that
contribute to developing optimism among university students at a private university in
Yogyakarta. The researchers employed an online questionnaire to gather information from
317 respondents. Three methods of analysis: exploratory factor analysis (EFA),
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used.
The EFA results indicated reasoning and experience as independent variables, and
optimism as a dependent variable. The CFA results suggested the factor of type of
information as a mediating variable. Further, a structural model reported excellent
goodness of fit indices from the model: χ2 = 63.922 (df = 55; alpha = 0.05), probability =
0.192, CMIN/DF = 1.162(≤ 2.00), RMSEA = 0.023 (≤ 0.08), GFI = 0.970 (≥ 0.90), and
TLI = 0.985 (≥ 0.90).