Abstract
Well-being has attracted significant attention from educational researchers, particularly regarding Higher Vocational Education (HVE) students, who are expected to become skilled professionals contributing to national development. Chinese HVE students often face academic pressure from parents, teachers, and peers due to their failure to enter academic universities, leading to decreased motivation and mental health issues. Given the benefits of higher well-being, such as increased school engagement and better work performance, this thesis explores how the well-being of Chinese HVE students is perceived, influenced, and enhanced through their goals and motivation, as explored across three studies addressing four research questions. A mixed methods approach was adopted with pragmatism as the guiding epistemological stance. Study 1 explored HVE students’ and tutors’ perceptions of well-being, revealing an emphasis on hedonic well-being and a lack of eudaimonic well-being. Furthermore, goals and motivation were perceived as influential factors in HVE students’ well-being. Study 2 investigated the relationships between well-being, goals, and motivation, finding that motivation played a dual role (i.e. moderator and mediator) in shaping the effect of goals on well-being. Study 3 conducted a goal-setting intervention aimed at enhancing HVE students’ well-being, along with a follow-up interview to explore the effectiveness of the intervention. It found that the goal-setting intervention did not increase HVE students’ overall well-being, but it did increase their engagement with goal pursuit and feelings of loneliness. Additionally, multiple influencing factors were found to impact the effectiveness of the intervention. The research findings contribute to existing theories and literature by improving knowledge of HVE students’ well-being as well as providing insight into the relationships between students’ well-being, goals, and motivation. Moreover, implications are provided with recommendations for policymakers, HVE institutes, tutors, and students.