Exploring life goals, hopes, savoring and flourishing: Perspectives of Taiwanese and overseas Chinese undergraduate students

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to explore the relationships and to compare the differences among the life goals, hopes, savoring, and flourishing of overseas Chinese and domestic Taiwanese students. A total of 559 overseas Chinese and 267 Taiwanese students completed a survey and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed using SPSS version 21, PROCESS Macro, and LISREL. Results revealed that hope and savoring mediated between life goals and flourishing for overseas Chinese students. Furthermore, the relationships between life goals and hope, hope and savoring, and savoring and flourishing were significant for Taiwanese students, who also performed significantly higher than overseas Chinese students on social goals, amplification of savoring, and positive emotions. Implications of the results for institutional policies and practices are discussed.