Exploring associations between positive psychological and school adjustment of EFL learners using the PERMA framework: roles of coping style and negative emotions.

Background: Positive psychology has been associated with students' school adjustment, but the indirect associations underlying this relationship remain underexplored, particularly in EFL learners. Methods: An online survey was conducted with 462 university students to examine the associations among positive psychology, coping style, negative emotion, and school adjustment. Indirect and sequential indirect associations were examined using PROCESS Model 6 in SPSS. Results: Positive psychology was positively associated with school adjustment. Significant indirect associations were observed through coping style (effect = 0.025, 95% CI [0.002, 0.052]) and negative emotion (effect = 0.152, 95% CI [0.095, 0.216]), accounting for 3.61 and 21.93% of the total association, respectively. The sequential indirect association involving coping style and negative emotion was also significant (effect = 0.025, 95% CI [0.011, 0.042]), accounting for 3.61%. Conclusion: These findings highlight the relevance of positive psychological resources, coping style, and emotional experiences to school adjustment among EFL learners. They also provide potential directions for future research examining student support and intervention approaches, while causal or intervention effects cannot be inferred from the present cross-sectional data.