The relationship between students’ personality traits, attention state, and use of regulatory strategies during emergent distance learning

Background: Attention issues are increasingly prevalent among students in higher education. While existing research has primarily focused on external distractions and their relationship with personality traits, internal distractions remain underexplored, particularly in the context of specific learning scenarios like distance education. This study addresses this gap by investigating the correlations between personality traits, attention distraction, and attentional regulation in the context of distance learning. Method: This study adopted a combined person- and variable-oriented approach to examine the extent to which students’ personalities relate to attentional state and regulation strategies during emergent distance learning under COVID-19 lockdown conditions. 400 higher education students completed an online survey for this cross-sectional study. Results: The integrated approaches revealed three distinct groups: (1) the “Self-Attention Regulated” group, characterized by the lowest attention problems, the highest use of attention regulation strategies, and higher levels of conscientiousness and openness; (2) the “Hanging-On” group, marked by high attention discontinuity, moderate attention regulation strategies, and average levels across all personality traits; and (3) the “Social Media-Distracted” group, exhibiting the highest levels of distraction caused by social media and higher levels of neuroticism. Older students, who tended to belong to the self-attention-regulated group, spent considerably more time studying online than younger students, who were more likely to be social media-distracted. Conclusion: This study enhances our understanding of attention regulation in distance learning by identifying personality traits associated with students at risk for distracted attention issues. The results could help universities to design and implement effective distance learning programs that cater to a wide range of student personalities.