{
  "abstract": "Background: Optimal experience (flow) in academic study has been positively associated with student well-being; however, the precise day-to-day temporal ordering of this relationship remains to be empirically clarified. To advance this understanding, the present study examined within-person reciprocal associations between academic flow and subjective well-being among university students.\n\nMethods: A 21-day daily diary design was employed with 51 university students, yielding 1,006 valid daily observations and a compliance rate of 93.9%. Subjective well-being was assessed across three dimensions: positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. Three Bayesian dynamic structural equation models were estimated to capture within-person dynamics, with daily sleep duration incorporated as a control variable.\n\nResults: Significant within-person autoregressive effects were identified for all study variables. Daily academic flow prospectively predicted positive affect and life satisfaction on the following day, whereas neither well-being component predicted subsequent flow, indicating a unidirectional rather than reciprocal association. No longitudinal association was observed between flow and negative affect.\n\nConclusions: These findings support the temporal precedence of academic flow in predicting daily subjective well-being, consistent with a eudaimonic perspective on student development. In practice, these results encourage educators and institutional practitioners to prioritize cultivating optimal learning experiences as a meaningful strategy to sustain student well-being in higher education.\n\nSupplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05203-z.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Institute of Applied Psychology, Psychological Research and Counseling Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China",
    "Department of Psychology of Developmental and Socialization Processes, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy",
    "Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China",
    "Center for Behavioral Research Across Cultures in the School of Psychology, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou, China",
    "The International Frontier Interdisciplinary Research Institute, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou, China"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yiyan Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Zhuofan Yang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Mei Xie"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Jiaxi Lu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Alexander Scott English"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yanhui Mao",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8160-2510"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fq7ec8kg5re9j.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1186/s40359-026-05203-z",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13715266/",
  "id": "fq7ec8kg5re9j",
  "issns": [
    "2050-7283"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05203-z",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3204|Flow Experience in Various Fields"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7170080193",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13715266",
  "pmid": "42947183",
  "published": "2026-07-22",
  "publisher": "BMC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fq7ec8kg5re9j.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-01T12:22:36Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13715266",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05203-z"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [],
  "title": "Today’s flow, tomorrow’s subjective well-being: temporal dynamics in the Chinese educational context",
  "title_text": "Today’s flow, tomorrow’s subjective well-being: temporal dynamics in the Chinese educational context",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:22:36Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fq7ec8kg5re9j",
  "venue": "BMC Psychology",
  "versions": []
}