Preceding Factors for Life Satisfaction of University Students Majoring in Aviation Service in the COVID-19 DISASTER: Social Environment in the Classroom, Grit

Purpose: The fourth industrial revolution and prolonged COVID-19, which will bring about technological ad-vances, are calling for changes in our universities. Therefore, it is necessary to look back on the essential meaning of education and the direction of education to examine the current status of university education. So, this study would like to look at how the social environment of the classroom affects the satisfaction of life through the stu-dent’s grit. Method: This study conducted on online survey of university students majoring in aviation services in consid-eration of the COVID-19 situation. 230 people responded, and 216 were used for the final analysis. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 Statistics Program. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to verify the hypothesis, and three-step mediated regression was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the grit be-tween the social environment of the classroom and life satisfaction of students. Results: First, the social environment of the classroom(emotional support between students, facilitating mutual respect and teacher’s emotional support) had a significant effect on student’s grit(passion). On the other hand, the social environment of the classroom had no significant impact on the student’s grit(perseverance). Second, the social environment of the classroom had a significant effect on students’ life satisfaction. Third, the passion among grit had a significant effect on the student s life satisfaction, but the perseverance among grit did not sig-nificantly affect students’ life satisfaction. Fourth, only passion among grit showed a mediating effect between the social environment of the classroom and life satisfaction. Conclusion: The higher the ‘emotional support between students’, ‘facilitating mutual respect’, and ‘emotional support of teachers’ among the social environment of the classroom, the higher the students’ grit(passion). The impact of emotional support on students’ passion for achieving long-term goals in the social environment of the classroom is a wake-up call for the role of teachers in the university setting. In addition, fulfilling the original role of university education is a way to increase the life satisfaction of university students majoring in aviation services. Due to the current COVID-19, it is difficult to conduct face-to-face classes in the department of aviation services, which includes a lot of practical subjects in the curriculum. However, it is necessary for universities to provide vari-ous non-face-to-face programs related to their majors so that students can continue their perseverance and pas-sion through steady success experiences. If the professor provides steady emotional support in the process, stu-dents will be able to maintain high life satisfaction.