The Linkage Between University Students’ Academic Engagement and Academic Support: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital

Abstract

Purpose: Despite the importance of university students' academic engagement and the role of academic support in facilitating their success, there appears to be a dearth of research investigating the mediating effect of psychological capital in this relationship, highlighting a significant gap in the existing literature. Methodology: This research was quantitative on the basis of the natural and general features and employed a descriptive-correlational approach based on the structural equation model (SEM). The statistical population of the research included all undergraduate students of Farhangian University of Kerman, approximately 2100 students. Out of this statistical population, 677 participants responded to the online survey. The sampling method was convenience sampling and the data was collected in the first semester of the academic year 1401-1402 (From Aban to Azar). Sands and Plunkett’s (2005) academic support scale, Reeve and Tseng’s (2011) academic engagement scale, and Luthans and Avolio’s (2007) psychological capital scale were used to gather data. The statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the validity of the scales used in the Iranian tertiary context. Correlational results indicated that the relationships among main research variables were significant. Findings: Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that psychological capital mediated the linkage between academic support and academic engagement (β = 0.58, p < 0.01). The results also revealed that academic support (β = 0.69, p < 0.01) and psychological capital (β = 0.39, p < 0.01) were predictive of university students’ academic engagement. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that providing academic support has the potential to influence students' psychological capital, resulting in their active engagement and participation in educational and learning endeavors. The limitations of this study and the future directions will be discussed.