Exploring the Impact of Academic Psychological Capital Resources on Student Engagement at Undergraduate Level: The Mediating Role of Faculty Support

Abstract

Students’ engagement in academic activities is the major dominating factor for their academic success along with their educational institution because disengaged students are more likely to have behavioral issues, suffer academically, and drop out. To create a conducive learning environment, it is indispensable to understand the nature of student participation in tertiary education. The current study was initiated to explore the level of students’ engagement in higher education and the influence of students’ socio-demographic factors and individual academic psychological capital resources including academic self-efficacy and resilience on students’ engagement. It also intended to examine the direct and mediating role of faculty support in prior relationships. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data. 242 undergrad students sampled from a renowned private University in Dhaka city of Bangladesh. In conjunction with other statistical techniques, to investigate the direct correlation of academic self-efficacy, academic resilience, and teachers' support with students' engagement as well as the mediation impact, structural equation modelling was primarily used with SmartPLS software. According to the study, faculty support and educational psychological capital resources were favourably associated with students’ engagement. Furthermore, the study also revealed that the relationship between academic self-efficacy and resilience with the students' engagement was partially mediated by faculty support. The study offered a number of recommendations for emphasizing the psychological aspects of students' academic well-being as well as the assistance provided by teachers, both of which unquestionably stimulate students and improve their academic success.