Teacher-student relationship quality, school psychological capital, and academic engagement in Chinese EFL learning context: a mediation analysis

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have verified that teacher-student relationship quality has a positive effect on students’ academic engagement. Few studies, however, have examined whether school psychological capital mediates the linkage between teacher-student relationship and academic engagement. The present study aimed to examine the mediated role of school PsyCap between teacher-student relationship and academic engagement in a sample of 986 Chinese college students in their English as a foreign language (EFL) learning. Having controlled for gender and family resources, structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was conducted to explore the predictive effect of the teacher-student relationship on academic engagement via mediator of school PsyCap. Results showed that the teacher-student relationship predicted school PsyCap. School PsyCap, in turn, predicted EFL learners’ academic engagement. The present study provides evidence for the linkage between teacher-student relationship and academic engagement and contributes to the literature by uncovering the mediator mechanism between these two constructs. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher–student relationships
• school PsyCap
• academic engagement
• English as a foreign language
• college students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Yajun Wu

Yajun Wu is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Humanities and Education at Foshan University.

Xia Kang

Xia Kang is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Mathematics and Big Data at Foshan Unviersity, Jiangwan Campus, No. 18, Jiangwan 1st Road, Chancheng District, Foshan city, Guangdong Province. E-mail: [email protected]. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong.

Lisheng Li

Lisheng Li is a professor in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Yunnan Normal University.