In recent years, soft skills have gained growing attention as key factors influencing students' academic performance and psychological well-being. This study investigates the extent to which soft skills are associated with undergraduate students' engagement, and whether this relationship is mediated by positive emotional experiences and overall…

This article aims at exploring the correlation of student' perceived parental expectations, academic self-efficacy and academic engagement based on the expectancy value theory. Specifically, this study innovatively integrated the parental expectations, academic self-efficacy and academic engagement from students' perspectives into one model and…

Guided by ecological systems theory, this study investigated the relationship between the perceived teacher support, perceived self-efficacy, and student engagement of Chinese local college undergraduates. Data collection was carried out by questionnaire survey, and a convenience sample of 556 Chinese local college students (Male = 260, Female =…

The current study further explored the relationship between nontraditional students and academic entitlement. Previous research has established that the presence of more nontraditional factors predicts lower levels of reported academic entitlement. The mechanisms responsible for this connection have not been explored though. The current study…

In this study, a quantitative diary design was used to examine within-person relationships among daily negative events, emotional intelligence facets, and levels of academic exhaustion and engagement. The research was conducted with a sample of 63 Portuguese health science students (48 females and Mage = 22.3 years) from medicine (n = 33) and…

The current study considered the role of broad life orientations of university students on their academic engagement and burnout within the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine whether life purpose orientations predicted student academic engagement and burnout directly and indirectly through…

Using self-determination theory among a sample of student employees, the present cross-sectional study (N = 358) examines how mentors' interpersonal behaviors relate to both motivation at work and motivation for a mentoring relationship and how these two contexts of motivation can differentially relate to mentees' work outcomes. Results revealed…

Previous studies have examined life satisfaction, academic resilience, and curiosity as individual predictors of student engagement. Yet, limited evidence addresses how these traits collectively relate to university engagement, particularly among Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students. This study investigated the predictive roles of…

The current study examined the factor structure, measurement invariance, and construct validity of the 14-item Revised Developmental Work Personality Scale (RDWPS) using a sample of 603 college students in a Midwest university of the United States. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the 11-item RDWPS resulted in a…

Adopting a sequential mixed-methods approach, the current inquiry examined English major students' perceptions of the role of teacher confirmation and teacher credibility in enhancing their academic engagement in the Chinese context. In doing so, through WeChat messenger, three scales were provided to 1168 English major students chosen from…

We use three studies to develop and validate the new concept of playful study design -- the cognitive-behavioral orientation towards study tasks with the aim to make these tasks more fun and/or more challenging. Based on play and proactive motivation theories, we propose that playful study design can be assessed by items indicating two dimensions:…

We examined how mature-aged, non-traditional students (studying part-time, working full-time) managed their multiple roles by testing a serial, indirect effects model, in which student role congruence (i.e., extent to which students structure role boundaries to meet their own and others' preferences) was related to study engagement, and where…