The Relationship between Environmental Supports and Emotional Self-awareness with Academic Engagement: the Mediating role of Educational Well-being

Introduction: Academic engagement is an important variable in the field of education and learning, whose underlying factors must be identified. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the structural relationship between environmental supports, emotional self-awareness, academic well-being with academic engagement. Methods: This descriptive correlational study was performed on students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. A number of 290 students (127 males and 167 females) who were selected through random sampling method completed the questionnaires of environmental supports by Lent et al, emotional self-awareness by Grant et al, academic well-being by Pietarinen et al, and academic engagement by Schaufeli et al. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling method. Results: The hypothetical model of academic engagement provided a good fit to the research population (X2/df=1.69, RMSEA=0.49). Direct paths of environmental supports to academic well-being and academic well-being to academic engagement were negative and significant. Also, direct paths of environmental supports to academic engagement and emotional self-awareness to academic engagement were positive and significant. However, the direct path of emotional self-awareness to academic well-being was not confirmed. Conclusion: Students’ academic well-being could be improved through enhancing environmental supports in universities and teaching students about emotional self-awareness. These factors together provide the conditions for academic engagement.