Learning issues are prevalent in education globally, and academic burnout significantly affects students’ academic performance, particularly in countries with low and middle incomes. Kaggwa et al. conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis, employing sophisticated methods and diverse databases, and revealed that burnout is experienced by nearly a third of college students from countries with low-to-middle incomes1. For example, in South Korea, more than 30% of college students experience considerable academic stress, resulting in mental anguish and learning burnout. Severe cases include thoughts of suicide and self-injury2. These findings underscore the severity of academic burnout. Thus, it is urgent to focus on methods to mitigate students’ burnout and enhance their intrinsic motivation and active participation in order to advance their academic achievements and continuously improve talent cultivation in colleges and universities. With the ongoing progress in positive psychology research, learning engagement—recognized as a protective factor in enhancing academic performance—has garnered increasing attention from the academic community3. Current studies indicate an inverse correlation between academic burnout and engagement in learning4. Furthermore, enhancing academic engagement may help alleviate symptoms of burnout, thereby promoting academic achievement5. Consequently, understanding the link between academic burnout and learning engagement is vital for creating effective strategies to enhance academic achievement. Learning engagement is a key determinant influencing education quality in higher education institutions and a major forecaster of student achievement and career outcomes6. Self-determination theory7 and social cognitive theory8 (SCT) have offered insights into the processes and determinants of student learning engagement. Although previous research this study proposed has sought to understand how teacher-student relationships affect learning engagement, much remains unknown about the underlying mechanisms. Investigating the link between teacher-student relationships and learning engagement with a focus on academic self-efficacy and perceived social support can provide novel insights and empirical support for understanding and enhancing students’ learning engagement, thereby effectively mitigating the adverse effects of academic burnout. With this as a foundation, this research seeks to explore the complex interactions among teacher-student relationships, perceived social support, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement, thereby providing theoretical and practical guidance for improving academic achievement and reducing burnout.
Learning engagement
Schaufeli et al. first proposed the concept of learning engagement9. They posit that learning engagement entails an emotional and cognitive state related to learning, reflecting a person’s positive comprehension of the significance of learning and a condition of enthusiasm and immersion in the learning process. Learning engagement comprises three dimensions: dedication, vigor, and absorption. Dedication signifies robust engagement in learning and a complete affirmation of the significance of learning. Vigor involves a willingness to expend energy on learning, showing resilience to fatigue, and manifesting strong tolerance when encountering difficulties. Absorption entails experiencing full pleasure throughout the learning process, perceiving time as passing quickly, and feeling unwilling—from the depths of one’s heart—to detach from the learning state9. Fredricks et al. divided learning engagement into three distinct aspects: cognitive, affective, and behavioral10. Cognitive engagement is a state of high involvement in the cognitive strategies students use and their high involvement in utilizing psychological resources during the learning process. Affective engagement involves expressing various emotional responses during the learning process. Behavioral engagement occurs when individuals are highly involved in academic activities during learning. These three dimensions are interrelated yet independent, with heightened emotional involvement capable of directly influencing an individual’s level of study engagement and concurrently affecting their academic participation through interactions associated with cognitive activities.
Based on the SCT, the learning process results from the interplay between the external objective environment and personal internal elements. The external objective environment influences external behavior through individual internal factors8. Learning engagement results from an individual’s internal regulatory mechanisms and the objective environment. Personal internal factors typically include individual characteristics (e.g., gender, age, and major), academic emotions11, academic performance12, and academic self-efficacy13. The objective environment typically encompasses the school atmosphere14, teacher-student relationships15, social support16, and school belongingness17, among other factors.
Teacher-student relationships and learning engagement
The bond between teacher and student is considered a crucial interpersonal connection within the educational setting. Teacher-student relationships evolve through daily interactions and communication, creating a psychological connection involving cognitive, emotional, and behavioral interactions18. Attachment theory suggests that children’s early experiences interacting with significant people in their life create a stable internal working model. Children develop corresponding response patterns in various contexts based on this model. With age, this working model extends to other attachment relationships, particularly teacher-student relationships18. The attachment expansion theory in teacher-student relationships also emphasizes the critical importance of this relationship in a student’s growth. This theory emphasizes that intimacy and satisfaction within teacher-student relationships positively influence students’ learning engagement19. Therefore, exploring how teacher-student relationships influence learning engagement holds significant theoretical importance.
Teacher-student relationships and learning engagement generally exhibit a significant positive correlation. Numerous studies indicate that active teacher-student relationships are effective in increasing student motivation, academic engagement, and academic achievement. Roorda et al., drawing on 99 studies, employed a meta-analysis to explore the link between the emotional aspects of teacher-student relationships, learning engagement, and academic achievement across preschool and high school students20. The findings indicated a strong correlation between the emotional quality of teacher-student relationships and learning engagement at different school stages. A higher quality of emotional engagement corresponds to stronger learning engagement and vice versa20. Other studies have further validated this point. Fernández-Zabala et al. examined environmental variables associated with school, family, peers, and learning engagement21. They revealed that teacher support had the closest relationship to learning engagement among these environmental factors. Valle et al. analyzed the links among school bullying, teacher-student relationships, and learning engagement and found that teacher-student relationships have a direct positive effect on learning engagement22. Positive relationships with teachers produce higher learning engagements. Conversely, adverse teacher-student relationships lead to reduced engagement22. Teacher-student relationships also represent an emotional connection, and positive connections increase students’ enthusiasm for learning. As teachers garner more positive feedback from students, their enthusiasm for teaching increases. This heightened enthusiasm contributes to more profound teaching content and diverse teaching methods. Students’ receptivity to learning significantly improves, yielding enhanced learning outcomes and fostering a virtuous cycle. By contrast, in an environment with low-quality teacher-student relationships, students’ motivation to learn will decrease, and over time, they may lose confidence in their studies, ultimately diminishing the effectiveness of their learning. Supported by these theories and empirical studies, this study proposed Hypothesis 1: Teacher-student relationships are positively related to learning engagement in college students.
Mediating role of perceived social support
Social support denotes the assistance provided to an individual by those around them to cope with stress23. Social support is commonly categorized as objective and perceived social support. Relatives, acquaintances, and close ones are widely favored sources of social support24. Perceived social support differs from objective social support, as it is subjective: it is perceived and experienced by the individual as being helped by those around them25. Individuals experiencing stress view social support as a safeguarding element. Self-determination theory views motivation as the central element of human health, proposing that satisfying basic needs enhances the actualization of self-functioning. Fulfilling basic needs stimulates individuals’ intrinsic motivation, facilitates self-growth, and fosters individual adaptation26. Ryan and Deci posit that facilitating the shift from extrinsic motivation to higher forms necessitates deliberating the roles of internal motivation, self-regulation, and well-being in fostering or impeding self-motivation and robust psychological growth27. These three social-environmental conditions exert a facilitative influence on fulfilling the three categories of self-need: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Needs of relatedness, or the desire for belonging, involve establishing intimate and secure relationships with others27. Research indicates a strong link between the feeling of being socially supported and desire for belonging28. In the educational setting, students need to develop and sustain connections with others, including teachers, peers, and partners, among which teacher-student relationships are paramount29. When students cultivate harmonious teacher-student relationships and perceive care and support from teachers, it fulfills their need for belonging30. Concurrently, perceived social support within an educational setting can boost student learning enthusiasm, enhance their involvement in learning, and elevate their academic achievements31. A study on social support and math anxiety indicates that increased social support leads to greater learning engagement32.
Using a questionnaire tested on over 900 university students, Feng et al. explored perceived teacher support, students’ information and communication technology self-efficacy, and their participation in online English courses within a mixed learning setting, particularly in a mobile-aided foreign language teaching environment33. The study revealed that students’ information and communication technology self-efficacy positively influenced their online English education, and teachers’ sense of support influenced their learning engagement33. Rautanen et al. conducted a three-wave tracking survey of elementary school students in grades four to six using random intercept cross-lagged panel models over three periods34. The results revealed a reciprocal link between learning engagement and teacher support. Following the self-determination theory and prior empirical research, it can be inferred that teacher-student relationships may influence students’ learning engagement via perceived social support. However, research exploring how perceived social support mediates the link between college students’ teacher-student relationships and learning engagement is limited. Therefore, investigating perceived social support as a mediator between college students’ teacher-student relationships and learning engagement holds substantial innovative potential and can address the shortcomings of existing research.
Therefore, Hypothesis 2 posits that perceived social support mediates teacher-student relationships and college students’ learning engagement.
Moderating role of academic self-efficacy
A mediation effect analysis of perceived social support helps to show how teacher-student relationships influence students’ learning engagement. However, it ignores the conditions under which the relationship influences students’ learning engagement and the different roles that students’ energy and resources play in the teacher-student relationship’s influence on their learning engagement. Academic self-efficacy is a crucial moderating factor that reflects individual variance in resources and energy and warrants focus. Academic self-efficacy denotes an individual’s self-assessment of their ability to accomplish academic activities, signifying a rise in self-efficacy within the realm of learning35. The prevailing view is that academic self-efficacy encompasses two elements: academic ability and academic behavior. The academic community has extensively researched academic self-efficacy, primarily focusing on academic environment variables such as academic performance, pressure, and procrastination36,37,38. Self-efficacy, a crucial element of SCT, represents the assessment of one’s capacity to perform a particular assignment. Bandura classified self-efficacy into efficacy expectations and outcome expectancies39. Based on Bandura’s SCT, individuals’ self-efficacy not only directly influences their behavior and motivation but also indirectly affects behavioral performance by regulating the influence of external factors40. In educational settings, students’ academic self-efficacy can serve as an internal resource and driving force, affecting how they leverage external support resources, particularly social support from teachers.
As significant role models in a student’s schooling environment, teachers have verbal persuasions and rich life experiences that directly or indirectly influence students’ academic self-efficacy development41. In a study involving over 800 graduate students as participants, scholars investigated the interplay among teacher-student relationships, students’ academic procrastination behavior, and academic self-efficacy. The results revealed that academic self-efficacy correlates positively with teacher-student relationships42. Self-determination theory states that individuals’ intrinsic motivation and behavioral performance are contingent not only on external environmental support but also on the fulfillment of psychological needs and levels of self-efficacy. Even with strong teacher-student relationships and strong perceived social support, students lacking sufficient academic self-efficacy may still be unable to fully capitalize on these external resources to enhance their learning engagement. Research indicates a strong link between academic self-efficacy and learning engagement, which may be further enhanced by moderating extrinsic factors such as teacher-student relationships and perceived social support. For instance, Bandura found that students possessing higher academic self-efficacy tend to engage more in learning activities and derive greater benefit from teacher feedback and support35. Academic self-efficacy correlates with students’ positive emotions toward teachers, resulting in their perception of enhanced social support43. Conversely, when students report lower academic self-efficacy, they experience more negative emotions toward teachers, resulting in a perception of reduced social support44. Therefore, academic self-efficacy is a crucial factor influencing both students’ learning engagement and their benefits from teacher-student relationships. When students possess higher academic self-efficacy, they tend to translate teacher support into positive learning motivation, thereby enhancing their engagement in learning. Conversely, low self-efficacy may prevent students from fully utilizing these support resources, leading to insufficient engagement in learning. Based on the above analysis, this study proposed Hypothesis 3: Academic self-efficacy positively moderates perceived social support and teacher-student relationships.
This study constructed a moderated mediation model with teacher-student relationships influencing learning engagement through the mediating role of perceived social support, and academic self-efficacy moderates the first half of the model (as depicted in Fig. 1).
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