Autonomy Support Promotes College Student Engagement Through Mastery-Approach Goals and Self-Esteem

Presentation Year

2022

College or Department

College of Professional Studies

Short Description of your Research or Creative Project (700 characters or less)

COVID-19 brought about unprecedented difficulties for college students. Challenges associated with online learning, such as one-way interactions, presented obstacles to college engagement. We explored the role that instructors play in fostering greater academic involvement. Specifically, we examined the effects of autonomy support. Autonomy support involves encouraging students to explore their own interests and self-regulate. We posited that autonomy support would predict, respectively, greater self-esteem and mastery-approach goals for students. In turn, we expected that these effects would predict greater engagement. Our findings highlight the importance of autonomy support.

Permission to Publish Work

Yes