The Effect of Personal Best Goals and Social-Emotional Learning on Academic Engagement through the Mediation of Academic Buoyancy: Developing and Presenting a Structural Model in Iranian Adolescents

This study explored the potential relationship between personal best goals and social-emotional learning with academic engagement. Also, the mediating role of academic buoyancy was tested in these relationships. The participants were 350 high school students in Ahvaz who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method and completed the instruments of the best personal goals, socio-emotional competencies, academic buoyancy and academic engagement. The validity and reliability of the instruments were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results of structural equation modeling showed that the best personal goals and socio-emotional learning to have a direct and significant effect on academic engagement. Moreover, the findings indicate that academic buoyancy has a direct and positive relationship with academic engagement. In addition, academic buoyancy played a significant mediating role in the relationship between the best personal goals and socio-emotional learning with students' academic engagement. In general, the results indicate that the best personal goals and socio-emotional learning directly and through the mediation of academic buoyancy can help increase the academic engagement of adolescent students. Educational and practical implications are discussed.