An Empirical Study on the Relationship among Mental Health, Learning Engagement, and Academic Self-Efficacy of Senior High School Students

Abstract

This study examines the mediating role of the academic self-efficacy of high school students in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China on the relationship between their mental health and learning engagement, as well as their gender and grade-specific differences in mental health, learning engagement, and academic self-efficacy. The authors drew 600 valid samples in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China, built a measurement model and a structure model, established a structural equation model comprising the mental health scale, the learning engagement scale, and the academic self-efficacy scale, and conducted an independent sample $t$ -tests and a one-way analysis of variance. The questionnaires took the form of the 5-point Likert scale. This research shows that the mental health of high school students in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China has a significant positive impact on their learning engagement and academic self-efficacy and that their academic self-efficacy has a significant positive impact on their learning engagement. Academic self-efficacy produces an overwhelming mediating effect on the ways mental health influences learning engagement. High school students, male and female, in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China show no marked gender-specific differences in mental health, learning engagement, and academic self-efficacy, while junior high school students show marked grade-specific differences in mental health, and senior high school students show marked grade-specific differences in learning engagement and academic self-efficacy. This article concludes that improving the academic self-efficacy of high school students in Tibetan and Qiang areas of China can boost their learning engagement.