Predicting Student Engagement: The Role of Academic Belonging, Social Integration, and Resilience During COVID-19 Emergency Remote Teaching.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced higher education (HE) to shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT), subsequently influencing academic belonging and social integration, as well as challenging students' engagement with their studies. Aims: This study investigated influences on student engagement during ERT, based on student resilience. Serial mediation analyses were used to test the predictive effects between resilience, academic belonging, social integration, and engagement. Methods: The Student Well-being Monitor (SWM 2021) was completed by 1332 HE students studying at Inholland University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Predictive models were compared among students with low, normal, or high resilience using SPSS extension Macro PROCESS. Results: A significant serial mediation model was found among all HE students, including positive mediating effects of academic belonging and social integration. More so, independent partial predictive effects of academic belonging and social integration on engagement were also present. Assessment of student resilience profiles revealed substantial differences between predictive models. For low resilience students, serial mediation was present and included the largest partial predictive effect from social integration compared to other groups. For highly resilient students, mediation via academic belonging was found, including the strongest partial and indirect effects compared to other groups. Conclusions: Overall, academic belonging and social integration positively mediate the effect of resilience on engagement in addition to demonstrating independent positive predictive effects. Inspection of resilience profiles reveals substantial model fit differences, suggesting use of different engagement strategies between student groups. Findings contribute to understanding of HE student engagement during ERT in the Netherlands and provide novel insight on the mechanisms between resilience and engagement. While ERT continues to be required, engagement may be enhanced by stimulating academic belonging for all students generally, but low resilience students could be best served by additionally targeting social integration and resilience.

Resilience and Higher Education Support as Protective Factors for Student Academic Stress and Depression During Covid-19 in the Netherlands.

Background: The corona pandemic has forced higher education (HE) institutes to transition to online learning, with subsequent implications for student wellbeing. Aims: This study explored influences on student wellbeing throughout the first wave of the corona crisis in the Netherlands by testing serial mediation models of the relationships between perceived academic stress, depression, resilience, and HE support. Methods: The Covid-19 International Student Wellbeing Study (C19 ISWS) was used, with a total sample of 2,480 higher education students studying at InHolland Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Student subgroups were created, so that students with low and high perceived academic stress could be assessed, in addition to depressed and non-depressed students. Predictive model fit was tested using Macro PROCESS. Results: A significant serial mediation model for the total student sample was revealed, including protective mediating effects of resilience and HE support on the positive direct effect of perceived academic stress on depression. At subgroup level, significant (partial) predictive effects of resilience on depression scores were noted. A partial serial effect between resilience and HE support was found for students with low perceived stress levels, whereas a parallel partial mediation model was present among highly academically stressed students. Regarding non-depressed students, a full parallel mediation model was found, whereas the model for depressed students inadequately explained the data. Conclusions: Overall, resilience and HE support mediate the predictive effect of academic stress on depressive symptoms among students. In addition, substantial differences in model fit arise when inspecting the students on a subgroup level. These findings contribute to the gap in knowledge regarding student wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, in addition to providing novel insights on student subgroup dynamics. While Covid-19 restrictions continue to demand online learning, student wellbeing may be enhanced overall by targeting resilience and increasing awareness and availability of HE support services. The current study also highlights the need for differential approaches when examining wellbeing for specific student groups.