Presence of meaning in life and subjective well-being as mediators of association between sense of community and academic engagement

Abstract

We examined the associations between sense of community (SoC) and multidimensional academic engagement, including whether meaning in life and subjective well-being mediate the relationships. Participants were Nigerian students who completed the Classroom Sense of Community Inventory–School Form (CSCI-SF), Meaning in Life Questionnaire’s (MLQ) Presence subscale, Brief Adolescent Subjective Well-being in School Scale (BASWSS), and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale – Student Version (UWES-S-9). Data was analysed using Model 6 of Hayes’ regression-based PROCESS module. Results showed that both presence of meaning and subjective well-being mediated the effects of aspects of SoC on vigour, dedication and overall academic engagement. The effects of SoC on absorption was only mediated by subjective wellbeing. Mediation pathways were not significant for the effects of learning SoC on absorption. In all cases, the strongest mediation existed in the paths linking social SoC to academic engagement through subjective wellbeing. Promotion of classroom SoC may facilitate presence of meaning in life and subjective wellbeing thereby enhancing academic engagement