Psychological symptoms and learning adaptation in college students: the mediating role of learning engagement

Abstract

As an important indicator of higher education quality, college students’ learning adaptation is crucial for their academic development and personal growth. Currently, college students generally face multiple psychological pressures, and the relationship between psychological symptoms and learning adaptation has attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, the mediating role of learning engagement in this relationship has not been systematically explored. This study aims to examine the mediating role of learning engagement in the relationship between psychological symptoms and learning adaptation, providing a reference for universities to formulate evidence-based educational strategies. A total of 418 college students in Zhejiang Province completed the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student (UWES-S), and the College Student Learning Adaptation Scale. Descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were conducted using SPSS 27.0, and the mediation effect was tested using PROCESS v5.0 with gender included as a control variable. The 95% confidence interval of the indirect effect was estimated using the Bootstrap method. (1) Psychological symptoms were negatively correlated with college students’ learning adaptation. (2) Psychological symptoms were negatively correlated with both learning engagement and learning adaptation, while learning engagement was positively correlated with learning adaptation (all p  < 0.01). (3) Learning engagement partially mediated the relationship between psychological symptoms and learning adaptation, accounting for 28.51% of the total effect. This study identifies the partial mediating role of learning engagement between psychological symptoms and learning adaptation. These findings may serve as a reference for colleges and universities to design mental health and learning support programs correlated with stronger learning adaptation.