Emotional support from parents and teachers can play an important role in how satisfied students feel with university life in Pakistan, according to research in the International Journal of Services, Economics and Management based on a survey of almost 600 undergraduates. The study suggests that encouragement and understanding from family and faculty do more than provide comfort: they appear to strengthen students’ psychological resources in ways that make campus life more manageable and rewarding for them.
The researchers turned to social support theory, a framework for understanding how caring relationships enhance psychological well-being and resilience, to help them investigate campus life.
Their analysis of the survey data did not just ask whether support improves satisfaction but explored how it does so. In particular, they assessed whether two psychological characteristics, self-efficacy and problem-solving ability, act as mediators of support. Self-efficacy describes a person’s belief in their own ability to succeed. Problem-solving capacity refers to one’s skills and confidence in resolving difficulties.
The team found that parental support is linked to stronger self-efficacy and improved problem-solving skills, which in turn contribute to greater satisfaction. Encouragement from home seems to foster confidence and a sense of competence. Emotional support from teachers follows a different pattern. Students who see their instructors as respectful, attentive, and supportive also report higher satisfaction with campus life. This relationship, the researchers suggest, is partly explained by enhanced problem-solving ability. Supportive teachers appear to help students think through challenges and develop strategies to address them. Teacher support did not significantly influence self-efficacy in this study. In others, words, teachers might help students tackle specific problems without fundamentally shaping the student’s self-belief.
The team adds that the cultural setting is important. In a society where family bonds and collective aspirations remain central even into early adulthood, parental influence may continue to outweigh that of teachers in shaping self-belief. This contrasts with studies in the West, where support from teachers in higher education, are more strongly associated with a student’s sense of competence.
Ahmad, M.S., Ahmad, M.A. and Elgammal, I. (2026) ‘Emotional support and satisfaction with university campus life: mediation of self-efficacy and problem-solving’, Int. J. Services, Economics and Management, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.81–101.
No comments:
Post a Comment