Perceived social support and college student engagement: moderating effects of a grateful disposition on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs as a mediator

BACKGROUND: Previous research has examined the role of support provided by the workplace in promoting employee engagement. This study aimed to extend this research to the academic environment by testing a proposed model of the relationship between perceived social support and student engagement and its underlying mechanisms, with the latter involving the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and a grateful disposition. METHODS: A total of 622 Chinese college students were selected by convenience sampling. I adopted the Perceived Social Support Scale, Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale, Gratitude Questionnaire, and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student to collect their responses. The data were analyzed by using a moderated mediation model with SPSS and the Process 4.0 macro. RESULTS: The results showed that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs played a mediating role in the association between perceived social support and student engagement, while a grateful disposition played a moderating role. The moderating mediation model further revealed that this effect was more robust for students with a higher grateful disposition than for those with a lower level. CONCLUSION: Perceived social support can significantly and positively predict student engagement through the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs. Students with a high grateful disposition benefit more than those with a low grateful disposition from using social support, as well as can use the received social support fully in order to meet their psychological needs and promote academic engagement.