Impact of learning engagement, career decision-making difficulties, academic self-concept on learning achievements among nursing undergraduates

Abstract

Objective To study the impact of nursing undergraduates' learning engagement, career decision-making difficulties, and academic self-concept on learning achievements. Methods In April 2018, 311 on-campus nursing undergraduates from grade 1-3 from School of Nursing, China Medical University were selected by cluster convenient sampling as the research objects in this study. Learning Engagement Questionnaire, Undergraduate Students' Career Decision-making Difficulty Questionnaire, Undergraduate Students' Academic Self-concept Questionnaire, Undergraduate Students' Learning Achievement Questionnaire were used to investigate them. This study analyzed the relationship between learning achievements and learning engagement, career decision-making difficulties, academic self-concepts. AMOS 24.0 software was used to construct a structural equation model between the four aspects. Results The average score of items in the Undergraduate Students' Learning Achievement Questionnaire was (4.58±0.78) ; the average score of items in the Learning Engagement Questionnaire was (3.58±0.55) ; the average score of items in the Undergraduate Students' Career Decision-making Difficulty Questionnaire was (2.79±0.58) ; and the average score of items in the Undergraduate Students' Academic Self-concept Questionnaire was (3.52±0.62) . There were correlations between learning achievements and learning engagement, career decision-making difficulties and academic self-concept of nursing undergraduates (r=0.592, -0.375, 0.635; P<0.01) , and academic self-concept had the strongest direct positive effect on learning achievements (β=0.67) , followed by the direct positive effect of learning engagement on learning achievements (β=0.63) . There was a significant positive correlation between learning engagement and academic self-concept (β=0.74) . Conclusions The learning achievement of nursing undergraduates is influenced bi-directionally by learning engagement, academic self-concept and career decision-making difficulty. The career decision-making difficulty has a negative effect and the impact is the weakest. It can be achieved by improving the academic self-concept of nursing undergraduates, enhancing students' learning engagement and reducing career decision-making difficulties to obtain more learning achievements. Key words: Students, nursing; Undergraduates; Learning engagement; Career decision-making; Academic self-concept; Learning achievements