The Relationship between Social Support and Academic Motivation :The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy

In the present era, science is the most important pillar of the development of societies; this can be considered as one of the developmental indicators in different societies. From different fields of science, education is an important part of any person's life because its quantity and quality play an important role in the future of a society. One of the reasons for the growth of societies in the future will be students' motivation. Motivation is a cognitive factor that affects the performance and behavior of individuals; it affects the type of personal activities individuals choose, their level of involvement in the activity, the amount of insistence on their performance, and the result of the actions (Paskova, 2007). One of the dimensions of motivation for students is academic motivation . Aripathamanil (2011) defines the academic motivation as an internal process that stimulates activities and continues with the goal of obtaining certain academic achievements. In fact, educational motivation is an infrastructure for the achievement of educational goals and, consequently, the development of societies; one of the issues that has affected many of the educational systems of the countries of the world, especially the developing countries, is the reduction of motivation in the field of education, which has incurred a great deal of scientific, economic, and cultural harm and losses to families and governments every year and causes many students to suffer from physical and mental harm greatly (Molavi et al., 2007). Therefore, to prevent the incurred harm and damages, the researchers of the educational systems have always been concerned about how to motivate the learners "to learn effectively and dynamically" and to be prepared for "behavior change" that identifies the factors affecting the amount of academic motivation (Shoarinezhad, 1387). The findings of the research showed that individual, personality, family, school and social variables are related to this structure. In general, the factors influencing motivation can be placed in two categories: one is the individuals' factors and the other is the environmental factors that comprise the community, the family, and the school. The researches that show the relationship among environmental factors are referred to herein as social support (family, friends, and others) and the researches that address the individual factors are referred to as self-efficacy (Sharifi, 1393). Social support was first defined by Cobb as the extent of affection, attention, and assistance one receives from his family members, friends and others, plus the understanding of the availability of those who are felt to care about him (Cobb, 1976); as mentioned, self-efficacy is another determinant related to individual academic motivation, which was first introduced by Albert Bandura in the form of the social cognitive theory (Baswell, 2010). Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as the judgment of individuals about their ability to organize and implement certain behaviors in order to achieve the desired goals. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between social support and academic motivation, in addition to testing the mediating role of self efficacy beliefs. The study is directed by the following hypothesis: Self-efficacy beliefs have a mediating role between social support and academic motivation of students in Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. Considering the conducted researches and the contradictions that have been seen in the results of them in relation to academic motivation, the questions that pose some problems in mind in this research are the following questions. What is the role of individual or social factors in academic motivation? Do individual factors such as selfefficacy and social factors such as social support have a direct or indirect impact on academic motivation? What is the effect of each of these factors on the creation of academic motivation in individuals? The participants were 380 Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman college students who were recruited, by using multistage cluster random sampling method, and within each cluster the simple random method. The research tools were the questionnaires of Phillips’ and colleagues’ social support (1986), Harter's academic motivation (1981), and Sherer’s and colleagues’ self-efficacy beliefs (1982). The results of the path analysis according to the main model of research indicate that social support does not directly correlate with academic motivation, but it, indirectly, through self-efficacy beliefs as a mediate variable, affects academic motivation and from the dimensions of social support (Family support, friends' support and others' support), only two dimensions of family support and the support of others showed a positive and significant relationship with self-efficacy beliefs and the academic motivation (internal motivation and exogenous motivation) of the students; and the support of friends did not show a meaningful relationship with the self-efficacy and educational motivation beliefs of the students. Therefore, the hypothesis of the research, which states self-efficacy believes in the relationship between the social support and academic motivation play the role of mediation, was verified. The results of the research showed that there is no direct relationship between the components of social support (family support, the support of friends, and the support of others) and the educational motivation (internal and external), but they indirectly and through the mediate variable of self-efficacy beliefs implement their effects. This finding is in line with the results of the researches by Sayed Salehi and Younesi (1394), Tamanai Far and Mansuri Nik (1393), which showed the indirect effect of social support on academic motivation. Among the dimensions of the social support, the family support and the others' support had a positive and direct effect on students' self-efficacy beliefs. This finding was supported by the findings of Dehghanizadeh and Soleimani Khoshab (1394), Tamanaifar, Lith and Mansuri Nik (1392), Ling-Ling, Kay and Sally (2014), and Lee (2014). In the next stage, self-efficacy beliefs had a positive and direct effect on the academic motivation (internal and external motivation) of the students. This part of the research is supported by the result of the researches by Seyed Salehi and Younesi (1394) and McGonon et al. (2014), which suggests that self-efficacy is directly related to academic motivation. The social support from the family increased students' self-efficacy through providing effective models, substitution experiences, enhanced positive interpretations, and the information support. Subsequently, by enhancing their self-efficacy, self-esteem and confidence and relying on their abilities, their educational motivation increased indirectly.