Autonomy-Supportive Faculty and Students' Agentic Engagement: The Mediating Role of Activating Positive Achievement Emotions

The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of students' activating positive achievement emotions, in the relationship between faculty's support of autonomy and students' agentic engagement. This research was a correlational study, in which a structural equation modeling was been used to analyze a conceptual model. The sample included 389 undergraduate students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, who were selected by randomized multistage cluster sampling method. Data was collected through the Autonomy-Supportive Environment Questionnaire, the Agentic Engagement Scale and the three subscales of Achievement Emotions Questionnaire. The results showed that supporting autonomy has a significant direct effect on activating positive achievement emotions and it affects agentic engagement indirectly, via achievement emotions. Accordingly, students' activating positive achievement emotions play a mediating role between autonomy-supportive faculty and their agentic engagement.