The Impact of Social Belonging Perception on Academic Motivation through Peer Support and Identity Security in the Higher Education Sector

Abstract

The proposed research will discuss how Social Belonging Perception (SBP) can influence Academic Motivation (AM) with the mediating roles of Peer Support (PS) and Identity Security (IS) in the context of higher education students in Jordan, a developing country context. A survey of 302 university students attending institutions of higher learning in Jordan and were actively involved in academic programs was carried out. Amos v.26 was used as the structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the relationships between the variables of SBP, PS, IS and AM. The findings depict that SBP does not have a considerable direct impact on AM. Nonetheless, SBP has an important impact on PS and IS, which also play an important role as mediating variables in the relation between SBP and AM. The findings emphasize the fact that AM is mostly influenced by the use of social and psychological relational channels instead of immediate belonging perceptions. Although this study contributes to the better understanding of the social-psychological processes in a developing country context of higher education, the scope of cross-sectional survey data may provide a limited scope of causes and more profound qualitative information about the student experiences. In practice, the results indicate the need to reinforce the peer-based environment and an identity-supportive academic culture in promoting student motivation in universities. This paper presents a new integrated model by locating PS and IS as two mediators between SBP and AM. It builds on the current body of research on student engagement by clarifying the indirect processes that encompass the role of belonging in the context of motivational outcomes in higher education settings. The findings have practical implications on educators and policymakers who seek to create conducive and identity-affirming learning environments in the changing environment of developing nations.