2026-10-06T08:16:31Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34054578 2026-10-02T05:37:11Z category_173 portal_316 item_type_3 month_year_10_2026

Table 1_The pathway to internship success: how academic self-concept and engagement shape outcomes in higher education.docx Yongrui Cui (25162638) Applied Psychology academic self-concept Chinese universities internship engagement internship outcomes structural equation modeling Background<p>Internships connect academic learning with workplace practice, yet the psychological process through which students' academic self-perceptions are associated with internship success remains insufficiently specified. This study examined whether multidimensional internship engagement statistically mediates the association between academic self-concept and internship outcomes.</p>Methods<p>A quantitative, multi-institutional, three-wave time-lagged survey was conducted with 522 undergraduate students from Chinese universities. Academic self-concept was assessed at internship entry, internship engagement at the internship midpoint, and internship outcomes after completion. Established instruments were adapted through forward translation, back-translation, expert review, and pilot testing. Confirmatory factor analysis, latent-variable structural equation modeling, 5,000-resample bootstrap mediation analysis, full-information maximum likelihood, robustness checks, and subgroup analyses were used.</p>Results<p>The hypothesized three-factor measurement model fit better than the two-factor and one-factor alternatives. The structural model showed acceptable fit (CFI = 0.958, TLI = 0.953, RMSEA = 0.034, and SRMR = 0.044). Academic self-concept was positively associated with internship engagement, and internship engagement was positively associated with internship outcomes. The indirect association through internship engagement was 0.249 (95% bootstrap confidence interval: 0.184 to 0.319). The proportion mediated was 50.6% (95% bootstrap confidence interval: 39.4% to 62.6%), and the direct association remained statistically significant. The pattern was stable across alternative specifications and exploratory subgroup analyses.</p>Conclusion<p>Internship engagement statistically accounted for part of the association between academic self-concept and internship outcomes. The findings support a theoretically ordered, but not causal, pathway in which students' academic self-evaluations are associated with stronger behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement during workplace learning.</p> 2026-10-02T05:37:11Z Dataset Dataset 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1924391.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Table_1_The_pathway_to_internship_success_how_academic_self-concept_and_engagement_shape_outcomes_in_higher_education_docx/34054578 CC BY 4.0