Objective: The implementation of online teaching in the context of epidemic prevention and control has had an impact on the learning engagement of college students to some extent. This study aims to investigate the mechanisms that influence perceived social support and health behaviors on learning engagement, so as to make college students more focused on their studies by improving their physical and mental health as well as their ability to perceive social support.
Methods: A total of 538 college students from Henan Province, China, were studied using the Perceived Social Support Scale, Health Behavior Scale and Learning Engagement Scale, and the data were analyzed by IBM SPSS Amos 26.0 software (IBM SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
Results: (1) The level of health behavior among college students was positively correlated with perceived social support ability (β = 0.289, p < 0.001); both perceived social support and health behaviors predicted college students' learning engagement significantly (β = 0.200, p < 0.01; β = 0.406, p < 0.001). (2) College students' perceived social support partially mediated the relationship between health behaviors and learning engagement.
Conclusion: One of the main ways to improve college students' learning engagement is to improve their health behavior and perceived social support. This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between health behaviors and learning engagement, as well as to the development of interventions to improve learning engagement among college students.
Keywords: health behaviors; learning engagement; online teaching; perceived social support.