Relationship between Autonomy-Supportive Environment and Academic Civic Behavior in Female Students with the Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy and Coping Competence in Facing Women's Cultural Challenges

Subject Areas : Psychology

Fatemeh Dadvand ¹ , Mahboobeh Fouladchang ^{2 *}

1 - PhD Student, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran
2 - Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Received: 2025-08-27 Accepted : 2025-10-25 Published : 2025-12-05

Keywords: Self-efficacy, Academic civic behavior, Coping competence, Cultural challenges, Autonomy-supportive environment,

Abstract :

The present study aimed to examine the relationship between the autonomy-supportive environment and academic civic behavior among female students, with the mediating roles of self-efficacy and coping competence in faceing cultural challenges. The population consisted of female students at Shiraz University during the 2024–2025 academic year, from which 350 participants were selected through multistage cluster random sampling. The research method was descriptive-correlational of structural equations modeling. Data were collected via implementing the Academic Civic Behavior Questionnaire (Golparvar, 2010), the Autonomy-Supportive Environment Scale (Assor et al., 2002), the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (Morris, 2001), and the Coping Competence Questionnaire (Schroder & Ellis, 2012). Data were ultimately analyzed using structural equation modeling with SPSS-27 and AMOS-27. Findings indicated that the proposed model had an optimal goodness of fit, explaining 21% of the variance in self-efficacy and 68% of the variance in academic civic behavior. The autonomy-supportive environment had a significant positive direct effect (β = 0.46, p = 0.001) and an indirect effect through self-efficacy (β = 0.22, p = 0.001) on academic civic behavior; however, coping competence did not play a significant mediating role (p > 0.05). Bootstrap analysis also showed that only self-efficacy mediated the relationship between an autonomy-supportive environment and academic civic behavior (p < 0.05). Overall, the results suggested that autonomy-supportive educational environments, by enhancing students’ beliefs in their personal capabilities, played an important role in promoting academic civic behaviors and empowering female students to face cultural challenges.

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