Connecting academic striving with college students’ academic achievement: The role of self-efficacy

Academic motivation and self-efficacy are recognized as significant factors influencing students’ academic success. However, the predictive capacity of motivation and academic self-efficacy, and its impact on the academic outcomes of college students, has received limited scholarly investigation. Employing structural equation modeling, we delved into the relationship between academic striving and academic achievement, and assessed whether such a connection was mediated by academic self-efficacy. A cohort of 300 students from a Chinese university participated in this survey. The results underscored the contributions of academic striving and academic self-efficacy toward students’ academic achievement. Furthermore, academic self-efficacy emerged as a pivotal mediating factor between academic striving and academic achievement. This study offers empirically grounded support for the importance of fostering students’ academic striving and academic self-efficacy within university settings.