Adolescents’ Positive Friendship and Academic Engagement: The Mediating Effect of Academic Helplessness and The Moderated Mediating Effect of Fandom Activities

Objectives The purpose of this study is to identify whether adolescents’ fandom activities moderate the positive indirect relationship between positive friendship and academic engagement via academic helplessness. Methods This study used data from 2,311 2nd-year middle school students who participated in the 5th survey of the “Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018 (KCYPS 2018)”. Of data from 2,311 adolescents, the current studies adopted only data from 1,000 respondents who reported having a favorite celebrity or athlete. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 25.0 and PROCESS macro 4.2. Results The results are as follows: First, adolescents' academic helplessness was partially mediated by positive friendship and academic engagement. That is, positive friendship directly influenced academic engagement but also indirectly did it via academic helplessness. Second, adolescents' fandom activities moderated the relationship between positive friendship and academic helplessness. Third, adolescents' fandom activities moderated the relationship between positive friendship and academic engagement via academic helplessness. Specifically, various fandom activities among adolescents strengthened the impact of positive friendship on reducing academic helplessness, thereby leading to higher academic engagement. Conclusions It is important to reduce academic helplessness and thus encourage adolescents' academic engagement by not only supporting positive friendship but also endorsing fandom activities.