Empowering engagement: The mediating role of academic self-efficacy in the link between teacher support and internship success among Wenzhou’s application-oriented university interns

This study investigates the relationship between teacher support, academic self-efficacy, and internship attendance in a cohort of application-oriented university interns in Wenzhou, China. With a quantitative research design, data were collected from 152 interns by means of online surveys employing validated instruments to measure the three variables under study. Using the application of multiple regression and bootstrap methods, findings indicated that teacher support was a predictor of internship participation (β = 0.485, p < 0.01), and academic self-efficacy was a partial mediator for this context (indirect effect β = 0.204, 95% CI [0.119, 0.338]). The findings suggest that the construction of strong support mechanisms for instructors, as well as the development of students' academic self-efficacy, can enhance internship results in higher education settings where practical applications are emphasized. Institutions of higher learning ought to implement specific strategies aimed at creating these factors in a bid to enhance the quality and effectiveness of their internship programs.