The Relationship between Academic Self-efficacy and Learning Outcomes among Nursing Students: The Mediating Effect of Self-Determined Learning Motivation

This study aimed to examine the effect of academic self-efficacy on learning outcomes among nursing students and to verify the mediating effect of self-determined learning motivation in this relationship.A total of 171 third-and fourth-year nursing students from two universities in G city participated in the study.Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 and PROCESS Macro 4.0.Descriptive statistics were conducted, followed by Pearson correlation analysis, multiple regressions, and mediation analysis.The mediating effect was tested using the bootstrap method with 5,000 resamples and a 95% confidence interval.The assumptions of regression analysis-including normality, linearity, multicollinearity, and the independence of residuals-were examined to ensure the validity of the model.The results showed that academic selfefficacy had a significant positive effect on self-determined learning motivation (=.541, p<.001), and self-determined learning motivation significantly predicted learning outcomes (=.426, p<.001).The total effect of academic self-efficacy on learning outcomes was =.520, with a direct effect of =.289 and an indirect effect of =.231.The bootstrap confidence interval [0.139, 0.330] for the indirect effect did not include zero, indicating a statistically significant mediating effect.These findings suggest that academic self-efficacy influences learning outcomes both directly and indirectly through selfdetermined learning motivation, emphasizing the need for educational strategies that foster both variables in nursing education.