Bridging generations, building minds: The psychological pathways linking intergenerational bonding, teacher motivation, and student success

The growing generational divide in education often leads to communication barriers and reduced engagement between teachers and students. This study examines how intergenerational bonding, conceptualized in Social Capital Theory (SCT), affects teachers' perceptions of students' success in the Pakistani schools' context, with their motivation serving as a mediator and support as a moderator. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed. A sample of 428 secondary school teachers aged 40 or older with more than ten years of teaching experience was selected using a simple random sampling technique. The data were collected with the help of the Bridging Generations for Students' Success Scale (BGSSS). To analyze data, Pearson correlation, simple linear regression, and mediation-moderation analyses were conducted using Jamovi software. Results indicated that intergenerational bonding significantly predicted teacher motivation, which in turn predicted their perceptions of students' success. Teacher motivation mediated, and teacher support moderated, the relationship between intergenerational bonding and their perceptions of students' success. These findings extend the implications of SCT into a non-Western educational context, highlighting the potential for fostering intergenerational teacher-student relationships to improve students' motivation and perceived outcomes. Practical implications include integrating intergenerational communication strategies into teacher training and exploring longitudinal effects in future studies.