Academic resilience mediating perceived academic support and achievement in first-year university students

This study examined the mediating role of academic resilience in the relationship between perceived academic support from family, peers, and teachers and academic achievement among first-year undergraduate students at Ijabara University. Drawing on stress and coping theory and resilience theory, it addresses a critical gap in understanding how these protective factors enhance academic achievement during a critical transitional period. Data were collected using established scales, the Perceived Academic Support Scale (Gutiérrez et al., 2017) and Cassidy’s (2016) Academic Resilience Scale (validated by Cui et al., 2023). Participants were selected via a stratified random sampling method, yielding a pilot sample of 200 students (158 male, 42 female) and a main sample of 503 students (403 male, 100 female). Pearson correlation analyses revealed significant positive associations among perceived academic support, resilience, and achievement (p < 0.05). Structural equation modeling (SEM) demonstrated that academic resilience fully mediated the relationship between family and teacher support and achievement, explaining 39% of the variance in academic outcomes, a significant contribution to understanding student success. The absence of indirect effects from peer support aligns with cultural expectations in Ethiopia’s collectivist, high-power-distance society, where family and teacher roles are prioritized over less structured peer networks. These findings underscore resilience as a critical mechanism, offering practical implications for designing resilience-building interventions to enhance student success. Limitations include gender imbalance, cross-sectional design, and a single-university focus, suggesting future longitudinal and multi-institutional research to enhance generalizability.