The association between academic self-esteem and college students’ positive psychological qualities: the mediating role of general self-efficacy

Background: Previous studies have primarily focused on the various psychological factors influencing college students' well-being, yet research on the specific role of academic self-esteem in fostering positive psychological qualities remains limited, especially when considering the mediating effect of general self-efficacy. Existing relevant research has only verified the potential mediating role of general self-efficacy in similar psychological construct relationships, failing to explicitly identify the specific type of mediation or quantify the relative contributions of direct and indirect effects. Meanwhile, empirical evidence for this association is scarce within the cultural and educational context of Chinese college students. This study aims to explore the association between academic self-esteem and college students' positive psychological qualities, and to examine the mediating role of general self-efficacy, identifying its specific mediation type and quantifying the contribution ratios of direct and indirect effects. Methodology: The study was conducted online among students from six universities and vocational colleges in Anhui, Zhejiang, and Sichuan Provinces of China, with a total of 1,025 participants completing self-reported electronic questionnaires. After strict screening of valid responses, 940 valid questionnaires were collected. Mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro (Model 4) with the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method to verify the specific mediation type and quantify the effect size of general self-efficacy in the relationship between academic self-esteem and positive psychological qualities. Results: < 0.01]. The indirect effect of academic self-esteem on positive psychological qualities through general self-efficacy accounted for 51.85% of the total effect, while the direct effect accounted for 48.15%. Conclusion: Enhancing college students' academic self-esteem and general self-efficacy not only promotes their positive psychological qualities more effectively but also improves their mental health. This study makes three notable contributions to the existing literature. First, it explicitly identifies the mediating role of general self-efficacy between academic self-esteem and positive psychological qualities as partial complementary mediation, addressing the deficiency of previous research that only verified the existence of a mediating effect without identifying its specific type. Second, it quantifies the relative contribution ratios of direct and indirect effects, achieving an in-depth decomposition of the statistical mediation pathway. Third, it empirically validates the dual pathway of direct prediction and indirect mediation through general self-efficacy among Chinese undergraduate and vocational college students, enriching cross-cultural empirical research on positive psychological quality cultivation and providing a more precise theoretical basis for targeted psychological interventions.