Can cognitive stress appraisal moderate the link between family cohesion and academic engagement among undergraduate students?

Abstract

The study explored whether the association between family cohesion and academic engagement was affected by students’ perceptions of cognitive pressure. Participants were 168 undergraduate students (84 males and 84 females, Mean age = 18.21, SD = 2.07 years), randomly drawn from a tertiary educational institution in South-eastern Nigeria. Measures for data collection were the Students Engagement Instrument (SEI), Family Cohesion Scale (FCS), and Presentation of a Cognitive Appraisal Scenario (CAS). We employed the Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS, which has a regression-based path-logical frame in data analyses. Results showed that family cohesion had a positive association with academic engagement, but cognitive stress appraisal had no significant association with academic engagement. Cognitive stress appraisal moderated the association between family cohesion and academic engagement. Family cohesion has an association with greater academic engagement for students especially in the challenge cognitive stress appraisal condition, than those in the threat cognitive stress appraisal condition, but not for those in the control cognitive stress appraisal condition. The finding suggests that having a challenging cognitive stress appraisal and threatening cognitive stress appraisal has a link with increasing family cohesion, and contributing to higher levels of students’ academic engagement. The findings may help advance the educational engagement of students in utmost institutions of advanced literacy.