Antecedents of university students' self-leadership: The roles of teacher developmental feedback and student proactive vitality management

Background

Self-leadership is of significant importance to the growth and development of college students. However, few studies have systematically examined how teachers and college students can work together to cultivate the self-leadership of college students.

Aims

Based on the social cognitive theory, this paper aims to propose and teste a comprehensive model examining the comprehensive influence effects of teacher developmental feedback, student proactive vitality management, and psychological resilience on student self-leadership.

Sample

Data from 807 valid respondents were collected via online questionnaire surveys administered at several universities in Southeast China.

Methods

The validation and robustness testing of the variables were conducted using SPSS version 22.0. The discriminant validity of our measures was assessed using AMOS version 24.0. Finally, the proposed model was tested using Hayes' PROCESS macro in SPSS version 22.0.

Results

Both teacher developmental feedback and student proactive vitality management were positively related to student self-leadership. Moreover, psychological resilience mediated the relationships between teacher developmental feedback and student self-leadership, as well as between student proactive vitality management and student self-leadership. Additionally, teacher developmental feedback was more strongly related to student self-leadership when student proactive vitality management was higher.

Conclusions

Our research demonstrates the potential of using social cognitive theory to understand the multifaceted drivers of students’ self-leadership. Specifically, both teacher developmental feedback and student proactive vitality management contribute to enhancing student self-leadership through psychological resilience.