The present study investigated the mechanism underlying the relationship between teacher support and undergraduates' learning engagement, examining epistemic beliefs as a mediator and gender as a moderator. A cross-sectional survey of 1213 students from Chinese universities was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicated that teacher support directly and positively predicted learning engagement, with epistemic beliefs serving as a significant partial mediator. Furthermore, a moderated mediation effect was identified: the indirect pathway through epistemic beliefs was significantly stronger for male students compared to female students. These results demonstrate that teacher support enhances learning engagement by fostering the development of mature epistemic beliefs-a cognitive pathway particularly crucial for male students. Consequently, in higher education practice, efforts should extend beyond strengthening teacher support to include the intentional cultivation of students' mature epistemic beliefs, along with the design of gender-differentiated intervention strategies, in order to effectively improve students' level of learning engagement.
Chen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.