This study examines the effect of peer support on academic performance among higher vocational college students, with a focus on the mediating roles of learning engagement and achievement goals. A quantitative research design was employed, and data from a sample of 379 participants were collected using a questionnaire instrument via an online survey. Data were analysed using the PROCESS macro (Model 4) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples to test a parallel mediation model. The results indicated that peer support had a significant direct effect on academic performance (b = 1.249, 95% CI 0.621, 1.877) and significant indirect effects through learning engagement (b = 0.937, 95% CI 0.602, 1.299) and achievement goals (b = 0.672, 95% CI 0.267, 1.094), confirming a robust parallel mediation effect. These findings suggest that peer support enhances academic performance both directly and indirectly by promoting greater learning engagement and more adaptive achievement goals. Overall, this study extends existing literature by clarifying the mechanisms linking peer support to academic outcomes and offers practical guidance for strengthening student support systems in vocational education.
Zhang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.