Structural Relationship to Variables Related to Adult Learners’Academic Engagement at the University Lifelong Education Center

This study is to analyze the structural relationship among relationship marketing, social capital, academic engagement, and learning participation period recognized by adult learners at the university continuing education center. The problems of this study are as follows. First, what is the structural relationship among relationship marketing, individual social capital, and academic engagement? Second, what is the mediating effect of social capital on the relationship between relationship marketing and academic engagement? Third, what is the moderating effect of the learning participation period on the relationship between variables? The subjects of this study were 595 adult learners at the J University Continuing Education Center. SPSS 21.0 and Amos 21.0 programs were used to analyze the structural relationship between variables, and bootstrapping was performed to analyze the mediating effect. The specific research results are as follows. First, it was found that there is a relationship between relationship marketing perception, social capital, and academic engagement recognized by adult learners at the university continuing education center. Second, it was found that the social capital of adult learners at the university continuing education center mediates the relationship between relationship marketing and academic engagement. Third, it was found that the participation period of adult learners did not moderate the relationship between relationship marketing and social capital, and between social capital and academic engagement, but moderate the relationship between relationship marketing and academic engagement. These results suggest that in order to increase adult learners' academic engagement, university continuing education centers and instructors should strengthen both variables in parallel or consider institutional relationship marketing to short-term learning participants as well as each institution's relationship marketing and learners' social capital capabilities.