Effects of perceived social support on learning engagement among preservice special education teachers: chain mediating roles of positive coping styles and professional identity

Student learning engagement serves as a critical indicator of undergraduate education quality and student development. This study examined the factors and mechanisms influencing learning engagement, focusing on perceived social support, positive coping styles, and professional identity. A sample of 276 special education undergraduates from two universities in western China completed a validated four-subscale questionnaire. A chain mediation model revealed that perceived social support directly predicts learning engagement and indirectly affects it through the sequential mediation of positive coping styles and professional identity. Accordingly, higher education institutions should supplement external support with multilevel psychological interventions—such as curricular adjustments, group counseling, and individual consultation—to promote students’ positive coping styles, thereby strengthening professional identity and enhancing learning engagement.