Perceived Social Support and Academic Engagement

When students switch to higher education, they experience substantial stress and declines in performance in academic works. Perceived social support is supposed to improve academic performance by reducing stress. This study examined the influence from perceived social support of the management undergraduates in Sri Lanka on their academic engagement level. Participants include first year management undergraduates in five selected state universities in Sri Lanka. Adapted scales based on student engagement scale of NSSE and multidimensional scale of perceived social support was used as the measuring instruments. According to the findings, in Sri Lanka also social support plays a significant role in the level of academic engagement of a first year undergraduate. Furthermore, out of three aspects identified on social support social support from family and friends were significantly affecting to the undergraduates’ academic engagement level but not the social support from a significant other. Hence, as per the prior scholars’ findings, undergraduates perceive that their social support level as a supportive factor for their academic works. It may cause to reduce their stress raised due to the significant change from school to university at the very first time period.

The Kelaniya Journal of Management, Vol. 3(2); 2014: 85-92