Teacher autonomy support and music learning engagement: conditional associations of self-efficacy and discrete achievement emotions among university music students

Abstract

Objective University music learning requires sustained engagement under demanding instructional and practice conditions. This study examined whether perceived teacher autonomy support, music learning self-efficacy, and discrete achievement emotions showed distinguishable associations with multidimensional engagement when considered simultaneously among Chinese undergraduate music students. Methods Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 500 undergraduate music students enrolled at three universities in southern China. Participants reported on one current core music course and its primary instructor. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the measurement and structural models, with music learning engagement specified as a higher-order construct comprising behavioral, cognitive, and agentic engagement. Indirect associations were estimated using 5,000 case-resampling bootstrap replications with 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals. Results The measurement and structural models showed good fit. Perceived teacher autonomy support was positively associated with music learning self-efficacy and retained a small positive conditional association with engagement. Self-efficacy was positively associated with enjoyment and negatively associated with anxiety and boredom. When all variables were modeled simultaneously, enjoyment was positively associated with engagement and boredom was negatively associated with engagement, whereas anxiety and self-efficacy showed no statistically distinguishable direct associations with engagement. The theoretically ordered indirect associations through self-efficacy and enjoyment [β = 0.209, 95% CI (0.099, 0.359)] and through self-efficacy and boredom [β = 0.042, 95% CI (0.011, 0.087)] were statistically distinguishable from zero, whereas the corresponding anxiety pathway was not. The model explained 29.5% of the variance in engagement. Conclusion Perceived teacher autonomy support, competence-related beliefs, and discrete achievement emotions were differently associated with music learning engagement. In particular, enjoyment and boredom retained distinct associations with engagement after the other constructs were considered simultaneously. These findings support examining instructional support, self-efficacy, and discrete emotional experiences together rather than treating them as interchangeable correlates of university music learning engagement.