The Relationship Between Classroom Climate and Students’ Psychological Well-Being: The Role of Academic Engagement

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between classroom climate and students’ psychological well-being, with particular emphasis on the mediating role of academic engagement among university students in Pakistan. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was adopted to investigate the associations among the three study variables. Primary data were collected from 323 university students through a structured, self-administered questionnaire using a convenience sampling technique. The data collection focused on students’ perceptions of classroom climate, their level of academic engagement, and their psychological well-being. The collected responses were intended for analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics, including descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, and mediation analysis, to examine the proposed relationships and the indirect role of academic engagement.The reported findings indicate a positive association between classroom climate and psychological well-being (\(r = 0.584\)). The mediation analysis further indicates that classroom climate positively predicts academic engagement (\ (B = 0.612\), \(SE = 0.058\)), while academic engagement is positively associated with psychological well-being (\ (B = 0.421\), \(SE = 0.052\)). The direct effect of classroom climate on psychological well-being remains positive (\(B = 0.354\), \(SE = 0.057\)), while the indirect effect through academic engagement is \(B = 0.258\), with a 95% confidence interval of \([0.183, 0.344] \). Because this confidence interval excludes zero, the reported results indicate a statistically significant indirect association, consistent with partial mediation. These findings highlight the potential importance of supportive classroom environments in fostering academic engagement and students’ psychological well-being. The study contributes to educational psychology by offering insights that may inform inclusive teaching practices, supportive teacher–student relationships, and university-level initiatives designed to promote positive student experiences. However, the reported statistical values require verification against the actual dataset before publication, and the cross-sectional design limits causal interpretation.