Exploring the association between episodic future thinking and learning engagement under intrinsic motivation mediation and teacher support moderation.

Episodic future thinking has become an emerging area of psychological research in recent years as an important factor in predicting learning behavioral engagement. Despite previous research has confirmed that episodic future thinking has a significant correlation with individuals' behavior, the exploration of the association between episodic future thinking and learning engagement in conjunction with both internal factors (e.g. motivation) and external factors (e.g. teacher support) has been left unspecified. Informed by previous research, this study constructed a hypothesized model to explore the association between episodic future thinking and learning engagement, and to examine the roles of intrinsic motivation and teacher support. A questionnaire was administered to 361 undergraduates at a comprehensive university in Eastern China using the scales of Episodic Future Thinking, Learning Engagement, Intrinsic Motivation, and Teacher Support. The research results showed that episodic future thinking positively predicted learning engagement (β = 0.318, t = 3.635, P < 0.001). Intrinsic motivation was the mediating variable of the association between episodic future thinking and learning engagement (β = 0.484, SE = 0.077, CI [0.332, 0.634]) with a mediation effect size of 0.603. Teacher support moderated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and learning engagement (β = 0.292, t = 3.218, P < 0.001). The findings of this study suggest that undergraduates' episodic future thinking is positively associated with learning engagement through intrinsic motivation, and teacher support plays a moderating role in this process. Based on the findings, this study proposed to give full play to the role of episodic future thinking in the learning process of undergraduates by making positive interventions to stimulate learners' positive mental states and enhance learning engagement, and to construct an internal and external psychological regulation mechanism of intrinsic motivation and teacher support. This study contributes to revealing the psychological driving force behind students' learning behaviors and providing more targeted guidance for educational practice.