Impact of self-directed learning ability on undergraduate nursing students’ learning engagement: the chain-mediating role of academic buoyancy and academic burnout in a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: To explore the chain-mediating role of academic buoyancy and academic burnout between self-directed learning ability (SDLA) and learning engagement in undergraduate nursing students. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This study was conducted in December 2024, involving 239 nursing undergraduates from a university in Daqing city, Heilongjiang province. METHODS: Independent samples t-tests and analysis of variance were employed to examine the relationships between undergraduate nursing students' characteristics and learning engagement. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyse the correlations among the variables. Based on self-determination theory, the chain-mediating effects of academic buoyancy and academic burnout between self-directed learning ability and learning engagement were tested using Model 6 of the SPSS PROCESS macro (V.3.5), with bootstrap samples set to 5000. RESULTS: A total of 239 undergraduate nursing students were included in the analysis, of whom 84.94% were female. The sample comprised students from all academic years, including first-year (27.62%), second-year (33.47%), third-year (17.57%) and final-year students (21.34%). Most participants selected nursing as a voluntary major choice (62.34%), and 43.51% were from urban areas. The 239 undergraduate nursing students scored 72.26±10.26 on SDLA, 14.90±2.64 on academic buoyancy, 53.75±9.33 on academic burnout and 50.81±7.64 on learning engagement. SDLA and academic buoyancy were positively correlated with learning engagement (all p