How social support predicts academic achievement among secondary students with special needs: the mediating role of self-esteem

BackgroundStudents are an essential part and parcel of society, and their mental health, academic achievement, and success are the pillar objectives of a successful educational system. Based on this, students need to be well-equipped to overcome academic difficulties and challenges. Social support and self-esteem are known to play a major role in education and nurture students' academic achievement. Despite their important attributions, studies however have not examined the joint effects of social support and the mediating role of self-esteem on academic achievement in the context of Kurdistan Region, Iraq. To this end, using a sample of 200 secondary students with special needs (mean age of 14 years) in the city of Halabja, this study tested a structural equation modeling to examine the effect of social support on academic achievement and the potential mediating role of self-esteem between social support and academic achievement. The students with special needs in our sample completed two validated scales to assess their social support and self-esteem and reported their past year's academic achievement.ResultsThe participants in this study scored the highest on significant other (M = 4.46) and the lowest on friends' support (M = 3.95). With regard to self-esteem, the participants reported the mean score of 3.78, indicating a reasonable level of self-esteem. The results of SEM showed that there is a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) regarding the effect of family and friends on students' achievement, while significant other was not found to be statistically significant (p > 0.05). Our SEM results also revealed that the effect of family on students' self-esteem was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05), whereas friends and significant other were not statically significant (p > 0.05). Also, SEM findings confirmed that the indirect effects of family and friends on academic achievement were statistically significant (p < 0.05), but significant other did not have any effect, indicating that self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between social support and academic achievement. Last, our analysis also revealed that self-esteem predicted the students' academic achievement (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThe findings of the study have practical implications for parents, teachers, policy makers, and educators. The study's implications, limitations, and suggestions for future studies directions are discussed in detail. In so doing, this investigation opens new doors for more future academic contributions in this research area.