Structural Relationships between Executive Function and Academic Engagement of Female Students: The Mediating Role of Perception of the Educational Environment

Purpose: The objective of the present study was to investigate the structural relationships between executive function and academic engagement of female students: the mediating role of perception of the educational environment. Methodology: This study was a cross-sectional correlational study. The statistical population of this study included ninth grade female students in Sari during the academic years 2018-2019. The sample size was 280 students who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method. Academic engagement (Zrang, 2012), executive function (Nejati, 2013) and perception of educational environment (Gentry et al., 2002) questionnaires were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling using software SPSS-18 and Amos-23. Findings: The results showed that the structural relationships between executive function and academic engagement of female students: the mediating role of perception of the educational environment had a good fit. In addition, executive function had a direct and significant effect on perception of educational environment and academic engagement. Perception of educational environment had a direct and significant effect on academic engagement and executive function with the mediating role of perception of the educational environment (P 0.05). Conclusion: According to the direct and indirect relationships of the present study, the academic engagement of female students can be improved by improving executive function with the mediating role of perception of the educational environment.