Introduction

The academic challenges of undergraduate students are significant due to the transition from high schools to higher education. They usually deal with increased levels of stress and coping ability which raises their chances to experience psychological and emotional instability (Steinhardt & Dolbeir, 2008). Their challenges with transformed education system rise as students are required to operate online procedures for admissions, submitting assignments, taking online classes, and accustoming themselves with digital correspondences. Moreover, they have to deal with high-stake assessments, more independent learning, and taking extra personal and academic responsibilities (Hartley, 2011). These difficulties require support system from social networks to harness the feelings of being cared for and valued (Cobb, 1976), so they can determinately face them to complete their study program.

Social support has been described as assistance accessible to an individual through social connections from other individuals, groups, and community members (Lin et al., 1979). In academic situations, social support provides psychological and significant resources to students in order to cope up with the stressors of their lives (Cohen, 2004). In short, social support is the perception of being cared for and loved by others in order to be valued and esteemed by them which fosters sense of belongingness to specific social groups with shared assistances and commitments (Wills, 1991; as cited in Taylor, 2011). The social support mainly comes from friends, family, and significant others (Zimet et al., 1988). The structure of social support emphasizes on individuals’ social relationship, their quality, frequency, and background of interaction with their social network (Zhou, 2014). The functions of social support outlined by Cutronaet al. (2005), and Uchino (2004), emphasized on emotional or esteem support which refers to care, encouragement, and positive regard from social networks, then tangible or informational support which indicates direct assistance through feedback and advice of significant others. On the other hand, companionship support revolves around the sense of belongingness in a specific group (Sarafino et al., 2015). The social support is considered effective when it fulfills the need of recipient. It does not only facilitate individuals to understand and manage situations but also improves their motivation, performance and social relationships (Zee et al., 2020).

On the contrary, academic resilience focuses on the assuring behavior of students while facing adversity and challenges that require them to show resilience (Gizir, 2004). In a more comprehensive manner, the most influential predictor towards effective learning at schools is academic resilience which prepare students to not only engage in their classrooms but also boost their self-esteem (Martin & Marsh, 2009). In addition, Martin and Marsh (2006), argued that four conditions (setbacks, challenges, adversity, and pressure) in their academic life are handled competently by resilient students. Furthermore, Wright et al. (2013), identified risk factors as proximal risk (direct experience) and distal risk (indirect experience) which are involved in academic resilience. The risk factors in academic scenarios revolve around low performance of students, retaining satisfactory grades, and drop out. Therefore, the risk factors pave way for protective factors to bring positivity and adaptive skills to overcome academic adversity (Rojas, 2015). Similarly, Jowkar et al. (2014) describes both internal and external protective factors of academic resilience. The internal factors mainly revolve around empathy, problem solving, Self-awareness, cooperation, and communication. On the other hand, external factors mainly focus on social support and occasions of nurturance from family, school, and community members. The protective factors center on social and personal aspects to help students to get back to normal self despite wide variety of academic challenges. Hence, the role of social support and academic resilience is crucial for students. They provide strong understanding towards personal and social circumstances faced by them and bring ease and determination to attain academic goals and refine their knowledge and skills.

Rationale

There are several challenges faced by the students which arises due to their transition from school level to universities. These require them to adapt to changes in their academic, personal, and environmental aspects of life. The increased stress levels raise their probability to experience psychological and emotional disturbances (Steinhardt & Dolbeir, 2008). Moreover, summative assessments, learning independence, and increased personal and academic accountabilities influence students’ performance (Hartley, 2011). The stress to submit final projects (Bukhori et al., 2017) and low socio-economic status (Fang et al., 2020) affect students to adjust themselves at higher education. The transformed learning practices also challenge students to deal with disruptive home environment, (Adedoyin & Soykan 2020), low motivation (Adnan & Anwar, 2020; Ullah et al., 2021), incomplete understanding of concepts (Mishra et al., 2020), and insufficient skills in time management (Warsi, 2021).

These challenges require supportive behaviors from social networks to adjust with personal and academic problems in order to resiliently handle them and continue their academic responsibilities. The study focuses on the level of social support dimensions that influence the academic resilience of students to identify supportive behaviors facilitated at undergraduate level.

Literature Review

The challenges in academic life involve the support from family, friends/peers, and teachers to buffer the academic stress faced by students (Sujiarto et al., 2022). This ensures mitigating the stressors in academic tasks and institutional support facilitate students through tutorials to access admission portal, LMS (Learning Management System), to upload assignments. In addition, teacher assistance in the form of sharing essential information by WhatsApp groups, locating authentic learning sources, and cognitively engaging assessments for students to harness advance skills to persistently overcome academic challenges (Kwan, 2022).

The stressful academic experiences require support from social agents to resiliently deal with them in order to enhance their psychological well-being (Wilson et al., 2020). Similarly, support from friends, family, and others promote resilience among students at college, which in turn increases their life satisfaction (Y𝚤ld𝚤r𝚤m & Tanr𝚤verdi, 2021). Also, perceived social support from family and friends ensures university students’ satisfaction with their lives (Mahanta & Aggarwal, 2013). Furthermore, academic resilience and social support of learners are moderated by self-regulated learning to deal with academic procrastination among students (Cahyani et al., 2022). Resilience is considered to be positively associated with campus connectedness although, academic burnout is negatively associated with resilience (Kwan, 2022). The high levels of perceived social support and optimism ensure increased levels of resilience among first year university students (Dawson & Pooley, 2013). Academic stress influences undergraduate students’ satisfaction towards online learning however, academic resilience alleviates the drastic effects of academic stress and improves students’ satisfaction with online learning (Kumalasari & Akmal, 2021). Additionally, students’ resilience skills enable them to identify the realistic and major risk factors in their academic lives. They employ protective factors to lessen different risks so that they can manage their protective factors to achieve higher degree of academic achievement. This, in turn, enables students to identify the effectiveness of specific protective factors that can be utilized in future with some modifications to attain constant academic progress (Morales & Trotman, 2011).

In online learning context, Liu and Cao (2022) identified that social support constrains the occurrence of academic burnout through resilience among students of medicine. Furthermore, Khan et al. (2021), recognized that EFL (English as Foreign Language) learners’ motivation towards transformed learning practices improved with the passage of time and they were able to adapt with them in Pakistani context.

The literature on social support and academic resilience focused on empirical studies and their relationship was studied across various samples. Bukhori et al. (2017), identified that support from family significantly affects academic resilience of university students in their final semester as their complex academic tasks demand support that can instill persistence to deal with them and attain their academic targets. Similarly, support from family, friends/peers, teachers, and significant others influence their academic resilience in the form of financial and emotional aids. Moreover, social support plays a significant role in transformed learning as Permatasari et al. (2021), identified that family’s support enables students to deal competently with online learning, which enhances their academic resilience in challenging academic scenarios. In similar manner, Adhawiyah et al. (2021), recognized that academic resilience and social support significantly affected Indonesian students’ involvement in online lectures. They further described that the students experienced average level of academic resilience and social support to deal with the transformed learning practices. Similarly, Rukmana, and Ismiradewi (2022) argued that moderate level of academic resilience and social support was experienced by new students in Indonesia. They identified that significant relationship exists between social support and self-efficacy, which promotes academic resilience in transformed learning.

The comprehensive study by Lady (2021), recognized a positive relationship between social support and academic resilience. The research further described that friends’ support significantly facilitated undergraduate Columbian students through academic challenges faced during online learning. The researcher identified that family and friends’ support helped students to discuss their frustrations related with academic challenges (venting) and the instructors facilitated them through motivational and informational support. Additionally, informational support and support agents interacted to build resilience among students to deal with difficult academic scenarios. Similarly, positive and significant effect of social support on academic resilience was found among Indonesian students through pathway analysis (Sujiarto et al., 2022). Wiyanti et al. (2021), identified average level of academic resilience among students during online learning. The students require effective utilization of transformed learning practices and social support enrich these processes that eventually bring academic success.

The current study focuses on the role of sub constructs of academic resilience influenced by social support, which has been overlooked by the empirical studies. The large sample of undergraduate students helped in developing a thorough understanding of their social support structures that enable them to resiliently face academic challenges. Based on previous studies, the reasons for such influences were discovered.

Research Objective

To examine the effect of social support dimensions on the academic resilience of undergraduate students.

Hypotheses

H₀₁ There is no significant effect of social support on the academic resilience of undergraduate students.

H₀₂ There is no significant effect of social support on the perseverance of undergraduate students.

H₀₃ There is no significant effect of social support on the reflective and adaptive help seeking experiences of undergraduate students.

H₀₄ There is no significant effect of social support on the emotional responses of undergraduate students.

H₀₅ There is no significant effect of informational support on the academic resilience of undergraduate students.

H₀₆ There is no significant effect of esteem support on the academic resilience of undergraduate students.

H₀₇ There is no significant effect of motivational support on the academic resilience of undergraduate students.

H₀₈ There is no significant effect of venting support on the academic resilience of undergraduate students.

Methodology

Research Design

The effect of social support on the academic resilience of undergraduate students was determined by using causal comparative research design. Moreover, cross sectional survey method was used to measure the respondents’ experiences on the above-mentioned constructs.

Instruments

The instruments used in the study focused on academic resilience scale by Cassidy (2016). The 30 items scale focuses on the following subscales, perseverance (behavioral response of students towards challenges in academic nature), reflecting and adaptive-help seeking (cognitive responses of students to their challenges in academic nature), and negative affect and emotional response (emotional responses of students to the challenges in academic nature). On the contrary, social support scale was the adaption of Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) of Zimet et al. (1988). Previous items were adapted and new were developed to embed the dimensions of social support outlined by Thompson and Mazer (2009), as informational support, esteem support, motivational support, and venting support.

The reliability of adapted scales was ensured through pilot testing. The Cronbach’s alpha value of adapted academic resilience scale was 0.79 and social support scale was 0.95. Moreover, the content validation of tools was ensured by consulting eight Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). The Content Validity Index (CVI) was calculated and the academic resilience scale’s critical value was 0.85 and social support scale was 0.89.

Sample and Study Procedure

The sample consisted of 600 undergraduate students who were enrolled in varied departments of sciences, humanities, social sciences, and education. The multistage stratified proportionate sampling technique was applied to collect data through questionnaire, containing academic resilience scale and social support scale. The students were contacted randomly and they filled either the hard form of questionnaire or Google form on the basis of their convenience. The responses of the students were entered and analyzed through SPSS 22.0. Inferential statistics was applied to test the hypotheses.

Results

The inferential statistics was applied to measure the effects of social support on academic resilience of undergraduate students. To compare means of academic resilience scores of students regarding social support, one-way ANOVA (Table 1) was applied.

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics of Academic Resilience Based on Social Support

Note. PRV=perseverance, REH= reflective and adaptive help seeking, NAR= negative affect and emotional response, M= mean, SD= standard deviation

The descriptive statistics in Table 1 showed that undergraduate students experienced medium (N= 222) and high levels (N=358) of social support from their social networks. Additionally, student’s academic resilience increased due to medium (M= 119.50) and high levels (M= 136.12) of social support to deal with varied academic challenges. Similarly, the subscales of academic resilience increase with medium and high levels of social support experienced by the students.

Table 2

Comparison of Mean Score of Academic Resilience Subscales Regarding Social Support

In Table 2, one-way ANOVA was executed to compare mean scores and results indicated significant effect of social support on academic resilience of students (p = .000). This infers that null hypothesis 1 stands rejected. In addition, social support significantly affects the subscales perseverance (p = .000), which indicates that null hypothesis 2 stands rejected. Social support also significantly affects reflective and adaptive help seeking (p = .000), which suggests that null hypothesis 3 stands rejected. Hence, there is a significant effect of social support on the emotional responses of undergraduate students (p = .000), which infers that null hypothesis 4 also stands rejected.

Post hoc test in Table 3 reveals that moderate levels of social support significantly affect academic resilience (MD= 42.755^*, p= .000) and its subscales. In addition to this, high levels of social support significantly influence the academic resilience of students (MD= 59.370^*, p= .000) and subscales of it on the low levels of perceived social support. This suggests that moderate and high levels of social support significantly influence the academic resilience of learners and facilitate the completion of their study programs.

Table 3

Post Hoc Analysis of Academic Resilience on the Basis of Social Support Levels

Table 4

Descriptive Statistics of Academic Resilience and Informational Support

One-way analysis of variance was performed to measure the impact of informational support on academic resilience of undergraduate students. This revealed mean comparisons of academic resilience and subscale wise scores of students across all three levels of informational support.

Table 5

Mean Score Comparison of Academic Resilience Subscales Regarding Informational Support

As a result of one-way ANOVA, the mean score comparison results (Table 5) reveals that informational support significantly affects academic resilience (p= .000) of students. This suggested that the null hypothesis 5 is rejected.

Table 6

Post Hoc Analysis of Academic Resilience on the Basis of Informational Support Levels (Tukey HSD)

The post hoc test (Table 6) indicates that moderate levels of informational support significantly affect academic resilience (MD= 32.388^*, p= .000) along with its subscales. Furthermore, high levels of informational support significantly influence academic resilience of students (MD= 46.439^*, p= .000).

Table 7

Descriptive Statistics of Academic Resilience on the Basis of Esteem Support

The impact of esteem support on academic resilience of students in learning environment at Allama Iqbal Open University was examined through one-way analysis of variance. Table 7 shows mean comparisons of academic resilience scores of students regarding three subscales considering as esteem support.

After performing one-way ANOVA, mean score comparison results (Table 8) reveals that esteem support significantly affects academic resilience (p= .000) of students. This inferred that null hypothesis 6 stands rejected.

Table 8

Comparison of Mean Scores of Academic Resilience Subscales Regarding Esteem Support

Table 9

Post Hoc Analysis of Academic Resilience Based on Esteem Support Levels (Tukey HSD)

In Table 9, post hoc test indicates that moderate levels of esteem support significantly affect academic resilience (MD= 33.730^*, p= .000) and its sub scales. Similarly, high levels of esteem support significantly influence academic resilience of students (MD= 51.237^*, p= .000) along with its subscales in response to low levels of esteem support.

Table 10

Motivational Support wise Descriptive Statistics of Academic Resilience

One-way ANOVA was performed to examine the impact of motivational social support on academic resilience of undergraduate students. The mean comparisons of academic resilience scores of students regarding three subscales considering as motivational support are shown in Table 10.

Table 11

Mean Score Comparison of Academic Resilience Subscales regarding Motivational Support

One-way ANOVA was performed to compare mean scores. The results in Table 11 indicates that motivational support significantly affects academic resilience (p= .000) of undergraduate students. This suggests that the null hypothesis 7 stands rejected.

Table 12

Post Hoc Analysis of Academic Resilience Based on Motivational Support Levels (Tukey HSD)

Post hoc test, in Table 12, reveals that moderate levels of motivational support significantly affects academic resilience (MD= 44.862^*, p= .000) with their sub scales. Similarly, high levels of motivational support significantly influence academic resilience of students (MD= 62.714^*, p= .000) along with its subscales in accordance with low levels of motivational support.

Table 13

Descriptive Statistics of Academic Resilience Based on Venting Support

One-way analysis of variance was performed to measure the impact of venting support on academic resilience of undergraduate students. This indicates (Table 13) mean comparisons of academic resilience scores of students regarding three subscales considering as venting support.  

Table 14

Comparison of Mean Score of Academic Resilience Subscales Regarding Venting Support

In Table 14, one-way analysis of variance is performed to compare mean scores and results indicates that venting support significantly affects academic resilience (p= .000) of undergraduate students. This inferred that null hypothesis 8 is rejected. Similarly, venting support significantly affects the subscales of academic resilience.

Table 15

Post Hoc Analysis of Academic Resilience on the Basis of Venting Support Levels (Tukey HSD)

In Table 15, post hoc test is applied and the results reveal that moderate levels of venting support significantly affect academic resilience (MD= 26.416^*, p= .000) with its sub scales. Similarly, high levels of venting support significantly influence academic resilience of students (MD= 42.031^*, p= .000) along with its subscales in response to low levels of venting support.

Discussion

The findings of current study indicated that social support significantly affects academic resilience of students and its subscales (perseverance, reflective and adaptive help seeking experiences, and negative affect and emotional response). The findings were echoed by Adhawiyah et al. (2021), that students’ involvement in online lectures were significantly influenced by academic resilience traits and social support experiences. This involvement in return facilitated students to successfully attain academic targets (Sholeh, 2019; as cited in Adhawiyah et al., 2021). The results of this research resonate with those of Sujiarto et al. (2022). It concluded that the social support directly affects academic resilience of students at university level and digital literacy and self-efficacy influence academic resilience of students. In similar manner, peer social support significantly facilitates academic resilience of students at high school (Rustham et al., 2021). Social support also influences medical students’ academic resilience while undergoing online learning practices (Liu & Cao, 2022).

Dawson and Pooley (2013), evaluated that perceived social support and optimistic thinking enable students to resiliently undergo their transition from first semester to second. In addition, social support and self-efficacy enable online learners to strengthen academic resilience traits so that they could efficiently utilize the online learning mode (Rukmana & Ismiradewi, 2022). Similarly, Kumalasari and Akmal (2021), identified that traits of resilience decrease the stressful learning experiences and increase the satisfaction of students towards online learning practices. Hence, the outcomes of the tests conducted in this research aligned with the above-mentioned previous research.

Furthermore, the findings of current study recognized a significant effect of moderate and high levels of social support to facilitate academic resilience traits among undergraduate students to competently deal with the online and face to face classes, complex assignments and summative assessment, and digital correspondences.

Subsequently, it explored that informational support significantly influence the academic resilience and its subscales among undergraduate students. It was also revealed that moderate and high levels of informational support significantly affect academic resilience and its subscales. This facilitates students to receive guidance and understanding towards solving their academic problems while applying for admission, attending their classes, completing their assignment, and to prepare for their exams.

Similarly, esteem support significantly influences the academic resilience and its subscales among undergraduate students. It was further identified that high level of esteem support influence academic resilience and its subscales. On the other hand, moderate levels of esteem support influence academic resilience and its subscales, namely perseverance and reflective and adaptive help seeking. This assisted students to enhance their confidence to deal with varied challenges of academic nature and resiliently overcome them to attain standard performance.

In similar manner, motivational support was found to significantly influence the academic resilience and its subscales among students. It was also recognized that moderate and high levels of motivational support significantly affect academic resilience and its subscales. This encouraged students to deal with varied learning situations and complete their academic tasks in efficient manner.

Also, venting support significantly influence the academic resilience and its subscales among students. The findings further indicated that moderate and high levels of venting support significantly affect academic resilience and its subscales. This enabled students to discuss their problems with their social networks, in hope to not only understand them but also releases their frustrations regarding them and manage their emotional tendencies in constructive manner to attain their academic targets. The findings were aligned with the work of Lady (2021) that students experienced venting support more frequently as it enables them to release their frustrations regarding online learning.

In short, the previous literature focused on the relationship between academic resilience and social support and recognized that optimism (Dawson & Pooley, 2013), life satisfaction (Y𝚤ld𝚤r𝚤m & Tanr𝚤verdi, 2021), and online learning satisfaction (Kumalasari & Akmal, 2021) boosted them. Moreover, Malkoc and Yalcin's (2015) identified that support from friends, family, and significant others ensures psychological well-being among students at higher education.

Conclusion

The results of the current research concluded that social support significantly influenced the academic resilience of students and its subscales. Similarly, the subscales of social support as informational support, esteem support, motivational support, and venting significantly influenced academic resilience and its subscales. These supportive actions enable students to resiliently deal with academic challenges and overcome their negative feelings towards them. This situation paves way for interactive learning activities to enable students to better communicate with their peers and teachers.

Recommendations

On the basis of findings, the following recommendations are presented by the researchers.

1. Supportive behaviors should be encouraged in providing assistance to students during studies.
2. The students must be provided with discussion forums to vent out their academic frustration in order to relieve their stress.
3. Group activities should be incorporated to foster a sense of belongingness and strong communication among peers and teachers.
4. The students must be provided with an interactive learning environment to harness higher order thinking skills which would benefit them in their professional life.

There is a need to provide students with hands-on exercises to harness digital skills among them which are evolving drastically and keeping them up-to-date in terms of knowledge and skills that are considered mandatory.

Conflict of Interest

The author of the manuscript has no financial or non-financial conflict of interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

The data associated with this study will be provided by the corresponding author upon request.