Examining the effect of teacher support on student engagement in rural elementary schools: the role of self-esteem as a mediator and moderator.

Student engagement is an important variable in the quality of learning, but many elementary school students show low engagement, especially in rural areas with limited access to external support. This study aims to examine the influence of teacher support on the engagement of elementary school students in rural areas, with self-esteem tested simultaneously as both a mediator and moderator in a single integrated structural model. An empirical investigation employing a cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. Data were collected from 240 students in grades IV, V, and VI at four public elementary schools in rural areas using total sampling technique. The research instrument consisted of an 11-item four-point Likert scale questionnaire that had been validated. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) thru SmartPLS 4 with a bootstrapping procedure of 5,000 subsamples. The research results show that teacher support has a positive and significant direct effect on student engagement (β = 0.699) and on self-esteem (β = 0.744), while self-esteem demonstrates a significant impact on student engagement (β = 0.251). Self-esteem has been proven to function as a partial mediator in the relationship between teacher support and student engagement (indirect effect = 0.187), while its moderating role has not been proven significant (β = 0.006; p = 0.828). These findings prove that teacher support operates thru layered mechanisms in shaping student engagement. This research contributes thru a dual-role self-esteem model within an integrated structural framework, while also providing empirical guidance for designing interventions that combine strengthening teachers' interpersonal competencies with self-esteem-based programs to maximize student engagement in the context of rural education.