Classroom environment and learning engagement in mental health education courses: prospective indirect associations through two dimensions of grit among first-year students in East China

This study examines prospective associations among classroom environment, perseverance of effort (POE), consistency of interest (COI), and learning engagement in mental health education courses (MHEC). Participants were 468 first-year students from three schools at a university in East China. A three-wave time-lagged survey measured classroom environment at T1, the two grit dimensions at T2, and learning engagement at T3. Because each construct was measured only once and baseline levels were not controlled, the design establishes temporal separation but does not constitute a fully longitudinal mediation design or support causal inference. Structural equation modeling indicated that classroom environment and POE were positively associated with learning engagement, whereas the unique association between COI and learning engagement was not statistically significant. Bias-corrected bootstrap analysis showed a significant prospective indirect association through POE, but not through COI. Because the two specific indirect effects were not formally contrasted, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary evidence of dimension-specific patterns rather than evidence that the two indirect pathways differ significantly.