Impact of gender on adult learners’ academic engagement, learning interests, and psychological well-being

Adult learners’ academic engagement, learning interests, and psychological well-being in relation to their gender impact their learning outcomes. This study investigates the impact of gender on adult learners’ academic interest, engagement, and psychological well-being at the Sandwich programme and the Institute of Part-time Studies of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria. Underpinned by the Gender Perspective Theory, this study adopts the quantitative research design of the survey type. Undergraduate students at this Sandwich Programme and the Institutes of Part-Time Studies constituted this study’s population. A total of 387 students constituted the sample for this study. The Adult Learners’ Gender, Psychological Well-being, Data was gathered using the Adult Learners’ Gender, Psychological Well-being, Academic Engagement and Learning Interest Questionnaire (ALGPWAELIQ); with the three sub-sections of the instrument PWS, AES, and LIS having Cronbach's alpha values of 0.77, 0.88, and 0.87, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the study's data at a significance level of 5%. The findings showed that adult learners have moderate levels of learning interests, academic engagement, and psychological wellbeing. A positive association exists among adult learners’ psychological well-being, academic engagement, and learning interests (r =0.66, p<.01). Adult learners’ gender, in favour of males, significantly influences their psychological well-being (F(1, 385) = 11.464, p =.000, η² =.029), but not their academic engagement (F = 1.970, p =.161,η² =.005) and learning interests (F = 0.025, p =.876, η² =.000). The study recommends that supportive learning environments that foster open communication, respect, and empathy should be provided for all adult learners irrespective of their gender and the use of inclusive teaching methods and flexible learning options to accommodate diverse needs and life circumstances of adult learners be encouraged and advanced; amongst others.