Abstract
This study explored the mediating effects of resilience and future orientation on the relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and learning engagement within the context of Chinese culture based on the cognitive theory of social class. A total of 1,245 junior high school students were recruited to complete anonymous questionnaires regarding the objective and subjective SES of their families, resilience, future orientation, and learning engagement. The mediating effects were tested by stepped multiple linear regression. Results indicated the following: (1) the relationships between objective and subjective SES, resilience, future orientation, and learning engagement was significantly positive; (2) resilience only mediated the relationship between subjective SES and learning engagement, whereas future orientation mediated the relationships between objective/subjective SES and learning engagement; (3) resilience and future orientation sequentially mediated the relationship between subjective SES and learning engagement. The current study contributes to a better understanding of how family SES influences adolescent academic performance from the perspective of adolescent cognitive abilities. In addition, this study provides implications for the prevention and intervention of academic performance of poor adolescents due to low SES.
Highlights
Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to the rank or prestige of an individual in relation to others or their access to material and social resources and goods (Matthews and Gallo, 2011)
Learning engagement has a moderate correlation with resilience and future orientation; this indicates that both objective and subjective SES is closely related to learning engagement, providing a theoretical basis for the further analysis of the shown mediating effect
The results of social comparisons can result in a cognitive evaluation that one is superior or inferior to others. This is likely to trigger the emotional responses of an individual and, further influence the judgment and behavior of the individual (Gong and Zhang, 2020). These results suggest that the higher the subjective SES, the greater the chance that adolescents may achieve a similar superiority of their family in terms of economic and cultural resources
Summary
Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to the rank or prestige of an individual in relation to others or their access to material and social resources and goods (Matthews and Gallo, 2011). It contains both subjective and objective aspects. Numerous studies have indicated that family SES weighs heavily on the academic achievement of an individual. Other studies have indicated that adolescents with low SES have less learning motivation and higher dropout rates (Sirin, 2005; Cheadle, 2008).
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