The Impact of Learning Self-efficacy on Social Support towards Learned Helplessness in China

Chia-Ching Tu,Shaowei Wu

doi:10.29333/ejmste/115457

Abstract

This study explored the moderating role of social support between learning self-efficacy and learned helplessness in higher vocational students in Henan Province, People’s Republic of China. The Learning Self-Efficacy Scale, Social Support Scale, and Learned Helplessness Scale were adopted to conduct questionnaire surveys, which involved 1,067 students in five Chinese higher vocational colleges. A hierarchical regression model was used to analyze the role of social support in moderating the relationship between learning self-efficacy and learned helplessness. This study observed that learning self-efficacy had a negative effect on learned helplessness and that social support played a moderating role between learning self-efficacy and learned helplessness in the students.

Highlights

Learned helplessness has long troubled education systems and is an increasingly prominent and real problem in higher vocational education in the People’s Republic of China along with constant expansion of higher vocational education, increasing numbers of students, and profound changes in the enrollment quality and structure of higher vocational students in recent years (Zhou, 2016)
According to the literature review, social support was set as the moderator variable, learning self-efficacy was set as the independent variable, and learned helplessness was set as the dependent variable in this study to establish a regression model
Hierarchical regression analysis was adopted to examine the role of social support in moderating learning self-efficacy and learned helplessness for higher vocational students

Summary

Introduction

Learned helplessness has long troubled education systems and is an increasingly prominent and real problem in higher vocational education in the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as China) along with constant expansion of higher vocational education, increasing numbers of students, and profound changes in the enrollment quality and structure of higher vocational students in recent years (Zhou, 2016). Real-life observations and surveys have indicated that higher vocational students in China are a typical group of people with learned helplessness (Qian & Wang, 2015). The mentality of learned helplessness may eventually cause severe negative consequences for individuals. Psychological discomfort derived from learned helplessness causes adolescent college students to feel confused, spiritually empty, and pessimistic, and they eventually form incorrect outlooks on life and values (Jiang & Yang, 2019). This phenomenon may adversely affect talent cultivation in Chinese higher vocational education (Zhou, 2016). According to the aforementioned background and the consequences of learned helplessness, considerable attention should be paid to learned helplessness within Chinese education

Methods

Results

Conclusion