Unpacking the Pathway from Teacher Support to Academic Anxiety: Sequential Mediation by Self-Efficacy and Social Media use Among Chinese High School Students.

BackgroundIncreasing attention has been paid to the effect of overprotective parenting style, which is prevalent in China, on academic anxiety among high school students. The present study aims to clarify the intrinsic dynamic mechanism and explore gender heterogeneity in this relationship. We also analyze the mediating roles of self-concept and positive coping style, and identify intervention programs for academic anxiety and psychological disorders from these dynamic connections.MethodsData were analyzed using a stratified whole-cluster random sampling method from a sample of 2,286 high school students aged 14–19 years in three regions of China: Shanxi (n = 784), Hebei (n = 675), and Henan (n = 827). Pearson correlation, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis, path analysis, and Fisher’s permutation test (FPT) were used to examine the effects of overprotective parenting style on high school students’ academic anxiety.ResultsThere was a significant positive predictive effect between overprotective parenting style and high school students’ academic anxiety ( β = 0.848, t = 144.855, p < 0.001). Students’ self-concept was significantly and positively correlated with positive coping style ( β = 0.418, t = 20.720, p < 0.001) and served as mediators in this relationship. Additionally, overprotective parenting style may indirectly alleviate academic anxiety through these mediating factors. Gender variations were also revealed: female students (0.338) showed more negative effects of an overprotective parenting style on academic anxiety compared to male students (0.269).ConclusionThe findings of this study indicate that overprotective parenting style increases the risk of academic anxiety among Chinese high school students. However, this effect is partially mediated by students’ self-concept and positive coping style. Therefore, schools and educational policymakers should consider the interrelationships and interactions when designing intervention strategies for adolescents’ academic anxiety and psychological disorders. The objective is to effectively decrease the occurrence of adverse behavioral outcomes among adolescents.

IntroductionTeacher support is an important external factor that influences students academic self-efficacy, however, the mechanisms of the two factors are not yet fully explored. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether achievement goals and academic emotions could play a chain mediating role between perceived teacher support and academic self-efficacy.MethodsThe study sample was made up of 1,074 Chinese junior high school students, and three structural equation models were constructed using data collected from on questionnaires.ResultsThe findings suggest that achievement goals and academic emotions can mediate the relationship between perceived teacher support and academic selfefficacy. Further analysis revealed that achievement goals and academic emotions may play a chain mediating role between perceived teacher support and academic selfefficacy.DiscussionThese findings provide reference points for further refinement of the mechanism of the role of perceived teacher support on academic self-efficacy. They also serve to remind the teacher on the front line to focus on how to provide adequate teacher support to students in the context of online education, especially with regard to students academic emotions.

Objective: This study examines the structural relationships between perceived teacher support, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement among Chinese high school students. It also verifies the mediating effect of academic self-efficacy. Methods: A survey targeting Chinese high school students was conducted; of 580 total responses, 519 valid responses were analyzed. Perceived teacher support, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement were measured on scales derived from the literature. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0, AMOS 24.0, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling. Bootstrapping was used to verify the mediating effect. Results: Perceived teacher support was positively correlated with academic self-efficacy and learning engagement, while academic self-efficacy was positively correlated with learning engagement. Both relationships reached significance. A partial mediating effect of academic self-efficacy was also identified in the relationship between perceived teacher support and learning engagement. Conclusions: This study empirically confirms the positive effect of perceived teacher support on high school students’ academic self-efficacy and learning engagement, and that academic self-efficacy plays a significant mediating role in this relationship. The study discusses the educational implications and scope for future research based on these findings.

The current study investigates how high school students’ perceived teacher support relates to their academic engagement, drawing on Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) and Conservation of Resources (COR) Theories. It further examined academic self-efficacy’s mediating role and the moderating role of proactive personality. The study used Perceived Teacher Support Behavioral Questionnaire, Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, Proactive Personality Scale, and Academic Engagement Scale to survey 1664 students at a public high school in a county-level city in southeastern Henan Province, China. Findings showed that (1) perceived teacher support positively influenced students’ academic engagement; (2) academic self-efficacy partially mediated this connection; (3) proactive personality moderated the indirect effect, specifically the path from academic self-efficacy to academic engagement. In conclusion, academic self-efficacy acts as a key factor through which perceived teacher support promotes students’ academic engagement. Proactive personality further strengthens the effect of academic self-efficacy on engagement.

This paper focuses on the impact of social media on the body and image anxiety of Chinese high school students. It identified that the impact of social media on the physical and image anxiety of Chinese high school students is significantly different in terms of gender, grade, origin and time. The impact of social media on the physical and image anxiety of Chinese female high school students is higher than that of Chinese male senior high school students. The impact of social media on the physical and image anxiety of high school students in China's first and second tier cities is higher than that of senior high school students in China's third and fourth tier cities, etc. Families and schools should strengthen the correct consciousness and aesthetics of senior high school students, and the society should also establish a social media intervention mechanism.

This study investigated the influence of teacher-student relationship on Chinese high students' academic motivation for the ideological and political subject and the parallel mediating roles of positive and negative academic emotions on this influence. The participants of this study were 425 Chinese high school students. This study measured teacher-student relationship, academic motivation, and academic emotions through several self-reported questionnaires. Structural equation models were used to analyze data and investigate the direct and indirect influence of teacher-student relationship on Chinese high school students' academic motivation for the ideological and political subject. Teacher-student relationship had a significant, positive, and direct impact on Chinese high school students' academic motivation for the ideological and political subject. Moreover, positive and negative academic emotions, in parallel, mediated the relationship between these two factors. This study demonstrates the important influence of teacher-student relationships on Chinese high school students' academic motivation for the ideological and political subject. A positive teacher-student relationship can directly increase students' academic motivation for this subject and indirectly enhance their motivation by generating positive academic emotions. Therefore, teachers should express care for their students, make friends with them, and be their partners in learning and life. Additionally, teachers need to pay close attention to students' academic emotions and provide them emotional support so that they can develop positive academic emotions while learning, and strive to establish and maintain a good teacher-student relationship.

The mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the relationship between external support and performance goals among Chinese high school students: The moderating effect of gender.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare high school students' global literacy level in metropolitan areas of China and the USA.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted a global literacy instrument to surveyed 2,157 New York City (NYC) high school students and 2,220 Chinese high school students. This paper adopted an independent sample t‐test and an ANOVA to identify significant differences regarding demographic features on the Likert‐scale items, and used the Pearson correlation coefficient to explore the degree of association between factors.FindingsFrom this global literacy scale, compared with NYC high school students, Chinese students have greater awareness of comprehending and appreciating cross‐cultural perspectives, becoming global citizens, and exhibited greater approval of the performance of their own country's interconnectedness and interdependence with other countries. Students in the two countries exhibited similar confidence in using new literacies.Practical implicationsStudents would pay close attention to global issues if they were aware of how these issues affect their daily life and future. With critical‐thinking abilities, students would be in a better position to make decisions that contribute to the common good. With awareness of diverse cultures, students could learn the values, strengths, and weaknesses of people. With fluency in new literacies, students could research and analyze information from multiple resources, and collaborate with others through the use of technology.Originality/valueThis paper profiles the global literacy of US and Chinese high school students, describes factors correlated with both US and Chinese students' global literacy, and suggests students' preferences regarding “global education”‐related activities.

As technology popularizes and advances by leaps and bounds, social media has become an increasing part of teenagers lives. Social media use can shape mentality and change people's behavior, which may lead to social appearance anxiety. Adolescents are exposed to messages containing certain characteristics when browsing social networks, such as the tendency of people to show their relatively perfect body image on social media, producing low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence issues. Individuals with social appearance anxiety typically hold negative views of their bodies and appearance, and they often try to hide features or body parts that they dislike. Combining with Social Comparison Theory, people tend to compare themselves to other people, including comparing their looks to those celebrities we see on social media platforms. Such a trend is particularly pronounced and on the rise among adolescent females. Drawing on Self-Objectification Theory, the research examines how social media affects the level of Chinese female high school students' social appearance anxiety, using Little Red Book, a common social media used by the Chinese youth population, as an example. The paper uses online case study of self-reports and online questionnaire survey to analyze the present days social appearance anxiety issue among Chinese high school students in the society. The context of this essay includes the cause and effect of social appearance anxiety due to social media; correlation studies and analyses of appearance concerns are relevant to online activities, especially selfies related that receive through social media.

In the current educational context, student engagement serves as a key indicator of both teaching quality and overall educational effectiveness in senior high school education. This study employed structural equation modeling to analyze the self-report questionnaire data from 314 Chinese senior high school students, aiming to examine the relationship between perceived teacher support and student engagement in English classrooms as well as the mediating role of learning motivation (intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation). The results indicate that perceived teacher support, learning motivation, and student engagement in English learning are generally moderate to high. There is a positive correlation between teacher support, learning motivation, and student engagement. Teacher support significantly predicts student engagement yet learning motivation plays a mediating role in this relationship, with intrinsic motivation having a greater mediating effect than extrinsic motivation. These findings provide valuable insights into how teacher support influences student motivation and engagement, offering practical strategies for improving instructional approaches in senior high school English education.

Perceived teacher support and creative self-efficacy: The mediating roles of autonomous motivation and achievement emotions in Chinese junior high school students

Situational engagement plays a critical role in promoting students' academic performance. In a smart classroom environment, this study collected longitudinal real‐time data for 105 college students at a university in central China to investigate the relationship among situational engagement, personal characteristics and learning environment perceptions. Hierarchical linear modelling showed that environmental perception and students' personal factors have different effects on situational engagement. Specifically, (1) social support perceptions, autonomous motivation and controlled motivation have a significant impact on behavioural engagement; (2) perceptions of social and media support, autonomous motivation and controlled motivation have a significant impact on shallow cognitive engagement; and (3) perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation significantly predict deep cognitive and emotional engagement. This study suggests that the effect of the perception regarding advanced technology‐supported learning environments on students' situational engagement is limited, and instructors should pay more attention to improving students' perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation to promote students' situational deep cognitive engagement in smart classrooms. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Compared with overall engagement, situational engagement fluctuates and changes with time and context. Situational engagement is a product of environmental and personal factors. Few studies have focused on the nature of situational engagement and how environmental and personal factors influence situational engagement in smart classrooms. What the paper adds This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the critical factors that predict situational engagement, using the experience sampling method in a smart classroom at a Chinese university. Environmental perception, self‐efficacy and students' motivation factors have different effects on situational engagement in a smart classroom. Perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation significantly predict deep cognitive and emotional engagement, while perceptions of media support only have a significant impact on shallow cognitive engagement. Personal factors (controlled and autonomous motivation) moderate the relationship between environmental perception factors and situational engagement. Implications for practice and/or policy Rather than only providing external technology‐rich conditions, instructors should focus more on improving students' perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation in the smart classroom environment. Instructors should promote students' perception of teacher support and their autonomous motivation to enhance their deep cognitive engagement.

Studies in western countries have identified that the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence can follow different pathways. The goal of the current study was to characterize developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms and variation in trajectories by gender among Chinese high school students. Anonymous surveys were collected from 1023 high school students [51% female; mean age, 16.29 (range, 14–19) years] in Hunan, China. Four distinct longitudinal patterns were identified. The four classes of “Moderately stable” Class, “High persistent” Class, “Low decreasing” Class and “Very Low decreasing” Class accounted for 19.6%, 6.0%, 36.5% and 38.0% of the total sample respectively. Adolescents’ depressive symptoms in the four groups did not fluctuate significantly over time. Moreover, our results suggested that although Chinese females were more likely to be members of all four groups, females were only significantly more likely than males to be members of the “Moderately stable” Class. First, the frequency and stability of adolescent depressive symptoms among Chinese high school students was relatively high compared to mid-adolescents in western countries. Second, trajectories of depressive symptoms in Chinese mid-adolescents showed meaningful heterogeneity related to four latent classes. Finally, Chinese female high school students were more likely to report higher levels of depressive symptoms than male high school students.

Chinese high school students' career development: Associations with academic self-efficacy and motivation

"Teacher-student relationship and academic engagement" have always been important parts of research. Nevertheless, for Chinese high school students, teacher-student relationships can influence on their academic engagement importantly. The research results indicate that teacher-student rapport significantly enhances the academic engagement of Chinese high school students. Based on the findings, the researcher encourages teachers to pay more attention to marginalized students in the classroom. As there are many external influences in the study, such as class size, family background, and psychological factors. Through the interviews, class size was the main reason why not every student was able to establish a positive teacher-student relationship. Because it holds the limitations of classroom size, a 45-minute classroom makes it difficult for teachers to focus on every student. Policy makers need to reduce classroom size is the key to solving the problem. In summary, this study provides important insights into the impact of teacher-student relationships on Chinese high school students' academic engagement.