Perceived parental warmth and adolescents' math engagement in China: The mediating roles of need satisfaction and math self-efficacy

The correlations between parental warmth and children's approaches to learning: a moderated mediation model of self-efficacy and teacher-child closeness

Researchers have increasingly considered approaches to learning (ATL) a key indicator of school readiness. Our study purposed to examine the impacts of parental warmth on children's approaches to learning, and the mediating role of self-efficacy, as well as the moderating role of teacher-child closeness in this relationship. Using a whole-group sampling method, 414 Chinese children aged 5-6 years participated this research together with their parents and teachers. Parents of those children were asked to fill out in person questionnaires on parental warmth, children's approaches to learning, and self-efficacy. Children's teachers completed the questionnaire regarding teacher-child closeness. Results indicated that children with high parental warmth were more likely to get high approaches to learning and their self-efficacy played a partial mediating role in this link. In addition, teacher-child closeness moderated the correlation between parental warmth and children's self-efficacy. Specifically, the association between parental warmth and children's self-efficacy was stronger for children with high teacher-child closeness than those with low teacher-child closeness. The results extend our understanding of how parental warmth affects children's approaches to learning, revealing that strategies that could enhance self-efficacy would be effective in improving children's approaches to learning.

Mindset and perceived parental support of autonomy safeguard adolescents' autonomous motivation during COVID-19 home-based learning

During school closures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, less support from peers and teachers may have required more autonomous motivation from adolescents. Little is known about factors that could shield against these negative effects. Driven by two influential motivational theories, we examined how mindset, feelings of school burnout and the three basic psychological needs of the self-determination theory, could predict changes in autonomous motivation when controlling for pre-pandemic levels of motivation. The results from a sample of Dutch adolescents (M_age = 14.63 years) and their parents (M_age = 48.65 years) showed that endorsing a growth mindset was positively associated with autonomous motivation during the school closures, while feelings of school burnout were negatively associated with autonomous motivation. Additionally, perceived parental autonomy support (i.e. a measure of the basic psychological need of autonomy) related to more autonomous motivation during home-based learning. Our findings highlight the personal and family factors that influence how adolescents respond to home-based learning and suggest ways to keep adolescents motivated and diminish possible negative consequences during future home-based learning situations.

The Role of Opportunity to Learn on Student Mathematics Anxiety, Problem-Solving Performance, and Mathematics Performance

This study examined the effects of opportunity to learn (OTL) or the content coverage in mathematics on student mathematics anxiety, problem-solving performance, and mathematics performance. The pathways examining the influences of OTL on student problem-solving performance and mathematics performance via mathematics anxiety were also tested. A sample of 1,676 students from Shanghai-China, and a sample of 1,511 students from the United States who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 were used for the analyses. The results from multilevel models and path models supported our hypotheses that OTL not only showed significant direct effects on student mathematics anxiety, problem-solving performance, and mathematics performance, but also presented indirect effects on student problem-solving performance and mathematics performance via mathematics anxiety in both Shanghai-China and United States, controlling for student gender, grade, and socioeconomic status. The practical implications of the current results were also discussed.