Ruoxuan Li

This study examined the role of academic self-concept, mastery goals, and academic emotions as mediators in the relationship between perceived teacher autonomy support and student engagement in maths and literacy domains. Questionnaires completed by 854 students in Grades 4 and 5 in China show that perceived teacher autonomy support positively related to students’ behavioural and cognitive engagement in learning both maths and literacy; however, the mechanisms of these relationships varied in the two subjects. When learning maths, perceived teacher autonomy support positively related to student engagement mainly through academic self-concept, mastery goals, and academic emotions; but when learning literacy, perceived teacher autonomy support directly related to student engagement and indirectly via academic self-concept. Moreover, enjoyment was more closely linked with maths engagement than literacy engagement. Findings contribute to understanding how teacher autonomy support influences maths and literacy learning and highlight the necessity to provide subject-specific guidance for future educational intervention.

In the current study, variable- and person-centered approaches were simultaneously adopted to investigate the relations among perceived parental autonomy support and psychological control, the Dark Triad traits, and subjective well-being (SWB) among Chinese adolescents (N = 1,533). Results showed that autonomy support from parents primarily contributed to narcissism, whereas psychological control predicted all the Dark Triad traits, which in turn had reversed effects on adolescents’ SWB. In particular, narcissism had more prominent effects on SWB and important mediating effects in the relation between parent autonomy support and psychological control and SWB. Four distinct Dark Triad traits groups were identified, and the characteristics of these groups suggested that Machiavellianism was more strongly related to psychopathy relative to narcissism; moreover, the four groups demonstrated different links with parental autonomy support and psychological control and SWB, further supporting the results noted above. Implications for theory and practice are included.

Regulatory focus may shape the manner in which students perceive and respond to learning environments and then further influence their attitudes and behaviors. In the current study, 1487 adolescents in China were surveyed to illuminate the relationship between regulatory focus and learning engagement. The results showed that promotion focus was a positive predictor of learning engagement, whereas prevention focus was a negative predictor. Both academic self-efficacy and depression mediated the relationship between the two foci and learning engagement. Moreover, five regulatory focus profiles identified by adopting a person-centered approach were found to relate to academic self-efficacy, depression, and learning engagement in various ways. Compared with other profiles, the one with high promotion focus and low prevention focus showed higher academic self-efficacy and lower depression and, in turn, demonstrated greater learning engagement, suggesting that such a profile may be the most beneficial for adolescent development.