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The relationships between perceived teacher autonomy support, academic self-efficacy and learning engagement among primary school students: A network analysis

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Abstract

Learning engagement is malleable to environmental change. An important learning environment created by teacher-student interactions is perceived teacher autonomy support, which may trigger learning engagement directly and/or indirectly by enhancing academic self-efficacy. In this study, we apply a network approach to explore the relationships between the specific facets of perceived teacher autonomy support, academic self-efficacy and learning engagement, and a sample consisting of 215 students in the fifth and sixth grades from a primary school in Changchun of China is used. Node centrality indicators and the accuracy and stability of the network are also calculated. The results reveal that there are no edges between the three facets of perceived teacher autonomy support and the three facets of learning engagement, and the shortest path connecting the two constructs is through academic ability self-efficacy. Furthermore, learning support, academic ability self-efficacy, and dedication have the top three strengths in the network, which indicates that the three facets are more closely related to other facets of the network.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11871013) and Ministry of Education Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Science Research (No. 16JZD050).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, 5268 Renmin Street, Changchun, Jilin Province, China

    Zixu Hu, Na Shan & Runkai Jiao

  2. Key Laboratory of Applied Statistics of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China

    Na Shan

  3. National Training Center for Kindergarten Principals of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China

    Runkai Jiao

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  1. Zixu Hu
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Correspondence to Na Shan.

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Current themes of research:

Zixu Hu: Self-efficacy. Learning engagement. Network analysis.

Na Shan: Network analysis. Causal inference. Item response theory.

Runkai Jiao: Self-determination theory. Occupational Engagement.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Zixu Hu: No previous publications.

Na Shan: No previous publications.

Runkai Jiao: Wang, P., Zhang, L., Wang, X., Geng, J., Gao, X., Ma, J., & Jiao, R. (2018). Career exploration and decision self-efficacy scale: factorial structure and validity. Journal of College Student Development, 59(4), 475–478. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2018.0043

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Hu, Z., Shan, N. & Jiao, R. The relationships between perceived teacher autonomy support, academic self-efficacy and learning engagement among primary school students: A network analysis. Eur J Psychol Educ 39, 503–516 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-023-00703-7

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