Qu Yang, Pomerantz Eva M
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2015 Nov;44(11):2095-109. doi: 10.1007/s10964-014-0201-0. Epub 2014 Oct 30.
There is increasing concern that American children are not achieving at their full potential. A particular point of risk is early adolescence when American children often view school as less valuable, becoming less engaged as well. Initial research in China does not find such a trend. The goal of the current research was to elucidate why the movement away from school evident in the United States does not appear to be evident in China. 4 times over the 7th and 8th grades, 825 (48 % female) American and Chinese children (mean age = 12.73 years) reported on the value they place on school and their engagement (i.e., use of self-regulated learning strategies) in school. They also reported on their sense of responsibility to parents (e.g., feelings of obligation to parents), parents' involvement in their learning, and their autonomous motivation in school. A decline in American but not Chinese children's sense of responsibility to parents accounted for divergent trajectories in the value they place on school and their engagement in school over the seventh and eighth grades. Neither parents' involvement nor children's autonomous motivation played a mediating role. The findings suggest that maintaining American children's sense of responsibility to parents during early adolescence may protect children from moving away from school.
越来越多的人担心美国儿童没有充分发挥他们的潜力。一个特别的风险点是青春期早期，此时美国儿童常常认为上学没那么重要，参与度也随之降低。中国的初步研究并未发现这种趋势。当前研究的目的是阐明为何在美国明显存在的远离学校的现象在中国似乎并不明显。在七年级和八年级期间，825名美国和中国儿童（平均年龄 = 12.73岁，其中48%为女性）分4次报告了他们对学校的重视程度以及在学校的参与度（即自我调节学习策略的使用情况）。他们还报告了对父母的责任感（例如，对父母的义务感）、父母对他们学习的参与度以及他们在学校的自主学习动机。美国儿童而非中国儿童对父母责任感的下降，解释了他们在七年级和八年级期间对学校重视程度和学校参与度的不同轨迹。父母的参与度和儿童的自主学习动机均未起到中介作用。研究结果表明，在青春期早期保持美国儿童对父母的责任感，可能会防止儿童远离学校。
