Zhang Feng, Xu Xiaodan, Peng Wei, Guo Cheng
Institute of Applied Psychology, Psychological Research and Counseling Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China.
School of Arts and Communication, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2024 Oct 1;14(10):888. doi: 10.3390/bs14100888.
Rural adolescents are at higher risk of reduced academic persistence due to socioeconomic barriers. Educational expectations are theoretically viewed as important for adolescents' learning behaviors, and cross-sectional research has supported this assumption. However, few longitudinal studies have investigated the influence of educational expectations on adolescents' academic persistence. In addition, research has not clearly identified whether self-esteem moderates this link among adolescents who experience greater economic risk. Using data from two time points (i.e., six months apart), this study aims to provide a more complete understanding of whether, and under what conditions, rural adolescents' educational expectations influence academic persistence. The participants consist of 631 adolescents ( = 13.34 years at T1), and all the adolescents are from families with rural household registrations. The results show that the interaction term of educational expectations and self-esteem significantly predicts academic persistence. Specifically, after controlling for baseline academic persistence, educational expectations positively predict later academic persistence for rural adolescents with lower self-esteem, and educational expectations do not significantly predict later academic persistence for those with higher self-esteem. This study reveals the protective role of self-esteem in rural adolescents. High self-esteem benefits rural adolescents by protecting them from the effects of lower educational expectations on academic persistence. This finding also emphasizes the importance of developing self-esteem interventions for rural adolescents with low educational expectations to prevent them from experiencing weaker academic persistence.
由于社会经济障碍，农村青少年学业坚持性降低的风险更高。从理论上讲，教育期望对青少年的学习行为很重要，横断面研究也支持了这一假设。然而，很少有纵向研究调查教育期望对青少年学业坚持性的影响。此外，对于经历更大经济风险的青少年，研究尚未明确确定自尊是否会调节这种联系。本研究利用两个时间点（即相隔六个月）的数据，旨在更全面地了解农村青少年的教育期望是否以及在何种条件下会影响学业坚持性。参与者包括631名青少年（T1时平均年龄为13.34岁），所有青少年均来自农村户籍家庭。结果表明，教育期望和自尊的交互项显著预测学业坚持性。具体而言，在控制了基线学业坚持性之后，教育期望对自尊较低的农村青少年后期学业坚持性有正向预测作用，而对自尊较高的青少年后期学业坚持性没有显著预测作用。本研究揭示了自尊在农村青少年中的保护作用。高自尊通过保护农村青少年免受较低教育期望对学业坚持性的影响而使其受益。这一发现还强调了为教育期望较低的农村青少年开展自尊干预措施的重要性，以防止他们经历较弱的学业坚持性。
