About this session

Saturday, 10:20 AM - 11:50 AM

Exploring Multi-layered Influences on Learning among Children and Adolescents in China

Chinese children and adolescents face significant academic stress throughout their education due to high parental expectations and the intense competition surrounding the College Entrance Examination. Learning is influenced by both internal and external factors and their dynamic interplay. Understanding these multi-layered influences is essential for advancing theories and informing educational practices in China. This symposium investigates factors across multiple layers on learning, including puberty timing, individual characteristics, parenting, and teachers’ feedback, utilizing various research methods and data analyses approaches.

The first paper explored the relationship between puberty timing and academic engagement and performance among Chinese youth, emphasizing the importance of considering both sex and pubertal support when understanding how puberty timing affects these outcomes. The second paper identified developmental trajectories of learning engagement and anxiety among Chinese children under “Double Reduction policy”, explored predictors of these trajectories, and examined their effects on children’s academic performance. These results reveal individual differences in learning engagement and anxiety and underscore the need to tailor intervention to students with varying developmental trajectories. The third paper found that the positive effects of maternal educational involvement on children’s grades and teacher-rated academic performance were only evident when mothers displayed low-controlling behaviors, emphasizing the importance of examining different parenting behaviors together to understand their influence on children’s learning. The fourth paper employed an experimental design to explore how different types of feedback in academic failure situation impacted adolescents’ learning engagement and highlighted the role of students’ own basic needs satisfaction and mastery-oriented goals in shaping these effects.

Paper #1
Title	Joint effects of pubertal timing and pubertal support on school adjustment in Chinese adolescents
Presenting author	Zhiqian Zhang, Beijing Normal University, China

Paper #2
Title	The Joint Development Trajectory of Learning Engagement and Learning Anxiety in Chinese Primary School Students
Presenting author	Yu Xiao, Beijing Forestry University, China

Paper #3
Title	Educational Involvement and Child Academic Outcomes: The Moderating Effect of Maternal Controlling Behaviors
Presenting author	Siman Zhao, Ph.D., University of Dayton, United States

Paper #4
Title	Teacher’s Failure Feedback and Students’ Math Engagement: Examining Students’ Achievement Goal and Basic Needs Satisfaction
Presenting author	Tong Zhou, Shanghai Normal University, China

View all paper details

Session chair
Siman Zhao, Ph.D., University of Dayton, United States

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