Factors associated with academic resilience in disadvantaged students: An analysis based on the PISA 2015 B-S-J-G (China) sample.

Academic resilience is evident in students who are living in vulnerable environments, yet achieve success in academic outcomes. As a result, substantial attention has been devoted to identifying the factors associated with academic resilience and supporting students to be resilient. This study used the Classification and Regression Tree and Multilevel Logistic Regression modeling to identify the potential factors related to students' academic resilience. Using these tools, the study analyzed the B-S-J-G (China) sample in PISA 2015. The variables that significantly predicted whether a student is disadvantaged and resilient (DRS) or not resilient (DNRS) were shown to be: Proportion of teachers in school with master's degrees, Proportion of teachers in school with bachelor's degrees, Environmental awareness, Science learning time per week, Number of learning domains with additional instruction, and Students' expected occupational status. These findings may enlighten governments, teachers, and parents on ways to assist students to be resilient.

Association Between Social Support and Job Satisfaction Among Mainland Chinese Ethnic Minority Kindergarten Teachers: The Mediation of Self-Efficacy and Work Engagement.

Grounded on the social exchange theory (SET), social cognitive theory (SCT), and self-determination theory (SDT), this study aims to explore the mediating role of self-efficacy (SE) and work engagement (WE) on the effect of social support (SS) on job satisfaction (JS) among Chinese ethnic minority kindergarten teachers (KTs). The results show that: (1) SS has a directly significant effect on JS; (2) WE mediates the relationship between SS and JS; and (3) SE mediates the relationship between SS and WE. Although the mediation of SE on the relationship between SS and JS is not found, the posited multiple mediations of SE and WE on the relationship between SS and JS are totally accepted. The results reveal that SS mainland Chinese ethnic minority KTs received can not only have a direct effect on JS but also have an indirect impact through the one-path mediating role of WE and the chain mediating role of SE and WE. The results suggest that governments, supervisors, and sponsors should work together to provide ethnic minority KTs with more prioritized SS from both cultural psychology and financial material and opportunities for facilitating professional knowledge and skills in order to enhance their SE, inspire their WE, and eventually accumulate their JS.

The Use of Smartphone Fitness Applications: The Role of Self-Efficacy and Self-Regulation.

With the popularity of the health and wellness trend in recent years, smartphone fitness applications have become more and more popular. Thus, this study explored factors affecting the behavioral intention to use and the actual usage behavior of smartphone fitness apps from technical, health, and social perspectives by integrating the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). We examined whether perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, social influence, self-efficacy, goal-setting, and self-monitoring predict usage behavior. Based on the survey responses of 1066 smartphone fitness apps users, we revealed that all of the variables, except for self-monitoring, significantly influence usage behavior, while behavioral intention acts as a total mediator between perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use and usage behavior. Drawing on the research findings, we suggest that influencing behavioral intention to use a fitness app can be an effective method to increase its adoption. Therefore, app developers need to pay attention to interventions that seek to enhance the usefulness of the app, provide professional counseling, as well as an opportunity for effortless goal setting features.

Social Support and Academic Achievement of Chinese Low-Income Children: A Mediation Effect of Academic Resilience.

Using nation-wide survey data (N=2328) from China, this study investigates how social support from family, peers, and teachers influence low-income household children's (from 13 to 15 years old) academic resilience, as well as how academic resilience mediates the relationship between social support and children's academic achievement. Structural equation modelling was adopted to analyse the data. The results reveal that (1) low-income household children's family, peer, and teacher support are associated with their academic resilience; (2) peer support and academic resilience of low-income household children significantly relate with their academic achievements; (3) academic resilience plays a full mediation role in teacher support and a partial mediation role in peer support on children's academic achievement. The implications of this study on theory and practice, the limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Utilizando datos de encuestas a nivel nacional (N = 2328) de China, este estudio investiga cómo el apoyo social de la familia, los compañeros y los maestros influyen en la resiliencia académica de los niños de bajos ingresos (de 13 a 15 años), así como la resiliencia académica interviene en la relación entre el apoyo social y el rendimiento académico de los niños. Se adoptó el modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para analizar los datos. Los resultados revelan que (1) el apoyo familiar, de pares y de maestros de niños de bajos ingresos en el hogar está asociado con su capacidad de resilencia académica; (2) el apoyo entre pares y la resilencia académica de los niños de hogares de bajos ingresos se relacionan significativamente con sus logros académicos; (3) la capacidad de resilencia académica desempeña un papel de mediación total en el apoyo del maestro y un papel de mediación parcial en el apoyo de los compañeros en el rendimiento académico de los niños. Se discuten las implicaciones de este estudio en la teoría y la práctica, además de las limitaciones y las futuras direcciones de investigación.