Meilin Yao

• Beijing Normal University

Accurate parental praise and criticism congruent with child performance—often ignored—might have lasting impacts on child development. This study explored whether the levels of the accuracy (from deflated to accurate to inflated) of parental praise and criticism perceived by children linked to a risk for their maladjustment (i.e., showing negative...

Assisting adolescents in cultivating a positive self-concept and leading fulfilling lives is paramount. Supported by longitudinal data from 512 Chinese adolescents, the researchers investigated not only the reciprocal associations between two types of self-concept—academic and physical abilities—and life satisfaction but also the roles of perceived...

The purpose of this study was to address the role of social comparison in determining individual development by exploring the relationship of four types of social comparison with academic persistence‒procrastination and subjective well-being among Chinese adolescents (n = 530, Mage = 14.59) from both variable- and person-centered perspectives. Resu...

Learning interest (internal driving motivation) and learning persistence (explicit behaviors) are important factors affecting students’ academic development, yet whether they operate reciprocally and how to bolster them are still issues requiring attention. This study aimed to examine the reciprocal relationship between learning interest and persis...

Purpose Drawing upon the cognitive-behavioral model of pathological Internet use (PIU) and tunnel effect, this study aimed to construct a moderated mediation model from the perspective of social ecology. Specifically, the model investigated the relationship between perceived social mobility and smartphone dependence, with a focus on the mediating r...

Previous researchers have suggested the influence of parents’ and teachers’ social support on adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB) without addressing the possible role of the academic process. In this longitudinal study we constructed a chain-mediated model to examine whether cognitive regulatory learning (i.e., cognitive focusing and metacogni...

Given the importance of teacher attrition, researchers have used various methods to investigate reasons that teachers want to leave their profession; but little attention has been paid to distinguishing and comparing the contributions of a range of factors to teachers' turnover intention and to investigating and clarifying the potential moderating...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how motivational beliefs—teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) and teachers’ sense of responsibility (TSR)—related to well-being outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction and teacher burnout) among young Chinese teachers. A total of 1,821 teachers (Mage = 27.35, SD = 2.83) were surveyed and the results showed...

Based on the theory of social comparison and intergenerational learning, parents’ social comparison, occurring frequently in families during the process of education, may play a critical role in determining their children’s academic adjustment. Few researchers have explored this issue, let alone the multiple types of parent social comparison and th...

The purpose of this study was to improve understanding of the relationship between teacher engagement and self-efficacy by investigating the potential mediating role of participation in continuing professional development (CPD) and the moderating role of years of teaching experience. The study was cross-designed with self-reported measurements from...

Based on the self-determination theory (SDT), this study used a mixed-methods (i.e., quantitative and qualitative approaches) design to explore the role of basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) played in sustained volunteering. Quantitative analysis of 803 college student volunteers revealed that competence and relatedness need satisfaction...

Whether and how social comparison exacerbates or guards against depression in adolescents is an important issue. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of academic social comparison with adolescent depression and the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction. The results derived from a sample of 1348 Chinese adolesc...

The low retention rate and lack of long-term blood donors are still worldwide problems, and the fostering and retaining of more blood donors has posed an urgent problem that requires a solution. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of functional motivation and blood donor stage in the future intention to donate blood. Three sites in Ch...

This study was designed to examine how achievement goals, burnout, and school context relate to beginning teachers' turnover intention in China (n = 1028). Results showed that mastery goals and performance-avoidance goals, respectively, were negatively and positively related to teachers' turnover intention because of burnout. The mediating effect o...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether young teachers’ Big Five personality traits relate to work engagement and job satisfaction directly and indirectly via teaching style, specifically autonomy-supportive and controlling styles. A total of 1887 Chinese teachers (Mage = 27.30, SD = 2.93) completed an online questionnaire. Results fro...

The purpose of this study was to examine (a) whether social support relates to subjective well-being (SWB) directly and indirectly through emotion regulation (including cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and prosocial behavior in adolescents and (b) whether such associations differ across gender. A total of 512 Chinese adolescents ra...

As a form of experiential education, service learning (SL) shows great potential for promoting students' knowledge transfer as it offers students opportunities to apply what they have learned in classrooms to serve communities in real-life contexts. To explore how students' knowledge transfer evolves during SL, we collected longitudinal survey data...

This study examined the role of academic self-concept, mastery goals, and academic emotions as mediators in the relationship between perceived teacher autonomy support and student engagement in maths and literacy domains. Questionnaires completed by 854 students in Grades 4 and 5 in China show that perceived teacher autonomy support positively rela...

Parental involvement in education has been positively associated with children’s academic development and well-being, but whether high parental involvement, regardless of its form, always yields desirable results in adolescent development remains debatable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the integral contributions of parental involvem...

The current study was designed to assess the association between the profiles of basic need satisfaction and frustration and SNSs-related outcomes among Chinese university students from the perspective of self-determination theory (SDT)(N = 491). LPA identified four profiles: unsatisfied and frustrated, satisfied and un-frustrated, average, satisfi...

The current study was designed to investigate the relationships among autonomy support, psychological control, coping style, and loneliness, especially the difference among those relationships in victims and nonvictims of bullying in school. In total 2969 Chinese adolescents participated in a survey (Mage = 15.48, SD = 1.59), and results indicated...

In the current study, variable- and person-centered approaches were simultaneously adopted to investigate the relations among perceived parental autonomy support and psychological control, the Dark Triad traits, and subjective well-being (SWB) among Chinese adolescents ( N = 1,533). Results showed that autonomy support from parents primarily contri...

Most of previous studies on autonomy support were based on variable-centered approach (e.g., investigating the effects of specific autonomy support on some outcomes). The present study adopted person-centered approach to explore the associations among parents’ autonomy support, head teacher’s autonomy support, subjective well-being and loneliness....

Although regulatory focus has been found to be associated with various variables (e.g., personality, self-esteem, and life satisfaction), relatively little is known about how promotion focus and prevention focus, two forms of regulatory focus, operate within the individual and how combinations of these two foci work. In this research types of regul...

Previous studies have examined the effects of service-learning on student outcomes, but the dynamics and the mechanism of student development have received little attention. The present study aims to investigate how students construct their understanding of course content through service-learning, as well as the role of varied experiences. Eighty-f...

Regulatory focus may shape the manner in which students perceive and respond to learning environments and then further influence their attitudes and behaviors. In the current study, 1487 adolescents in China were surveyed to illuminate the relationship between regulatory focus and learning engagement. The results showed that promotion focus was a p...

Although previous research has suggested that regulatory focus may exert considerable impacts on individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB), little research has explored the mechanism for this relation and the potential gender difference. The current study investigated the potential mediating effects of coping styles on the relationship between regul...

Service participation plays a critical role in adolescent development. To explore the characteristics of Chinese adolescents’ service participation, a national survey (N = 6161 adolescents) was conducted in mainland China. Findings indicated that: (i) Chinese adolescents mostly participated in routine service activities within school, and the quali...

This study aimed to examine the effects of different service experiences on the social justice beliefs of 60 Chinese college students with mixed methods. The quantitative results indicated that the participants in two service groups (i.e. for at-risk adolescents and adolescents with cerebral palsy) demonstrated a more significant promotion of socia...

Service-learning (SL) is a form of experiential education which promotes student learning through community service and critical reflection. This study aims to examine the effect of SL on Chinese college students’ transfer of learning and to explore the psychological mechanism of such effect. In Phase 1 with 186 Chinese college students, the SL gro...

Past research has revealed direct effects of parental involvement and parenting style on children’s achievement goals separately, however, it is necessary to investigate the interactive mechanism in an integrated way. This study examined the relations between children’s perception of different dimensions of parental involvement (i.e. home-based inv...

Background: Class-related boredom experienced by nursing students during theoretical lessons may affect their health and learning outcomes. Perceived teacher enthusiasm of nursing students may dampen their boredom, but little empirical research has investigated their relationship. Objectives: The aim of the current study is to investigate the da...

Class-related boredom is commonly experienced by students and it has an impact on their learning engagement and achievements. Previous research has found that perceived teacher enthusiasm might contribute to reducing students’ class-related boredom. However, the mechanism through which perceived teacher enthusiasm affects class-related boredom rema...

Drawing on a cultural perspective, we examined whether differences in self-other decision making documented in the West can be replicated in an Eastern context. Study 1 revealed that Chinese participants showed self-other decision-making differences in loss aversion similar to those observed in Western participants; loss aversion differed depending...

Most service-learning studies in higher education focused on its effects on students’ development. The dynamic processes and mechanisms of students’ development during service-learning, however, have not been explored thoroughly. Student engagement in service-learning may affect service-learning outcomes and be affected by subjective task value at...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development characteristics of Chinese college students’ engagement during a service-learning project with a case study method: 273 reflective journals from 31 college students who participated in service-learning were analyzed. Results indicated that students’ overall engagement showed 4 development...

Previous research indicated that service learning (SL) is an effective pedagogy to improve students’ problem-solving ability and increase their classroom engagement. However, studies on SL are rare in China. This study examined the effects of SL on the problem solving of Chinese undergraduate students as well as the mechanism through which it worke...

Currently, in China, improving the quality of teachers' emotional labor has become an urgent need for most pre-kindergarten through 12th grade (p-12) schools because the new curriculum reform highlights the role of emotion in teaching. A total of 703 primary and high school teachers in Mainland China were investigated regarding their perceptions of...

Based on self-determination theory, this study explored the potential mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction in the relationship between materialism and well-being among Chinese college students. The results showed that basic psychological need satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between materialism and life satisfacti...