Culture and emotion in
educational dynamics
Edited by
Enrique H. Riquelme, Dario Paez and Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra
Published in
Frontiers in Psychology
Frontiers in Education
Frontiers in Medicine
June 2024
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ISSN 1664-8714
ISBN 978-2-8325-5043-4
DOI 10.3389/978-2-8325-5043-4
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1
frontiersin.org
June 2024
Culture and emotion in
educational dynamics
Topic editors
Enrique H. Riquelme — Temuco Catholic University, Chile
Dario Paez — Andres Bello University, Chile
Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra — University of Zaragoza, Spain
Citation
Riquelme, E. H., Paez, D., da Costa Dutra, S. C., eds. (2024). Culture and emotion in
educational dynamics. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA.
doi: 10.3389/978-2-8325-5043-4
Frontiers in Psychology
2
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June 2024
Table of
contents
05
Editorial: Culture and emotion in educational dynamics
Enrique Riquelme, Silvia da Costa Dutra and Darío Páez
07
Exploring the relationships among art therapy students’
burnout, practicum stress, and teacher support
Juliet Jue and Tae-Eun Kim
15
“Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them
both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal
growth experiences
Hua Chen
25
The Human Library and the development of cultural
awareness and sensitivity in occupational therapy students: a
mixed methods study
Kirsty Pope, Heather Hewlin-Vita and Eli Mang Yee Chu
36
The value of extracurricular activities to Japanese junior high
school students: focusing on the expression of a school’s
attractiveness in writing
Ryosuke Onoda and Yasuhiro Omi
42
Research hotspots and frontiers of ethnic cultural
identity——based on analysis of “web of science” database
Lidan Kuang, Xingmei Gao, Bingliang Liu and Jianzhan Wang
54
Integration of Shangshan culture into the STEAM curriculum
and teaching: results of an interview-based study
Chen Qian, Jian-Hong Ye and Chaocan Zheng
68
Commitment and training: professionalization narratives in
the implementation of social and emotional learning policies
in Chilean schools
Alfonso Bonhomme and María Teresa Rojas
81
The relationship between university students’ goal
orientation and academic achievement. The mediating role
of motivational components and the moderating role of
achievement emotions
Florin-Vasile Frumos, Roxana Leonte, Octav Sorin Candel,
Laura Ciochină-Carasevici, Roxana Ghiaţău and Camelia Onu
101
Online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: the
wellbeing of Chinese migrant children—a case study in
Shanghai
Qifan Ding, Qiaobing Wu and Qi Zhou
116
The role of emotional similarity and emotional accuracy in
belonging and stress among first-generation and
continuing-generation students
Smaranda Ioana Lawrie and Heejung S. Kim
Frontiers in Psychology
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June 2024
125
Impact of a culturally adapted digital literacy intervention on
older people and its relationship with health literacy, quality
of life, and well-being
Claudia Marisol Carrasco-Dajer, Aldo Renato Vera-Calzaretta,
Silvia Ubillos-Landa, Juan Carlos Oyanedel and Virginia Díaz-Gorriti
136
Validation of the questionnaire to measure Chilean teachers’
perception of school violence and coexistence management
(VI+GEC)
Flavio Muñoz-Troncoso, Amy Halberstadt, Isabel Cuadrado-Gordillo,
Enrique Riquelme-Mella, Edgardo Miranda-Zapata,
Ekaterina Legaz-Vadímisrkaya, Valeria Sepúlveda-Bernales,
Claudia Salamanca-Aroca and Gerardo Muñoz-Troncoso
Frontiers in Psychology
4
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TYPE
Editorial
06 June 2024
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1420573
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
Editorial: Culture and emotion in
educational dynamics
EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Eduardo Enrique Morales Sanhueza,
Major University, Chile
*CORRESPONDENCE
Enrique Riquelme
eriquelme@uct.cl
20 April 2024
10 May 2024
PUBLISHED 06 June 2024
RECEIVED
Enrique Riquelme1*, Silvia da Costa Dutra2 and Darío Páez3
1
Education Faculty, Diversidad y Education Intercultural Department, Núcleo de Investigación en
Estudios Interétnicos e Interculturales, Temuco Catholic University, Temuco, Chile, 2 Faculty of Human
and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza,
Spain, 3 Facultad de Educacion y Ciencias Sociales, Andrés Bello University, Santiago, Chile
ACCEPTED
CITATION
Riquelme E, da Costa Dutra S and Páez D
(2024) Editorial: Culture and emotion in
educational dynamics.
Front. Psychol. 15:1420573.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1420573
COPYRIGHT
© 2024 Riquelme, da Costa Dutra and Páez.
This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (CC BY). The use,
distribution or reproduction in other forums is
permitted, provided the original author(s) and
the copyright owner(s) are credited and that
the original publication in this journal is cited,
in accordance with accepted academic
practice. No use, distribution or reproduction
is permitted which does not comply with
these terms.
Frontiers in Psychology
KEYWORDS
culture, emotion, education, dynamics, students
Editorial on the Research Topic
Culture and emotion in educational dynamics
Culture plays an important role in regulating the emotions and influencing the
spread of education. Thus, the impact of culture on emotional dynamics in educational
environments is a very important subject. It is particularly important in contexts of social
and cultural diversity, where schools have to navigate through the cultural and emotional
dynamics of the majority group.
The object of this area of investigation was to offer a global view of the current state
of the art in the field of emotional dynamics in education, with a particular focus on
how culture mediates these dynamics. This research seeks to integrate experiences and
contributions from different regions of the world in order to offer full understanding of
the role of culture in regulating the emotions in educational dynamics. In this editorial we
offer a themed review of the fascinating and diverse contents of this Field of Investigation.
In the area of Affectivity and education, Frumos et al. examine how achievement
emotions moderate relations between mastery and performance goal orientation and
academic achievement in students. Self-efficacy proved to be the only significant mediator,
and mastery avoidance goals were linked with high scores in motivational components at
high levels of negative emotions. This approach offers a detailed view of the complexities
of academic targets and their emotional connections.
Another area of investigation is Educational Management and Mental Health postpandemic (Bonhomme and Rojas). This includes an analysis of how educational spaces
have been transformed, as is shown by the proliferation of Social-Emotional Learning
(SEL) policies in Chilean schools from the perspective of the (dis)continuities between
institutions and personal effort, and between basic and continuous education. This
manuscript highlights the diversity of approaches to research in education and mental
health, from the practical implementation of policies to the exploration of emotions and
the promotion of cultural competences in various educational contexts around the world.
Students’ experiences, whether in the integration of local culture into education or in the
management of academic stress, underline the importance of holistic, culturally sensitive
approaches to education and mental health.
The work of Chen shows us, from the perspective of a Chinese doctoral student,
how personal growth experiences are developed. The thematic analysis revealed three
recurrent themes: anxiety, enjoyment and personal growth. The results suggest the
coexistence of anxiety and enjoyment, and fluctuation between them, during the doctoral
research project.
01
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Riquelme et al.
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1420573
And Carrasco-Dajer et al. discusses the importance of
digital literacy among older individuals to enhance their aging
experience, highlighting that they face the largest digital gap. A
study was conducted involving a digital literacy intervention for
individuals aged 60 and above, with pre- and post-evaluations.
The intervention resulted in significant improvements in digital
literacy, with indirect effects observed on wellbeing, social support,
and quality of life.
To summarize, this Research Topic highlights the importance
of understanding the influence of culture on emotional dynamics in
educational environments, especially in culturally diverse settings.
Several studies were included examining emotional experiences
in academic settings, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
on migrant children’s wellbeing, and the challenges faced by
first-generation college students. Additionally, the Research Topic
discusses the role of extracurricular activities and curricular
interventions in shaping students’ emotional experiences. Overall,
these studies contribute valuable insights into the complex interplay
between emotions, culture, and education, emphasizing the need
for holistic and culturally sensitive approaches to promoting
wellbeing and academic success.
The work of Jue and Kim on the relation between Art therapy
students’ burnout, practicum stress, and teacher support shows how
practicum stress increases burnout while social support decreases
it. The authors found particularly that professor support, rather
than the support of colleagues or family, significantly reduced
burnout. Likewise, they identified that academic support was more
important than emotional support to reduce students’ burnout.
Another area examined is the relation between Emotions and
cultural identity. Based on a Web of Science analysis, Kuang
et al. examine hotspots and frontiers of ethnic cultural identity.
The investigation shows an increasing trend in this area, with
universities in USA, UK, Australia and China leading exploration of
subjects like emotional perception, multicultural identity processes
and cultural adaptability. In the same line, Qian et al. investigate
the Integration of the Shangshan Culture into STEAM education,
stressing the importance of adding elements of Chinese culture,
and of encouraging the application of interdisciplinary knowledge
in artistic and creative exploration.
Ding et al. From Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model the
study assesses the emotional, social, and physical wellbeing of
Chinese migrant children in urban areas amid the COVID19 pandemic, revealing significant disparities in academic
advancement between migrant and local children, exacerbated by
neglect from educators and policymakers, resulting in heightened
anxiety, anger, and uncertainty about their future among
migrant children. These educational inequalities underscore
the urgent need for policy reform to address the disparities
experienced by migrant children during the pandemic. Lawrie
and Kim provide us an overview of a study concerning firstgeneration college students, emphasizing the significance
of comprehending the psychological mechanisms behind
their difficulties. It adopts a cultural psychology perspective
and examines the impact of “emotional (mis)match” on the
reduced wellbeing of these students. While emotional accuracy
correlates with positive outcomes, it’s notably lower among
first-generation students. These findings stress the importance of
grasping distinct emotional processes in the social adjustment of
college students.
Finally, there is research into the relation of Extra-curricular
and curricular activities with the emotions. The investigation
carried out in Japan by Onoda and Omi highlights the value
of extracurricular activities for secondary school students,
focusing on the expression of increasing the attractiveness
of school through writing. The consciousness of junior
schoolmates increased the evaluation of extracurricular activities as
attractions, stressing the importance of the transmission of values
through writing.
In Australia, Pope et al. argues that the implementation of
the Human Library as a teaching method resulted in a significant
increase in the cultural competence of occupational therapy
students. This flexible and economically attractive approach may
be considered for developing competences in culturally congruent
medical attention.
Frontiers in Psychology
Author contributions
ER: Writing – original draft. SC: Writing – review & editing.
DP: Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This
study was supported by the Fondecyt Regular project 1231178
“Ambivalencia sociocultural y educativa en contexto mapuche:
tensión epistémica de docentes con estudiantes y padres de familia”.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
endorsed by the publisher.
02
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TYPE
Original Research
03 August 2023
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1230136
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Enrique Hernán Riquelme,
Temuco Catholic University, Chile
REVIEWED BY
Lorena Villegas,
Artes y Diseño. Universidad Católica de
Temuco., Chile
Luciana Pastor Martínez,
University of Chile, Chile
*CORRESPONDENCE
Exploring the relationships among
art therapy students’ burnout,
practicum stress, and teacher
support
Juliet Jue 1* and Tae-Eun Kim 2
1
Department of Art Therapy, Hanyang Cyber University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2 Graduate School of
Art Therapy, CHA University, Pocheon, Republic of Korea
Juliet Jue
juliet@hycu.ac.kr
RECEIVED 28
Introduction: This study examines how teacher support and practicum stress
affect art therapy graduate students’ burnout.
CITATION
Methods: A total of 125 master’s and doctoral students from art therapy graduate
schools in Korea participated in the study. We conducted a correlation analysis
and multiple regression analysis to explore the relationship between the variables.
May 2023
ACCEPTED 24 July 2023
PUBLISHED 03 August 2023
Jue J and Kim T-E (2023) Exploring the
relationships among art therapy students’
burnout, practicum stress, and teacher support.
Front. Psychol. 14:1230136.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1230136
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Jue and Kim. This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
The use, distribution or reproduction in other
forums is permitted, provided the original
author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are
credited and that the original publication in this
journal is cited, in accordance with accepted
academic practice. No use, distribution or
reproduction is permitted which does not
comply with these terms.
Results: The correlation analysis results showed that burnout, practicum stress, and
social support are significantly interrelated. The regression analysis results indicated
that practicum stress increases burnout while social support decreases it. When
we used the sub-factors of social support as independent variables, we found
that professor support rather than the support of colleagues or family significantly
reduced burnout. When we divided the perceived teacher support into emotional
support and academic support, our analysis identified that academic support was
more important than emotional support to reduce students’ burnout.
Conclusion: Art therapy students’ practicum stress can cause psychological
burnout, while teacher support—especially academic support— can lower the
possibility of experiencing such burnout.
KEYWORDS
teacher support, art therapy students, burnout, practicum stress, academic support
1. Introduction
Graduate students who enroll in art therapy graduate school complete practicum while taking
classes. Practicum is important because it provides students opportunities to meet clients in the real
world. Engaging with clients in art therapy sessions is the cornerstone of learning art therapy.
However, unsurprisingly, practicum is sometimes very challenging and even stressful. Despite
receiving help from field and school supervisors, students often encounter obstacles over the course
of their practice, including difficulties in understanding their clients, lack of therapeutic progress,
the emotional burden of the therapist-patient relationship, unexpected termination of sessions,
feeling disrespected by other staff, administrative problems/legal issues, and work overload. Simply
put, art therapy graduate students may find practice quite stressful, and exhausted students
sometimes withdraw from school temporarily or drop out.
The term “burnout” refers to a type of physical and mental exhaustion featuring loss of
motivation and cynical attitudes that frequently occurs in service professionals (Raquepaw and
Miller, 1989; Skovholt and Trotter-Mathison, 2016). Maslach and Jackson (1981) viewed burnout
as a syndrome whose main symptoms among helping professionals included emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishments. When therapists suffer
burnout, they experience fatigue, lethargy, and a loss of energy, ideals, and sense of purpose in
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2. Materials and methods
their work. The resulting loss of motivation lowers job performance,
and decreases positive feelings for or interest in clients. As a result, the
quality of the services deteriorates, and the therapists themselves lose
self-confidence and self-esteem.
Graduate students training to become professional therapists are no
exception to the risk of burnout (Choi, 2013). Job stress, or practicum
stress in case of students, is one of the risk factors for worsening overall
mental states. Unfortunately, some art therapy students experience
overwork, lack of resources, excessive demands and/or conflicts with
the authorities during practicum. In such work environments, the
likelihood of experiencing burnout increases (Choi et al., 2002; Lee
et al., 2011; Wallace et al., 2011). The more the student therapists
experience stress at work, the more likely they are to experience
burnout. Previous studies have shown that psychotherapists often
experience burnout because high stress levels are a distinctive feature of
the profession (Raquepaw and Miller, 1989; Ross et al., 1989; Delia and
Patrick, 1996; Moore and Cooper, 1996; Yoo and Park, 2002; Park, 2007).
Although risk factors exist, protective factors such as social
support can help prevent burnout (Choi and Chung, 2003). Social
support can be defined as all the positive resources and experiences
an individual can obtain from interpersonal relationships (Taylor,
2011); it can alleviate the negative effects of job stress and reduce
burnout (Sánchez-Moreno et al., 2015). Indeed, emotional tension and
stress can be reduced if therapists receive social support (Delia and
Patrick, 1996; Park and Park, 2018).
Previous studies have found that the influence of social support on
burnout varies based on the type of social support therapists receive. For
therapists, the sources of social support can be roughly divided into
family members, colleagues, and supervisors. Some studies have
reported that support from family or colleagues is more effective than
supervisors’ support (Yoo and Park, 2002; Choi and Chung, 2003).
Others have reported that support from supervisors is more important
in lowering burnout levels, especially among beginner therapists (Bang,
2006; Lee et al., 2009; Hyun and Hong, 2018; Lee et al., 2019).
In this context, the term “supervisor” refers to a qualified expert
who can provide supervision. In art therapy graduate programs,
professors play supervisory roles, helping student supervisees reflect
on their inner states, treatment plans, and interventions and make
optimal decisions. Overall, supervisors not only help students learn,
but also provide their supervisees emotional support (Keum and Son,
2017). Supervisors encourage and empower beginner therapists by
providing considerate feedback and constructive advice, helping them
build self-confidence (Kim, 2018).
Although researchers have studied burnout among art therapists
working in the field (Kim and Jeong, 2012; Kim, 2015; Kim and Kim,
2020), few studies have focused on beginner art therapists in graduate
school. To understand the growth of art therapy graduate students as
experts and the quality of their practicum, it is necessary to determine
how much stress or burnout students experience during their
practicum and to what extent protective factors such as social support
are helpful and what are needed. This information can be an indicator
of whether they will successfully complete their training and become
experts. Examining the degree of psychological exhaustion
experienced by art therapy graduate students and what factors increase
or decrease their burnout is critical. In this study, we set out to
examine how much teacher support can reduce student’s burnout
caused by practicum stress, and to verify what kind of teacher support
is most beneficent.
Frontiers in Psychology
2.1. Participants
The participants were Korean art therapy graduate students. Art
therapy was first introduced in Korea in the late twentieth century,
followed by the establishment of the Korean Art Therapy Association
in 1991 (Kim, 2009; Choi, 2013). In a decade, more than 10 art therapy
graduate schools were established in Korea (Kim, 2009), and as of
2023, there are more than 30 art therapy graduate schools. Most
graduate schools offer master’s degree programs, and some offer
doctoral degrees. All graduate schools operate on a semester system,
and art therapy graduate students generally spend two to 3 years (four
to six semesters) in their master’s programs. Although practicum is
not mandatory for graduation, they must take an art therapy
practicum to obtain a national license after graduation. The
curriculum of most Korean art therapy graduate schools includes
supervision as one of the classes, and students enrolled in practicum
attend supervision classes.
A total of 125 art therapy graduate students in Korea—81 master’s
degree students and 44 doctoral students—participated in this study.
We recruited students who had completed two or more semesters. The
master’s students had been enrolled for an average of 3.8 semesters
(S.D. = 1.0, Min., 2, Max., 6), and the doctoral students had been
enrolled for an average of 3.5 semesters (S.D. = 1.3, Min., 2, Max., 5).
Participants’ ages ranged from 25 to 60 years, and the mean age was
39.5 years old (S.D. = 8.6 years). The gender distribution ratio was five
males (4.0%) and 120 females (96.0%). The high percentage of females
reflects the gender ratio of all graduate students in art therapy schools;
the ratio is similar to that of Korean art therapists reported at a recent
conference (Lee et al., 2017).
In Korea, the gender ratio of art therapists skews toward females.
For example, Kim and Jeong (2012) collected data from 107 art
therapists, and their gender ratio was 104 females (97.2%) and 3 males
(2.8%). Another study with 128 Korean art therapists showed the
participants’ gender ratio was 120 females (93.75%) and 8 males
(6.25%) (Kim and Kim, 2020). The low proportion of male participants
was also consistent in qualitative studies. In addition, Choi’s (2013)
qualitative research on art therapy graduate students included
in-depth interviews with 16 female students from three
graduate schools.
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. The Maslach burnout inventory
Maslach and Jackson (1981) developed the Maslach Burnout
Inventory (MBI), and Park (2001) translated it into Korean and
validated it. MBI is composed of 22 items, assessing counselors’
burnout. It has three sub-scales: emotional exhaustion (9 items),
depersonalization (5 items), and personal accomplishment (8 items).
It uses a 7-point Likert scale (0 = Not at all, 6 = everyday). The personal
accomplishment items are summed using inverse scoring, and the
other items are summed as they are. The total score ranges from 0 to
132. The higher the final score, the greater the degree of burnout.
Internal consistencies, measured by Zumbo ordinal αs, were as
follows: emotional exhaustion, α = 0.91; depersonalization, α = 0.71;
and personal accomplishment, α = 0.91.
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2.2.2. The workplace stress scale
was completely voluntary, that their anonymity was guaranteed, and
that data would be destroyed after the study was completed. They
responded to the questionnaire after signing a consent form.
To examine art therapy students’ practicum stress, we used the
workplace stress scale, originally developed by Jayaratne and Chess
(1983) and later translated into Korean and validated by Yoon (2000).
This scale has 19 items, comprising four sub-variables: challenge (6
items), role conflict (5 items), role ambiguity (3 items), and work
overload (5 items). Challenge evaluates work autonomy and
opportunities to develop competency. Role conflict assesses the degree
of conflict experienced when job performance demands are
inconsistent with or contradictory to personal standards. Role
ambiguity measures the uncertainty of role performance as a condition
in which individuals are not sufficiently informed about how to
perform their roles. Work overload evaluates whether a given amount
of work exceeds an individual’s time and capacity. This scale uses a
5-point Likert scale (1: not at all, 5: highly agree), and the positively
described items are reverse-scored and summed. The final score
ranges from 19 to 95, and a higher score means a higher level of stress
in the workplace. The Zumbo ordinal αs for this scale were as follows:
challenge, α = 0.77; role conflict, α = 0.73; role ambiguity, α = 0.89; and
work overload, α = 0.83.
2.4. Analysis method
To test our hypothesis, we calculated descriptive statistics and
conducted a correlation analysis among the variables. We then used
multiple regression analysis to explore the relationship between
the variables.
3. Results
3.1. Descriptive statistics and correlation
analysis
To understand the overall relationship among variables,
we calculated descriptive statistics and conducted a correlation
analysis. Table 1 presents the results. The total scores for practicum
stress and burnout were positively correlated (r = 0.45, p < 0.001). In
detail, all of the sub-variables of practicum stress except role conflict
(r = 0.16, n.s.) showed significant correlation results with burnout. The
significant three sub-factors include challenge (r = 0.47, p < 0.001), role
ambiguity (r = 0.27, p < 0.01), and work overload (r = 0.22, p < 0.05).
Next, our analysis revealed a negative correlation between social
support and burnout (r = −0.36, p < 0.001). Regarding the sub-variables
of social support in detail, we found that professor support (r = −0.45,
p < 0.001) and peer support (r = −0.26, p < 0.01) were significant in
their negative correlations with burnout, but family support (r = 0.09,
n.s.) was not significantly correlated with burnout.
The total value of teacher support was negatively correlated with
burnout (r = −0.38, p < 0.001). Both sub-variables, academic support
(r = −0.38, p < 0. 001) and emotional support (r = −0.35, p < 0. 001),
showed negative correlations with burnout.
2.2.3. The social support scale
The Social Support Scale was originally developed by Caplan et al.
(1980), and Park (2001) translated it into Korean. It measures the level
of social support counselors perceive themselves as receiving from
supervisors, peers, and family members. In Korean art therapy
graduate schools, professors served as supervisors. To avoid any
confusion with a field supervisor, we replaced the term “supervisor”
with “professor” in this study. This scale uses a 5-point Likert scale (1
point: not at all, 5 points: highly agree), and each category includes 6
items. The score for each category ranges from 6 to 30 points, and the
highest total score for the 3 categories is 90 points. A higher score
means more social support they received. The reliability scores
measured by Zumbo ordinal α for this scale was 0.90 in this study.
2.2.4. The teacher support scale
To measure students’ perceived teacher support in detail, we used
the Teacher Support Scale developed by Seok (2007) based on Hektner
(1996) and later modified by Kim (2019). This scale consists of 10 total
items divided into two sub-factors: academic support (five items) and
emotional support (five items). The former measures the degree to
which teachers provide academic support to help students cope with
problems in class, provide appropriate feedback to questions, and help
students improve knowledge and skills in the field. The latter evaluates
the extent to which teachers listen courteously and encourage
students. This scale uses a 5-point Likert scale, and a higher score
means a higher level of support from professors. We found the Zumbo
ordinal α as follows: academic support, α = 0.89; and emotional
support, α = 0.86.
3.2. Multiple regression analysis
To verify relative influence of each variable, we conducted
multiple regression analyzes and their results are presented in Table 2.
A Durbin-Watson test score of 1.7, close to the value of 2, confirmed
that there was no autocorrelation. Meanwhile, the Tolerance and the
Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) values indicated no multicollinearity.
Finally, the enter method-based multiple regression analysis verified
that the model was valid and that each path was significant—
practicum stress (p < 0.001) and social support (p < 0.01). The
non-standardized coefficient of practicum stress (B = 0.68) was
positive, while that of social support (B = −0.37) was negative. This
indicates that practicum stress increases burnout, while perceived
social support decreases it. In addition, the effect size of the variables
implied that practicum stress had a stronger effect than social support,
as the β of practicum stress was 0.38 and that of social support was
−0.27. The total explanatory power of the model was 27%.
Next, we set sub-variables of social support and those of practicum
stress as independent variables, and examined which sub-variable had
a significant effect. Table 3 and Figure 1 show the results of this
2.3. Procedures and ethical consideration
Before starting the survey, we received approval from the
Institutional Review Board of the researcher’s institution.
We contacted five art therapy graduate schools and posted flyers
asking art therapy students to participate in the study. We ensured that
the study participants understood that answering the questionnaire
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10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1230136
TABLE 1 Correlation coefficients and descriptive statistics for measurement variables.
M
SD
1
1. Practicum stress
46.89
8.22
–
2. Challenge
13.74
3.49
0.66***
3. Role conflict
12.80
3.41
0.78***
0.30**
–
4. Role ambiguity
6.45
2.07
0.39***
0.35***
0.12
–
5. Work overload
13.85
3.86
0.64***
0.06
0.45***
−0.12
6. Social Support
69.47
10.81
−0.26**
−0.35***
−0.02
−0.27**
−0.04
7. Professor support
22.20
4.91
−0.44***
−0.53***
−0.14
−0.25**
−0.18*
8. Peer support
22.98
5.10
−0.23*
−0.24**
−0.08
−0.11
−0.11
9. Family support
24.30
4.72
0.10
−0.01
0.18*
−0.23**
0.22*
10. Teacher support
40.15
7.22
−0.35***
−0.47***
0.09
−0.33***
−0.08
11. Academic support
20.57
3.61
−0.38***
−0.49***
0.12
−0.34***
−0.09
12. Emotional support
19.58
3.92
−0.30**
−0.41***
−0.07
−0.29**
−0.07
13. Burnout
37.06
14.57
0.45***
0.47***
0.16
0.27**
0.22*
6
7
2
3
4
5
–
8
9
10
11
–
12
13
1. Practicum stress
2. Challenge
3. Role conflict
4. Role ambiguity
5. Work overload
–
6. Social Support
7. Professor support
0.70***
–
8. Peer support
0.85***
0.47***
–
9. Family support
0.64***
0.06
0.38***
–
10. Teacher support
0.67***
0.86***
0.46***
0.14
–
11. Academic support
0.62***
0.80***
0.41***
0.15
0.96***
–
12. Emotional support
0.66***
0.85***
0.47***
0.13
0.96***
0.84***
–
−0.36***
−0.45***
−0.26**
−0.09
−0.38***
−0.38***
−0.35***
13. Burnout
–
* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
TABLE 3 The effect of all practicum stress and social support subvariables on burnout.
TABLE 2 The effect of practicum stress and social support on burnout.
Variable
Practicum stress
Social support
R
B
SE
β
t
p-value
0.68
0.15
0.38
4.57***
0.000
−0.37
0.11
−0.27
−3.29**
0.001
2
Adj. R2
F
Durbin-Watson
Variable
Challenge
0.27
0.26
t
pvalue
1.39
0.42
0.33
3.36**
0.001
Role conflict
−0.23
0.41
−0.05
−0.57
0.57
Role ambiguity
0.85
0.63
0.12
1.35
0.18
Work overload
0.76
0.36
0.20
2.13*
0.04
Professor
−0.66
0.31
−0.22
−2.13*
0.04
Peer
−0.08
0.28
−0.03
−0.27
0.78
Family
−0.15
0.29
−0.05
−0.52
0.61
Social
support
Frontiers in Psychology
β
stress
1.68
analysis. The Durbin-Watson test score was 1.7, indicating that it was
appropriate to use this regression model. We found no
multicollinearity; the model’s tolerance was above 0.1 and VIF was less
than 10. The significance probability of this model was 0.000, and
we verified the significance of each path; challenge (p < 0.01), work
overload (p < 0.05), and professor support (p < 0.05) had significant
S.E.
Practicum
21.16***
** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
B
R
0.34
2
2
Adj. R
F
Durbin-Watson
0.30
8.12***
1.72
* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
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FIGURE 1
The effect of all practicum stress and social support sub-variables on burnout. Solid lines are significant, while dotted lines are not.
effects on burnout. Although role ambiguity and peer support showed
significant correlations with burnout, their relatively weak explanatory
power in the regression analysis demonstrated their insignificance.
Among the significant variables, the most influential variable was
challenge (β = 0.33), followed by professor support (β = −0.22), and
work overload (β = 0.20). Finally, the independent variables’
explanatory power was 34%.
In this second analysis with the sub-variables, we found that
professor support was an important component of social support.
Based on the results, we conducted a third regression analysis to
determine content of teacher support. We set the two sub-variables
of teacher support—academic support and emotional support—as
independent variables, and burnout as a dependent variable.
We conducted enter method-based multiple regression analysis, and
their results are presented in Table 4 and Figure 2. We found the
significance probability of this model to be 0.000, and the total
explanatory power of the variables was 15%. The regression analysis
identified academic support (p < 0.001) as the only significant
variable, although both emotional and academic support showed
significant negative correlations with burnout. These results suggest
that the important factor in teacher support to lower students’
burnout is academic support rather than emotional support.
TABLE 4 The effect of teacher support sub-variables on burnout.
Variable
Academic support
Emotional support
S.E.
β
t
pvalue
−1.54
0.34
−0.38
−4.59***
0.00
−0.11
−0.71
0.48
R
0.15
Adj. R2
0.14
2
F
Durbin-Watson
21.10***
1.74
*** p < 0.001.
First, we found that art therapy students’ practicum stress
significantly increases burnout. The analysis of sub-variables showed
that the risk of burnout was highest when students lacked autonomy
or opportunity for skill development at work. Excessive work was the
second cause of burnout. These results are consistent with previous
studies showing that work risk factors induce job stress and
subsequently increase the potential for burnout (Raquepaw and
Miller, 1989; Yoon, 2000; Do and Chung, 2009; Moyer, 2011; Jang and
Yu, 2013; Yun, 2013). In particular, our results are consistent with
findings indicating that counselors’ psychological tiredness increases
when they do not receive sufficient challenges at work or are subjected
to excessive workloads (Brewer and Clippard, 2002; Baggerly and
Osborn, 2006; Hakanen et al., 2006; Gibson et al., 2009; Yun and
Chung, 2011). Psychotherapists belonging to institutions reported less
autonomy and lower levels of personal achievement than those in
private practice, and the former were more vulnerable to burnout
(Rupert and Morgan, 2005). Therefore, it is very important for
4. Discussion
We examined the relationship between art therapy students’
burnout, practicum stress, and teacher support in this study.
Regarding social support, we focused on assistance from professors.
The results and implications of this study are as follows.
Frontiers in Psychology
B
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10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1230136
FIGURE 2
The effect of teacher support sub-variables on burnout. Solid lines are significant, while dotted lines are not.
therapists, whether trainees or professionals, to feel adequate
autonomy, control at work, and be motivated while developing their
abilities. If this autonomy and motivation are interrupted, the
likelihood of burnout increases.
While previous studies have identified role conflict as the most
important contributor to job stress (Park and Yoon, 2011; Park and
Hang, 2017), it was not associated with burnout among art therapy
students in our study. Presumably, this discrepancy is a result of their
different professional status. Graduate students are both therapists and
trainees who undergo supervision during art therapy practice, so even
if their roles are limited, they probably accept these limitations and
experience fewer role conflicts.
Second, we found that social support can reduce the possibilities
of experiencing burnout. As mentioned in the introduction, social
support helps relieve burnout (Cohen and Wills, 1985; Ross et al.,
1989; Brown and O’Brien, 1998; Baruch-Feldman et al., 2002). When
social support is low, it is hard to deal with stress adaptively, but when
it is high, people can use it as a psychological resource to help them
get through stressful situations (Choi and Chung, 2003).
Furthermore, our analysis with the sub-factors of social support
found that professor support had the most significant impact, while
the effects of colleague and family were relatively insignificant. This
result should be carefully considered in that participants were
graduate students in Asian society where the family is the greatest
support for psychological consolation. Researchers who studied the
relationship between social support and burnout of Korean
professional counselors found that family support and peer support
were more important than supervisor support (Park, 2001; Yoo and
Park, 2002; Choi and Chung, 2003). Their findings underlined the
importance of emotional support from family members in the
family-centered culture of Korea. Therefore, our results are contrary
to what is expected in light of the specificity of the Asian culture. To
understand the contradiction, we paid attention to the differences in
study subjects, the occupational status of the subjects. The previous
studies’ participants comprised paid professional counselors; our
subjects were art therapy graduate students practicing as interns. For
professional counselors, emotional intimacy with those around them
or recognition and respect from significant others is more important
in preventing psychological burnout than obtaining information
needed to cope with problems. On the other hand, art therapy
graduate students are pre-experts with room for improvement rather
than performing independent functions as experts. It is plausible
that teacher support could be more important than support from
other sources to them, as teachers understand the specific stresses
Frontiers in Psychology
trainees experience and can provide more necessary assistance
than others.
Further analysis appears to support this explanation: The
examination of the components of teacher support identified academic
support as more important than emotional support. It also contradicts
the conventional wisdom held by family-oriented societies in Asia that
emotional closeness to those around them or approval from important
people are more crucial in preventing psychological exhaustion. In
other words, for students, obtaining information necessary to
understand and cope with various problems encountered in practice
and achieving professional growth is indeed the way to overcome
burnout. The importance of academic support has also been
confirmed in previous studies (Johnston and Milne, 2012; Wilson
et al., 2016). Wilson et al. (2016), who analyzed 15 studies on
supervision, found that 13 of them considered learning opportunities
to be the most important factor in supervision. Emotional support
and the teacher-student relationship were key factors, but learning was
also found to be a crucial component in overcoming adversity and
becoming professionals. Our result also highlights the importance of
teachers’ academic support in higher education. Appropriate guidance
from teachers can reduce emotional exhaustion, help individuals find
meaning in their work, and increase their sense of accomplishment.
Referring to the practicum distress of art therapy students, Van
Lith and Voronin (2016) pointed out that “students fluctuate through
periods of uncertainty and feelings of being a fraud” (p. 53). Similarly,
Rønnestad and Skovholt (2003) stated that students experience
“performance anxiety, … a sense of being fragile and incomplete as a
practitioner, insufficient conceptual maps, … and a feeling of
neediness for mentors” (p. 45) during their practicum. Thus, art
therapy graduate students are in need of academic support more
desperately than emotional support. Feldstein (2000) also reported
that school counselors who received clinical supervision experienced
less emotional burnout than those with non-clinical supervision.
Therefore, in order to alleviate the psychological burnout of art
therapy graduate students in practicum, it is essential to provide
academic support to help them improve their expertise.
The implications of this study for art therapy education and
practice are as follows. First, the absence of challenge and work
overload in the practicum locations might affect students’ burnout.
Therefore, preventing burnout requires the creation of practice
conditions that can offer trainees appropriate degrees of autonomy,
such as letting them design their schedules or processes. In addition,
examining student therapists’ workloads and maintaining appropriate
workload levels are critical. Second, an interesting finding from this
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10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1230136
graduate program with a mandatory practicum is the significance of
teacher assistance, particularly academic help, in reducing the
likelihood of psychological burnout in students. It implies that
teachers should consider academic growth and professional
development as major things in providing emotional, informational,
material, and evaluative support to their students.
The limitations of this study and suggestions for future studies are
as follows. First, this study used a quantitative approach to verify the
relationship between stress, burnout, and teacher support in art
therapy graduate students, but it did not carefully capture the
difficulties they experience in practice or the psychological changes
they feel when receiving help from professors. In future research, it is
necessary to take a qualitative and in-depth approach to examine
under what circumstances they experience stress, feel the risk of
psychological burnout, and disclose the nature of support that reduces
the risk of burnout. Second, we considered a non-comprehensive set
of protective factors against burnout, focusing on social support and
professor support. Therefore, future studies should endeavor to
identify other protective factors and to develop a model for the
psychological burnout path. Third, we used a cross-sectional
approach, administering a survey to participants at a specific point in
time and performing statistical analysis based on the results. Thus,
we merely sought to estimate cause and effect; our findings provide no
conclusive evidence for a causal relationship. In the future, researchers
should seek to clarify the causal relationship by undertaking
longitudinal studies. Finally, this study used self-report questionnaires,
which means participants may have answered in ways they deemed
socially desirable. Future study should consider combining
quantitative and qualitative approaches by conducting interviews.
enable art therapy graduate students to cope with and prevent
psychological burnout.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and
approved by Hanyang Cyber University Institutional Review Boards.
The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to
participate in this study.
Author contributions
T-EK conceived of the presented idea. T-EK and JJ developed the
theory and conducted survey. JJ verified the analytical methods,
analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript in consultation with
T-EK. All authors contributed to the article and approved the
submitted version.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
5. Conclusion
This study examined the relationship between practicum stress,
psychological burnout, and teacher support in art therapy graduate
students, a topic that researchers have not previously studied.
Psychological burnout develops gradually and greatly impacts
professional and personal life quality. We found that practicum stress
can cause psychological burnout, while teacher support can lower the
possibility of experiencing such burnout. Therefore, this study’s results
will help graduate education administrators establish a direction to
Publisher’s note
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and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations,
or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product
that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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TYPE
Original Research
31 August 2023
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173734
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Douglas F. Kauffman,
Medical University of the Americas—Nevis,
United States
REVIEWED BY
Richard McGee,
Northwestern University, United States
Christine Pearson Casanave,
Temple University, Japan
*CORRESPONDENCE
Hua Chen
20063410@sdufe.edu.cn
February 2023
August 2023
PUBLISHED 31 August 2023
“Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel
pleasant to welcome them both”:
thematic analysis of a Chinese
PhD student’s personal growth
experiences
Hua Chen *
School of International Education, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China
RECEIVED 25
ACCEPTED 16
CITATION
Chen H (2023) “Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel
pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic
analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal
growth experiences.
Front. Psychol. 14:1173734.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173734
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Chen. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The
use, distribution or reproduction in other
forums is permitted, provided the original
author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are
credited and that the original publication in this
journal is cited, in accordance with accepted
academic practice. No use, distribution or
reproduction is permitted which does not
comply with these terms.
Engaging with research is an emotionally demanding experience and a trajectory
full of difficulties, challenges, and stress. This autoethnographic study explored
my personal experiences as a PhD student in a four-year program and conducted
a qualitative thematic analysis by analyzing 550 research diary entries collected
between September 2018 and June 2022, in which supervisor feedback and
reviewer comments were part of the content. Three recurring, unique, and salient
themes pertaining to my personal experiences were identified: being fraught with
anxiety, gaining a sense of enjoyment, and achieving personal growth. Whereas
anxiety was from publication and dissertation writing, foreign language writing,
and individual stressors, enjoyment was gained from the support network and
conducting research. My personal growth was reflected from sustained engagement
and improved autonomy. In the process, I experienced some negative emotions,
but found more enjoyment. The findings indicate that anxiety and enjoyment are
fluctuating, co-occurring, and reciprocal. The findings call for more attention to
the role of research diary writing in scaffolding PhD research, providing emotional
support, and facilitating personal growth and well-being of PhD students.
KEYWORDS
anxiety, enjoyment, personal growth, well-being, research diaries, autoethnography
1. Introduction
PhD students’ well-being is crucial for higher education (e.g., Schmidt and Umans, 2014;
Schmidt and Hansson, 2018), as well-being might affect students’ research and teaching
productivity, research policy, and higher education quality (e.g., Levecque et al., 2017; Schmidt
and Hansson, 2018). However, the majority of PhD students experience poor well-being (e.g.,
Langford, 2010; Beasy et al., 2021). They encounter difficulties and challenges (e.g., Park, 2005)
and experience struggles and stress (e.g., Barry et al., 2018; Liu and Abliz, 2019; Huang, 2020).
The unpredictability and non-linearity of progress during the PhD might bring varied and mixed
emotional changes (Juniper et al., 2012). Students face challenges and might experience some
negative emotions, such as depression, anxiety, and anguish. The struggles against these negative
emotions might result in the decrease in confidence, amplification of frustration, and a higher
level of anxiety. Such frustrations and anxiety might bring negative influences on their PhD
trajectory and well-being. Given the role of PhD students’ personal growth and well-being, it is
of critical importance to find a way to help them gain confidence in research engagement and
manage unpleasant emotions.
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Although current research has primarily focused on the
importance of emotion for PhD students, little is known about what
experiences, particularly emotional experiences PhD students might
have during the entire PhD studies, and how they face up with the
challenges to enhance their well-being in Chinese context. Studies
have shown that emotion plays an important role in the doctoral
experiences (Cotterall, 2013), and stress harms students’ health
(Russell-Pinson and Harris, 2019). PhD students’ research and
emotional experiences have been investigated in some countries, such
as Japan (e.g., Casanave, 2010), Sweden (e.g., Langum and Sullivan,
2017), U.S. (e.g., Russell-Pinson and Harris, 2019), and China (e.g.,
Wang et al., 2019; Geng and Yu, 2022). These studies have provided
useful insights into the understanding of PhD students’ experiences.
However, research diaries of PhD students, as an important scaffolding
for students (Engin, 2011) and a cathartic tool (Browne, 2013), have
not received sufficient attention from scholars. This study, situated in
a Chinese context, used an autoethnographic approach to explore my
personal experiences as a PhD student through analyzing the research
diary entries across 4 years to reveal the personal growth.
paved a way for using research diaries among PhD students and call
for more attention to the use of research diaries to probe into PhD
students’ experiences in different disciplines and contexts.
2.2. Studies on PhD students’ experiences
Research into PhD students’ experiences has focused on both
research experiences and emotional experiences. As writing is
“central to the process of developing a scholarly identity and
fundamental to the doctoral experience” (De Magalhaes et al., 2019,
p. 4), studies of PhD research experiences have investigated writing
related experiences, such as writing styles (e.g., Casanave, 2010),
writing expertise (e.g., Casanave, 2019), writer identity (e.g., De
Magalhaes et al., 2019) and related challenges and emotions (e.g.,
Badenhorst, 2018; Beasy et al., 2021). Casanave (2010) illustrated
how three PhD students developed their writing styles over a
two-year period and emphasized the importance of PhD students’
dissertation writing experiences. Langum and Sullivan (2017)
investigated the challenges that non-native English PhD students
faced in the routes into their international academic English
publications. The study reported that hesitancy and distance were
common among Second Language (L2) doctoral researchers. They
experienced feelings of insecurity in communicating research results
and translating their ideas and primary thoughts into English, and
remoteness in the development of bi-literate academic writers. In the
study of Badenhorst (2018), students experienced writing anxiety,
especially when receiving negative feedback on their dissertations or
papers for publication. The study stressed the emotional nature of
writing for graduate students and presented three pedagogical
strategies: free-writing, negotiating negative internal dialog, and
using objects to externalize feelings. With these strategies, students
could better recognize their emotions, make decisions, and develop
agency. De Magalhaes et al. (2019) investigated two English as an
Additional Language (EAL) PhD students’ challenges associated with
developing scholarly identities during their candidature. It reported
students’ vulnerability in trying to adjust their voices to meet the
norms. Casanave (2019) pointed out that raising PhD students’
awareness of accepting the performance and considering it to be a
part of an academic life, might “help prevent debilitating anxiety that
comes from expectations that are set unrealistically high” (p. 43).
Investigating into academic research among PhD students opened
up space for insights into their personal growth and well-being.
Existing studies have also shown that PhD students experience
intense emotions apart from conducting research (Bettinson and
Haven-Tang, 2021). PhD students’ emotional experience studies have
explored a set of emotions, particularly the negative emotions, such
as anxiety, frustration, and anguish (e.g., Aitchison et al., 2012;
Cotterall, 2013; Russell-Pinson and Harris, 2019; Geng and Yu, 2022).
Casanave (2014) pointed out that emotion was a part of PhD students’
dissertation journey. Emotions provided motivational energy for
students to persist until graduation (McCormack, 2009). Previous
studies suggested that PhD students be supported to learn skills of
attending to the stress to maintain and enhance their well-being (e.g.,
Russell-Pinson and Harris, 2019). Given the challenges of academic
research faced by PhD students and the complexity of emotional
changes experienced by them, more studies of PhD personal
experiences are required to reveal a full picture of their personal
2. Literature review
2.1. Studies on diaries
Diary is defined as “a document created by an individual who has
maintained a regular, personal and contemporaneous record”
(Alaszewski, 2006, p.1). Diaries record “events, experiences, thoughts
and feelings” of diarists (e.g., Alexander et al., 2016, p. 19) and provide
a rich and valuable data source about diarists’ personal experiences
(e.g., Alaszewski, 2006; Allen, 2013). It serves the function of healing
effects for diarists (Glass et al., 2019). Diaries have been used to
investigate teachers’ beliefs (e.g., Carson and Longhini, 2002; Allen,
2013) and students’ language learning (e.g., Bailey, 1983, 1990;
Bhattacharya and Chauhan, 2010; Shelton-Strong and Mynard, 2020).
The studies showed that diaries helped teachers record their
experiences (Allen, 2013), facilitated the autonomy augmentation
(Bhattacharya and Chauhan, 2010), and promoted students’ positive
feelings and motivation in language learning (Shelton-Strong and
Mynard, 2020).
Research diaries have been used to document the researchers’
reflections (e.g., Silverman, 2005; Gibbs, 2007). A research diary may
include the research process (e.g., Borg, 2001), methodological steps
(e.g., Browne, 2013), and researchers’ knowledge development (e.g.,
Engin, 2011). Several studies have explored the functions of research
diaries, such as a tool for scaffolding (Engin, 2011) and a cathartic tool
(Browne, 2013). These studies focused on the role of diary writing for
PhD students in different contexts, and used researchers’ personal
diary entries to describe the PhD work. Engin (2011) investigated the
role of research diaries in helping students learn about research and
how to be a researcher from the socio-cultural theory of learning.
Browne (2013) explored the benefits of writing and maintaining
research diaries for recording the emotional and practical challenges
of fieldwork in unfamiliar settings. Ridgway (2022) focused on the
interconnections between memorable events and junctures with her
doctoral journey. She used three diary entries in the depths of her PhD
to reveal the role of writing diaries for “identifying the echoes between
personal and graduate school experiences” (p. 1). These studies have
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growth in both research and emotional experiences in
various contexts.
university in the same city, where I studied as a PhD student. I was a
little bit anxious before I embarked on the journey, as I knew getting
a PhD degree would be a difficult and challenging task. I worked hard
to complete the compulsory and selective courses (most in English
and some in Chinese) and started early on writing academic journal
articles. However, the challenges of selecting research topics, writing
and revising manuscripts, publishing research articles, and completing
a dissertation, were more challenging than I had previously thought.
The major challenges were threefold. The first challenge was to
publish innovative academic articles on SSCI-indexed or CSSCIindexed journals. The second challenge was to conduct an appropriate
research project and complete a PhD dissertation. The third challenge
arose from my expectations of transforming from a novice researcher
to a PhD graduate who could construct a desired academic identity.
After a careful self-assessment, I started writing research diary entries
to record my personal experiences. At the beginning of my first year,
the research diaries focused more on the justification of the research
design and details of the research development, difficulties and
challenges I experienced in learning to conduct research, and
corresponding strategies I employed. However, with more difficulties
from academic writing, submission, and rejection by journals, I could
hardly control my emotions. It was in this situation that I wrote more
about my emotions and emotion regulation strategies. Through
writing about my emotions, especially the mixed negative emotions
going forth and back, I found that writing research diaries embodied
the dual role of being an emotional outlet and an emotional support.
It helped to document and reflect on my research and emotional
experiences, and calmed me down. Realizing the mediating role of
writing research diaries in the co-development of my research
competence and emotional management, I took this activity as an
important task and wrote diaries on a regular basis. Therefore, the
diaries could present a clear overall picture of my research trajectory
and emotional changes in the 4 years’ PhD program.
2.3. Studies on PhD students’ well-being
Well-being refers to “the individual’s experience of his or her
health” (Medin and Alexanderson, 2001, p. 75). PhD students’ wellbeing has been termed as internal reflection (Haynes et al., 2012),
being true to oneself (Schmidt and Umans, 2014), and self-care
(Kumar and Cavallaro, 2018). Well-being can be reflected from the
positive relationship with others, personal growth, environmental
autonomy, autonomy, purpose in life, and self-acceptance (Ryff, 1989).
PhD students’ well-being has been related to many factors, such
as productivity and efficiency, research policy, problem-coping
strategies, support network, the culture, and the consideration of wellbeing by students themselves (e.g., Levecque et al., 2017; Schmidt and
Hansson, 2018; Jackman et al., 2022). Levecque et al. (2017) assessed
the prevalence of PhD students’ mental health problems among 3,659
students in Belgium. Results of the study showed that 32% of students
were at a risk of having or developing psychiatric disorder, particularly
depression. Jackman et al. (2022) investigated the early stages of PhD
students’ doctoral research and stressed the importance of self-care for
PhD students. The study provided some common self-care strategies
(i.e., physical activity, hobbies, and rest periods) and suggested that
PhD students be educated on some self-care practices, such as physical
activity and rest periods. Such suggestions have provided useful
implications for the intervention strategies to enhance PhD students’
well-being in the early stages of their study. Based on these studies,
how to enhance PhD students’ well-being during the entire studies
remains to be explored.
Overall, most studies have limited their investigation of PhD
students’ experiences through researchers’ perspective. Given the
complexity of PhD students’ research experiences and the variety of
emotions experienced by PhD students, their personal experiences
could be manifested in a nuanced way. Previous studies have centered
more around some anxiety-filled experiences. It remains unclear what
other emotions PhD students might experience, what sources might
cause the emotions, and how they might enhance their well-being.
Furthermore, although several studies have explored the usefulness of
research diaries in their disciplines and contexts, a longitudinal
research diary study in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) field and
in the context of mainland China covering the entire PhD study is
scarce. To address these research gaps, the present study aims to
explore my personal experiences as a PhD student in a four-year
program through analyzing chronologically organized data in the
context of China.
3.2. Data collection and analysis
This study adopted autoethnography to explore my personal
experiences as a PhD student, especially the emotional experiences
across 4 years. This approach has the advantage of calling up personal
embodied experiences (Maslen, 2022), helping to observe and analyze
their own emotions (Buckley, 2015), offering an insider perspective,
and revealing the meaning of lived experiences (Ellis et al., 2011). It
also has the advantage of promoting personal well-being (Ellis, 2013)
through recounting personal experiences (Lapadat, 2017) and
emotional experiences (Akehurst and Scott, 2021).
Diaries were the data source, and supervisor feedback and
reviewer comments were part of the content of the diary entries.
I started writing Chinese diary entries from the first semester, as
writing in my mother language was an easier way for me to narrate
personal experiences, particularly the complicated and varied
emotions. I wrote 35 research diary entries in this semester. In the
dairy entries, I quoted supervisor feedback and reviewer comments in
the original languages (i.e., English or Chinese). With more stress
from course assignments and publication demands, I embarked on a
journey of writing about two research diaries per week. In all,
I collected 550 research diary entries with the total length of 271,903
words written between September 2018 and June 2022. The diary
3. Methods
3.1. Research context
I enrolled in a Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics PhD
program at one of the key universities in the north of China in fall
2018. The program length was from 4 to 6 years. I need to meet the
graduation requirements to get a PhD degree, including courses,
publications, and a dissertation. I worked full-time at another
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4.1. Being fraught with anxiety
entries were based upon my personal experiences and interaction with
other people, such as my supervisor, reviewers, friends, and
family members.
Qualitative thematic analysis was used to help identify, analyze,
and report the major themes and sub-themes (Braun and Clarke,
2006; Yin, 2011). Thematic analysis could summarize the key features
of the data (Nowell et al., 2017) and generate unanticipated insights
from the data (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Qualitative research software
NVivo12 was employed to help analyze the diary entries. I followed
the coding scheme: (1) familiarizing myself with all diary entries; (2)
generalizing the initial codes from the diary entries; (3) identifying the
common themes used to present my experiences, especially emotional
experiences; (4) reviewing all the themes; (5) defining and naming
three major themes; and (6) producing the report of my PhD personal
experiences. Three recurring, unique, and salient themes pertaining
to my personal experiences during the 4 years’ PhD program were
identified: being fraught with anxiety, gaining a sense of enjoyment,
and achieving personal growth.
The excitement at the news of admission to further my study as a
PhD student after working some years was soon replayed by anxiety
when I came to realize how challenging and difficult the PhD
trajectory would be for the upcoming 4 or even 6 years. My anxiety
mainly came from publication and dissertation writing, foreign
language writing, and individual stressors. Such anxiety lasted mostly
in the first 2 years and gradually lessened with the improvement of
EFL writing skills and better perceptions of my identity as a novice
researcher in the field.
4.1.1. Anxiety from publication and dissertation
writing
Choosing an appropriate research topic was the first cause of
anxiety. Anxiety accompanied me from embarking on the first
research topic to new ones. This source of anxiety was more obvious
for me when I had to work on a new research topic. I noted down my
anxious feelings in one diary entry.
3.3. Rigor of the study
I found myself quite confused about what research topic I should
focus on and what PhD dissertation project I should conduct. The
more I thought about this, the more anxious I became. I have been
reading a lot of research articles, but still I do not have a clear idea
about how to narrow down a research topic and design my own
research based on and informed by previous studies and theories.
I am somewhat lost and unclear about what I could do in this field,
and I seem to remain an onlooker when reading academic papers
(Diary, 18 April 2019).
I used the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and
confirmability (Lincoln and Guba, 1985) to ensure the rigor of the
study. Credibility was guaranteed through the prolonged engagement
with the data. As this autoethnographic study did not have other
participants or co-authors, I invited a researcher colleague, who had
over 30 years’ teaching and research experiences at the university
where I worked, to help verify that the diary entries reflected my
personal experiences. I shared with and asked her to give comments
on some diary entries. For example, she helped with assessing whether
some diary entries describing my regular work (teaching) in
workplace, my EFL writing experiences, and social support I received,
were the true description of my experience. To increase the credibility,
a researcher colleague was invited to provide an external check.
Transferability was guaranteed by the transparency of the data, the
description of the research context, data collection, coding, and
formulating themes and sub-themes. Dependability was enhanced by
a detailed description of data analysis. Confirmability was established
by coding the data. There were ongoing discussions with my researcher
colleague in terms of the preliminary findings, emerging codes,
sub-themes, and themes. Inter-rater reliability was established with
the same researcher colleague to study and code 25% of the data. This
produced an inter-rater reliability of 0.88.
Writing research articles for possible publications aroused anxiety.
I felt anxious in every step of such type of writing, especially in the first
year of PhD. Anxiety at this stage was mainly caused by the
unfamiliarity with academic writing and inaccurate perceptions of
myself as a novice researcher. The anxiety was elevated when I realized
that all my submitted articles were not in the first round of peer
review. For instance, after discussing with my supervisor whether
we should email the publishing house for further update information,
I wrote a diary entry:
3:30 a.m. in the early morning. It is still dark. Quite unconsciously
the idea occurred to me that I did not spend sufficient time writing
research papers, bringing about some kind of negative emotions of
anxiety and anguish spontaneously. The more I thought of this, the
more overwhelmed I became. I have a lot of repressed feelings… The
fear of publication failure is similar to that when I was not sure
whether I could be enrolled in a desired university. I feel worried, as
up till now, all my submitted articles have not been into the first
round of peer review. So bad feelings (Diary, 22 May 2019).
4. Findings
Looking back on my 4 years’ experiences as a PhD student,
I experienced anxiety mostly in the preliminary stages, and anxiety
waxed and waned. I regarded this kind of emotion advantageous to
increase attentiveness to academic research. Emotional self-support
through writing research diaries and social support helped me find an
effective way of gradually lessening and relieving anxiety. I gradually
gained a sense of enjoyment. The reflection and reconciliation helped
me develop myself in an all-round way, and in this process, I learned
to take a more self-distanced perspective to evaluate myself and
viewed these experiences as life path and predictors of well-being.
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Finding an appropriate journal increased my anxiety, especially
when I did not have confidence or felt inexperienced in academic
research. This was more evident when one manuscript was rejected.
The following diary entry described how I felt about finding a journal
to submit my manuscript to.
Time passes quickly. It has been almost one year since I enrolled in
the PhD program. I find it quite difficult and challenging to find an
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appropriate journal, which might accept my first English manuscript.
I do not have any confidence right now. What I have been doing is
to submit one manuscript to another different journal if it is rejected.
I feel so sad that my manuscripts have been rejected several times.
The experiences made me feel more depressed every time I thought
of these discouraging moments. I have no idea what I should do
now, and perhaps I need to spend more time in finding more
appropriate journals. It is such a difficult and challenging trajectory
for a first-year PhD student (Diary, 16 May 2019).
anxiety…My emotions changed repeatedly from excitement and
relief after submitting the manuscripts to anxiety and depression
after receiving reviewer comments. The comments are constructive,
but I still experience anxiety. These emotions have been with me
every single day in the past one and half years. How I hope that one
day there will be less anxiety and more enjoyment (Diary, 29
December 2020).
4.1.2. Foreign language writing anxiety
Waiting for the decision of journals caused substantial anxiety for
me. This kind of anxiety intensified each time when the manuscript
was rejected, and was more elevated when the revised version got
rejected more than once. Checking the status of the submitted
manuscripts was a daily routine for me. I tried to note down my
anxiety and worries in one diary entry.
Foreign language writing anxiety was caused by unfamiliarity with
the language, setting up appropriate arguments, and finding more
authorized resources to support arguments. The gap between my
foreign language proficiency and the required EFL writing competence
has caused long-lasting anxiety. This source of anxiety ran across the
draft and manuscript writing, revision, and submission. I could hardly
get rid of the anxiety. It lessened gradually after I had more EFL
writing experiences and self-care strategies. The following diary entry
recorded this source of anxiety.
4:00 a.m. in the early morning. The first thing I do after getting up
is to check the status of the submitted articles. This has become a
daily routine. Publication has been torturing me a lot. The more
anxious I feel, the worse result it seems to have. I quivered a little bit
when learning that one manuscript was rejected a moment ago.
How I wish this were not true. Tears rolling down my cheeks, I could
not control my feelings. I have made every possible effort to revise
the manuscript. Now the more I think about it, the worse feelings
I have. I become worried about another manuscript, as it might
be rejected as well. This made me get a little bit desperate when
I realize that the manuscript has been under review for ages…
(Diary, 15 May 2019).
A bad day today. One manuscript was rejected…I felt quite
overwhelmed, but I knew that I had to accept it. I still have a lot of
difficulties with EFL writing. There are other difficulties as well, such
as subject-verb agreement, redundancy, repetition, and overuse of
linking words. It is still a long way to go in foreign language writing
(Diary, 4 September 2019).
Finding authorized resources presented anxiety for me, especially
in the first manuscript. I felt anxious when I failed finding more
authorized resources and even more anxious when the reviewers
suggested that I add more authorized resources. I wrote about this
experience in my diary.
Receiving feedback from my supervisor and comments from
reviewers caused anxiety. The supervisor has been an authoritative
figure in academia and set a good model for me. I took my supervisor’s
feedback and suggestions carefully and implemented the feedback, but
the feedback sometimes aroused a kind of anxiety for me. It was
mainly caused by my EFL writing ability and perceptions of my
research competence. When I received supervisor feedback, such as
“? expression,” “? The subject of this sentence is different from that of
the previous sentence. Please revise this sentence. It is a grammatical
error here.” (Supervisor feedback, 2 March 2021), and “which
implication comes first?” (Supervisor feedback, 5 June 2021), I had
anxiety, even though I knew that the use of interrogative and
imperative sentences lessened my anxiety to some extent, and I could
improve my writing competence through making more effort.
I also experienced anxiety when receiving reviewers’ comments
on manuscripts. Such anxiety lasted long and came back and forth.
This kind of emotion was more obvious in the past one and half years
of my PhD. Anxiety came to me when I read “The theoretical
background of the paper is inadequate,” (Reviewer comments, 5
September 2019) and “There are sections of the paper which are
confusing and should be reformulated,” (Reviewer comments, 21
December 2020). I noted my anxiety in one diary entry.
Feeling a little bit frustrated today. It is a revision day. I added more
authorized resources. It is a really difficult and challenging task.
How embarrassed I felt when I did not find proper authorized
resources to set up arguments. I need to read more related research
articles, select appropriate materials, and use these articles to
address the issue. Oh, what a day! (Diary, 5 May 2020).
4.1.3. Anxiety from individual stressors
The individual stressors came from work (teaching at one
university) and family, which triggered my anxiety from time to time,
as I worked full time and had a family to take care. I was well aware
that obtaining a PhD degree was more challenging for a full-time
teacher and mother, and I tried to balance among research, work, and
family. Still, I was haunted by anxiety once I failed doing research as
scheduled, and this kind of anxiety intensified, especially when I did
not find any time doing research in a week or when one manuscript
was rejected. Noted in many diary entries were cases of anxiety from
these stressors: “Today I have to complete a 2,000-word work report.
I feel a little bit anxious when I realize I do not have time working on
papers,” (26 May 2020), “I feel so overwhelmed. I did not have any
time on papers. Several days have passed,” (18 November, 2020), and
“Today it is weekend, and I spent a day with family. I did not do any
academic work, and I did not even make any improvements in my
papers. I feel anxious.” (26 November 2020).
I had mixed emotions while I was reading supervisor feedback…I
experienced some kind of anxiety. I could not help pondering over
how I could improve my EFL writing competence and better manage
my emotions. Reading the feedback, I know that more improvement
is needed…But, the difficulties seem to have put me into more
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4.2. Gaining a sense of enjoyment
Writing diaries benefits me, especially when I am experiencing a lot
of stressors,” (Diary, 19 December 2021).
The enjoyment came primarily from the support network and
conducting research. Such enjoyment provided an important
opportunity for me to manage my complicated and varied emotions.
The support from different sources was encouragement to me,
whereas conducting research offered me opportunities to evaluate my
academic writing performance and helped me develop positive
appraisals of anxiety, which both led to better enjoyment.
4.2.2. Enjoyment from conducting research
My enjoyment from conducting research covered two stages of
manuscript writing, i.e., revision and acceptance of manuscripts.
Revision of manuscripts was the first most important enjoyment
source for me. During the revision process, my enjoyment came from
revision and the progress I made after rounds of revision. I noted
down my enjoyment in one diary entry.
4.2.1. Enjoyment from the support network
The support network included self-support through writing
research diary entries and social support through receiving
positive comments from various sources. Writing diaries offered
me an opportunity to reflect on past research and emotional
experiences. Self-reflection improved my ability to activate
emotions and cognition. I could better engage in assessing my
academic writing performance. In doing so, I regarded diary
writing as an emotional outlet, whereas social support reinforced
my research engagement. The diary entry described how I valued
this kind of writing.
A new day starts. I completed making revisions and was ready to
submit the revised version to the journal in a minute. I felt more
relieved and confident when I read through the response. I clicked
the ‘submit’ button and took a deep breath. Although I was not very
sure whether the revised manuscript would be accepted, I had a
sense of enjoyment in revising, as I moved a step forward with
persistence and diligence. Even though it might be rejected, I would
not feel regretful as long as I have tried. In the past two months,
I responded to the reviewer comments and revised the version
repeatedly. It is not exaggerating to use the word ‘repeatedly’, as each
time I was about to submit, I always identified some new errors in
the manuscript, in which case, I had to revise it all over again. It is
in the constant revision process that I became a better EFL writer
with more interest in research (Diary, 24 February 2021).
3: 45 a.m. in the early morning. I happened to read an online blog
diary entry. The writer wrote that keeping diaries helped her record
personal experiences, and writing had the healing power for her,
especially when she felt at a loss or sought some kind of support.
I was impressed by what she wrote in her diary, as we had similar
feelings…Once I had no idea about how to write or revise the
manuscripts, I wrote diaries and read previous ones to help me
relieve the anxiety and calm down. In such a way, my anxiety got
relieved to a large extent. I came to realize the importance of the
progress I made and gained increasing confidence in myself by
means of keeping diaries, which further motivated me to make
greater effort to conduct research. More importantly, I have
developed a stronger research interest and an increasing awareness
of studying myself in the future (Diary, 31 May 2020).
Acceptance of research articles brought me a great sense of
enjoyment in academic research. Such enjoyment was an
encouragement and a stress reliever for me to build up confidence and
move forward with more research projects. The diary entry was a vivid
description of how I thought of conducting research after the
acceptance of one manuscript in the third year of my PhD.
A day of achievement indeed. I was jogging when my friend told me
excitedly that one manuscript was accepted. I felt so much relieved
when I heard about it, and a lot of memories flashed back into my
mind. It has been almost three years since I was enrolled in the PhD
program, and it is such a difficult journey…I still remember the days
and nights I collected and analyzed the data, the emotions
I experienced in the process, the discussions with other researchers,
etc. Learning to collect and analyze data, writing in a foreign
language, and revising manuscripts, have all become important
parts of my daily life…These experiences have enlightened my life
with hope. I do not remember how many times we have discussed
and revised the manuscripts. But I know that although sometimes
I was exhausted, I felt empowered. My true feelings are that doing
research is challenging but rewarding. I am happy to see what I have
been doing in the past three years (Diary, 14 August 2021).
Social support I received included the positive comments and
encouragements from my supervisor, reviewers, colleagues, family
members, and friends. Their support brought me some sense of
enjoyment. The constructive and positive feedback from the
supervisor and reviewers were promoters for my development from
anxiety to enjoyment and personal growth. The stressors from work
and family were important social support sources facilitating my
personal growth. I wrote about how one friend’s support helped me
treasure my life as a PhD student. I noted that “One friend gave me
very useful advice on topic sentences, logic, and structures within
paragraphs. She has always been there whenever I feel worried and
anxious. Such friendship is a treasure in my life, especially during my
PhD,” (Diary, 3 December 2020).
The balance among teaching, research, and family helped me gain
more enjoyment. I noted in the first year that “I have to balance among
teaching, research, and family. Spending time with family is relaxation
and gives me encouragements…I could get some useful feedback from
the ongoing discussions with my colleagues,” (Diary, 19 March 2019).
In the third year, I wrote that “I have well learned to balance among
teaching, research, and family. I could gradually get used to the way
how I reconcile with myself and find a way to release my emotions.
Frontiers in Psychology
4.3. Achieving personal growth
During the course of publication and dissertation writing, the
anxiety I experienced brought me some sense of enjoyment, which led
to better personal growth in various aspects, such as sustained
engagement and improved autonomy. I not only stayed engaged in
academic research, but also gradually had sustained engagement with
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research. Then I weaved new projects into my research. The research
interest is driven by experiencing both anxiety and enjoyment, and
retaining research interest through more research topics and a strong
support network. In stressful situations, my reflections empowered me
with the ability of better management, i.e., to mitigate different
stresses, seek various social support, and build a research community
to decrease tension from publication and dissertation writing. I could
better position myself and have more willingness to seek knowledge
and find ways to improve EFL writing skills. The growth helped me
become a better version of myself.
gradually got autonomy satisfaction from writing and could better
regulate my emotions. I like doing this in a self-determined way. It
brings me a lot of fun (Diary, 12 December 2020).
Improving the ability to communicate and interpret emotions is an
important part of improved autonomy. In developing my research
interest, I experienced both positive emotions (e.g., acceptance,
satisfaction, and happiness) and negative emotions (e.g., frustration,
anxiety, and disappointment). These mixed emotions were gradually
alleviated through a deeper understanding of feedback from supervisors,
reviewers, and editors. I could better comprehend their comments, with
which I could surpass past experiences and set new challenging goals.
I recorded how I interpreted my emotions in one diary entry.
4.3.1. Sustained engagement
Sustained engagement was an important part of my personal
growth during the PhD. It brought me a step closer to well-being, and
consisted of cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and
research engagement. The cognitive engagement provided me with
internal cognitive engagement and facilitated both the emotional
engagement and research engagement. The emotional engagement
I gained brought me abundant emotional resources to deal with the
research demand, especially EFL writing. It further harnessed myself
into research engagement. Such a combination of emotional
engagement and research engagement improved my autonomy. Th
diary entry described how I developed my research interest and
engaged in doing research in the beginning of the second year
of my PhD.
4:00 a.m. in the early morning. I have been working day and night
these years, and finally some manuscripts were published. Up till
now, four manuscripts have been accepted by SSCI-indexed
journals. Then I have gained more confidence in academic writing
as an EFL PhD student. Although I know there are still a lot of work
to be done in the future, I have confidence in improving myself.
I believe doing in my way can help me make improvements in using
more idiomatic language, building up a more logical and coherent
argument, etc. (Diary, 16 September 2021).
Time management skills improved my work efficiency. Such
improvement brought me more autonomy satisfaction and
engagement. I wrote a diary entry before graduation, which reflected
on my time management skills in the past 4 years.
1:20 p.m. in winter. It has been one year since I enrolled in the
program…I could not believe I have so many obstacles. I should take
a more self-distanced perspective to assess my writing ability. I seem
to have better known myself, with more English writing experiences
and emotional experiences. I have fallen in love with research design
and data analysis. It has become an important part of my life.
Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome both. I hope that
I could make more progress in the future. Though there would
be more difficulties and a new round of challenges, I have gained
confidence (4 January 2022).
Time really flies. Soon I am going to graduate from this university.
Reflecting on the past 4 years, I believe that good time management
strategies are important for completing different tasks and
maintaining positive emotions. A proper allocation of time is
essential for completion of the work and managing the emotions
that work brings to me. My time schedule is the regular workout in
the morning, writing academic papers in the day time, enjoying
family time after work, and then doing research. It has become a
fixed daily pattern for me. Even if I had no idea of what to write,
I still wrote diary entries to record my work experiences and
emotional experiences. Then I could better reconcile with myself
(Diary, 10 June 2022).
4.3.2. Improved autonomy
Enjoyment I gained from engagement facilitated the improvement
of autonomy. I realized the importance of engaging in research in a more
self-determined way, because I knew that this kind of autonomy helped
generate better engagement, especially research engagement. The
improved autonomy included self-regulation strategies and time
management skills. Compared with my past self, I improved the selfregulation strategies and developed some expertise during the 4 years.
Such self-regulation strategies were helpful for the improvement of
emotion management and research scheduling. The diary entry depicted
how I improved these two aspects in the second year of my PhD.
During the 4 years from September 2018 to June 2022, I wrote 550
research diary entries. Looking back on my personal experiences
described in the diary entries, I treasure the experiences as a PhD
student, although there were a lot of anxiety. I also treasure diary
writing, as it has become an emotional outlet for me. Anxiety, as part
of my life, provided me a valuable opportunity to reflect on myself,
and thus I could seek ways to face and manage anxiety, which led to a
sense of enjoyment, personal growth, and well-being.
I could complete the research writing task on a daily basis. There
was boredom sometimes, and I felt a little bit lonely in the writing
process. However, I could gradually adjust myself and focus more on
it after regulating my emotions. I tried to be productive every single
day. Also, I could get rid of the negative emotions through writing
about my personal experiences, including the challenges and
difficulties, the ways of how I calmed myself down through various
ways, and the anguish I had in the writing and revision process…I
Frontiers in Psychology
5. Discussion
The 4 years’ PhD trajectory brought forth both challenges and
difficulties for me. The experiences are similar to those reported in
previous studies (e.g., Park, 2005; Barry et al., 2018; Liu and Abliz,
2019; Huang, 2020; Beasy et al., 2021). The experiences covered both
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research and emotions, which echo with the call for attention to PhD
students’ experiences, i.e., research experiences (e.g., Casanave, 2010,
2019; De Magalhaes et al., 2019) and emotional experiences (e.g.,
Aitchison et al., 2012; Cotterall, 2013; Russell-Pinson and
Harris, 2019).
During the 4 years’ PhD program, I experienced complicated and
varied emotions, and these emotions were part of a PhD student’s
normal experiences (Casanave, 2014). Among these emotions, there
were a large proportion of negative emotions, such as anguish, distress,
and anxiety. I realized the harmfulness of the negative emotions
(Russell-Pinson and Harris, 2019), the benefits of making use of
positive emotions in providing motivational energy (McCormack,
2009), and the usefulness of research diary writing (Engin, 2011;
Browne, 2013; Glass et al., 2019) in scaffolding my study and healing
my emotions. Accordingly, I set up my mind and made great effort to
compromise and negotiate with the ongoing negative emotions,
especially anxiety, through writing research diaries and seeking
sources of social support. This process of negotiating my negative
internal dialog (Badenhorst, 2018) promoted sustained research
engagement and improved my autonomy. Gradually I embraced a
sense of enjoyment and achieved personal growth. This process was a
trajectory of maintaining and enhancing PhD well-being.
I was fraught with anxiety during the PhD, including anxiety
from publication and dissertation writing, foreign language writing
anxiety, and anxiety from individual stressors. The findings of anxiety
from publication and dissertation writing corroborate recent studies
(e.g., Berg et al., 2016; Mura and Wijesinghe, 2022), which explored
PhD students’ negative emotional experiences. Foreign language
writing was the second source of anxiety. Such anxiety sometimes
caused me to procrastinate my research, which are in line with the
findings of some studies (e.g., Taso et al., 2017; Tahmouresi and Papi,
2021). However, I could manage my emotions and move forward
with manuscript writing and revising, and gradually developed the
ability to interpret and reconcile negative emotions. Individual
stressors were the last sources causing anxiety. Different sources of
anxiety raised my awareness of identity as a novice researcher.
Realizing that I possessed most of the commonalities of a novice
researcher eased and decreased my anxiety. As such, I made every
effort to perceive myself in a more self-distanced perspective and
renegotiate the state of anxiety. This helped reduce the negative
mediation of anxiety. I wrote research diary entries to record and
reflect on my research and emotional experiences, which helped
soothe myself. Through actively engaging in writing diary entries,
I realized that diaries could help further reveal my hidden and
suppressed emotions and then release these emotions to a large
extent. Since then, I viewed diary writing as a useful method (e.g.,
Alaszewski, 2006; Hyers, 2018) and a cathartic tool (Browne, 2013),
and made full use of its role in scaffolding my research (Engin, 2011)
and healing effects (Glass et al., 2019). Surprisingly, with time passing
by, I perceived some positive changes that keeping diaries brought to
me, and I inter-weaved diary writing with my PhD life. To cope with
foreign language writing anxiety, I developed the ability to set up
clearer arguments, find more authorized resources, and better express
my voice with the scaffolding from my supervisor, reviewer
comments, and other sources. To reduce anxiety from individual
stressors, I tried to discuss with family members and colleagues. Such
ways eased my anxiety and shifted my focus from being fraught with
anxiety to a sense of enjoyment.
Frontiers in Psychology
But I gained a sense of enjoyment during the PhD, including
enjoyment from the support network and enjoyment from conducting
research. I felt enjoyment from self-support through writing research
diaries and social support through receiving constructive and positive
comments. The findings of self-support corroborate previous studies
(e.g., Engin, 2011; Browne, 2013), which stressed the role of research
diary writing in helping PhD students heal in their fieldwork. Social
support sources were various, but the findings showed how the
feedback from the supervisor and reviewers helped me develop
emotions from anxiety to enjoyment after managing the anxiety and
focusing more on feedback or comments. This can be explained by the
important role of supervisors in fostering doctoral satisfaction and
degree completion (e.g., Barnes and Randall, 2012; McAlpine and
McKinnon, 2013; Xu et al., 2021) and the usefulness of reviewer
comments in the development of PhD students’ academic writing
(e.g., Yu and Jiang, 2022). Enjoyment from conducting research
included revision of manuscripts and acceptance of research articles.
Such enjoyment was due to the co-development of my research
engagement and EFL writing performance, and it could exert some
positive influences on my cognitive processing styles and researchrelated behaviors, as indicated by the positive emotion theory
(Fredrickson, 2001). Enjoyment, as a kind of positive emotion, helped
me extend my research scope and interest after graduation, which
would lead to my life-long personal growth.
I also gained personal growth in sustained engagement and
improved autonomy. Personal growth, as a part of PhD students’ wellbeing (Ryff, 1989), led to an internal reflection on myself (Haynes
et al., 2012), being true to myself (Schmidt and Umans, 2014), and
self-care (Kumar and Cavallaro, 2018). My personal experiences
illustrated the sustained engagement in finding research interest and
engaging in more research projects. Such sustained engagement might
motivate students to contribute more to the field (Beasy et al., 2021).
The improved autonomy led me to a better productivity and efficiency
in research and brought me opportunities of adhering to new
expectations. Once fulfilling these expectations, I would have more
emotional rewards, such as enjoyment, relief, and hope. All these
emotions are conducive to my personal development and well-being.
I thus enjoyed the trajectory more and regarded the four-year PhD
experiences as a valuable part of my life journey.
6. Conclusion
This study has explored my personal experiences as a PhD student
using an autoethnographic approach and revealed how I gained a
sense of enjoyment and achieved personal growth after experiencing
anxiety over a four-year period. Although these narratives were highly
contextualized in my own personal experiences, it points to the
common and wider experiences of PhD students. The analysis of my
experiences enabled me to recognize the salient role of research diary
writing in scaffolding PhD research and providing emotional support.
I feel strongly that it is in this process that I could view all my emotions
as agentive and embrace more enjoyment in a trajectory full of
difficulties, challenges, and stress. Such enjoyment brought me a sense
of relief, helped me avoid the harmful outcome of anxiety, and brought
me back to sustained engagement.
Through analyzing research diary entries, I delineated my research
experiences and complex emotional trajectories and took initiatives
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Ethics statement
to seek self-support and social support of the kind that can maintain
PhD students’ well-being. This study suggests that PhD students can
and should develop their abilities to reduce anxiety and gain
enjoyment. It is important that PhD students should have confidence
in confronting the complex emotions and read related blog posts at a
blog or website, which are shared by other PhD students. Such a way
might help students alleviate anxiety and enhance well-being during
their PhD. It is also necessary for PhD students to seek social support
from supervisors, family, and institutions to deal with the ongoing
negative emotions.
This study has contributed to the understanding of PhD students’
experiences through providing an insider’s perspective. PhD students
are advised to cope with their negative emotions (i.e., anxiety and
anguish) through diary writing and channel more positive emotions
(i.e., enjoyment and relief) into their study. To help PhD students
gain more sense of enjoyment during their PhD, supervisors can
guide their students to reflect on their research and emotional
experiences by incorporating research diary writing as a scaffolding
tool. Such scaffolding opportunities would support students in the
enhancement of well-being. Higher education institutions are
suggested to use the low stakes research diary writing to help PhD
students maintain and enhance their well-being.
This study has confirmed the usefulness of autoethnography as an
empowering research method to explore PhD students’ experiences
and make full use of the embodied experiences (Adams et al., 2014).
Such an approach uses self-written research diaries as the data source
and could help PhD students document personal experiences, engage
in self-reflection, and improve emotion management and selfregulation strategies.
This study has two limitations. This study represented my own
perspectives and explored my personal experience as an EFL PhD
student across 4 years. It neither reached generalizable conclusions,
nor suited all. Also, this study could have been done with the
collaborative autoethnographic approach. Future research could use
a collaborative approach to explore the personal experiences of more
PhD students in different disciplines and contexts.
The studies involving humans were approved by the Research Ethics
Board of Shandong University (reference no. ECSBMSSDU2018-1-051).
The participant provided her written informed consent to participate in
this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s)
for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included
in this article.
Author contributions
The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and
has approved it for publication.
Funding
This work was supported by China Scholarship Council (grant
number 202102515001).
Acknowledgments
The author would like to express her thanks to the editors and the
reviewers for their constructive comments.
Conflict of interest
The author declares that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations,
or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product
that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
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TYPE
Original Research
28 September 2023
10.3389/fmed.2023.1215464
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra,
University of Zaragoza, Spain
REVIEWED BY
Aldo R. Vera-Calzaretta,
Universidad de Atacama, Chile
Francisco J. Moya-Faz,
Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia,
Spain
José Palacios Ramírez,
Catholic University of Murcia, Spain
Claudia Marisol Carrasco Dajer,
Catholic University of the Holy Conception,
Chile
The Human Library and the
development of cultural
awareness and sensitivity in
occupational therapy students: a
mixed methods study
Kirsty Pope *, Heather Hewlin-Vita and Eli Mang Yee Chu
Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
*CORRESPONDENCE
Kirsty Pope
Kirsty.pope@monash.edu
RECEIVED 02
May 2023
September 2023
PUBLISHED 28 September 2023
ACCEPTED 01
CITATION
Pope K, Hewlin-Vita H and Chu EMY (2023) The
Human Library and the development of cultural
awareness and sensitivity in occupational
therapy students: a mixed methods study.
Front. Med. 10:1215464.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1215464
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Pope, Hewlin-Vita and Chu. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication in
this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted which
does not comply with these terms.
Introduction: Monash university in Australia has adopted the Human Library
as a teaching activity aimed at enhancing occupational therapy (OT) students’
cultural awareness and sensitivity; however, its effect on cultural competence in
healthcare profession students has not been previously investigated.
Aim: To examine whether participation in a Human Library can facilitate the
development of OT students’ cultural awareness and sensitivity and to understand
the factors contributing to changes in cultural competence from the students’
perspective.
Method: This is a mixed-method study. Quantitative data was collected by
participant characteristic survey and pre/post-Human Library cultural competence
assessment (CCA). The quantitative data was used to inform the selection of
participants and questions for the second qualitative phase. Quantitative data
were analyzed using independent samples and paired t-tests, analysis of variance
and Pearson correlation. Qualitative data were analyzed using coding reliability
thematic analysis.
Results: Statistically significant increases were noted in CAS, CCB and overall
CCA scores from pre- to post-Human Library. Participant characteristics such
as gender, work experience in aged care and the health sector had a positive
effect on pre-Human Library CCA results. Qualitative data demonstrated that
participants perceived they had a level of cultural competence prior to attending
the Human Library however, still made gains in cultural awareness and sensitivity
and were motivated and inspired to provide culturally congruent healthcare.
Conclusion: The Human Library can be considered for inclusion within a suite
of learning methods for healthcare professional student curricula as a costeffective, flexible teaching method for the development of competencies for
culturally congruent healthcare.
KEYWORDS
cultural competency, Human Library, health professions education, education research,
occupational therapy
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10.3389/fmed.2023.1215464
TABLE 1 Elements of each layer of the 3D model Schim and Doorenbos
(16).
Introduction
In 2020, 7.6 million migrants lived in Australia representing
29.8% of the population (1). According to the United Nations (2020)
this puts Australia within the top ten countries around the world with
the highest number of foreign-born residents (2). Healthcare
professionals do not always possess the skills required to service
diverse populations and systemic factors can impact on users’ ability
to navigate and utilize healthcare, resulting in health care disparity (3).
Frameworks to help address this disparity have been proposed within
healthcare, including cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, cultural
competence and cultural safety (4). All of these frameworks require
health professionals to reflect on their own culture so they are in a
better position to understand the culture of those they work with (5).
Given the initiative to build methods of teaching culturally congruent
care into occupational therapy curriculum/practice (6) further
rigorous investigation is warranted due to a lack of evidence on the
best pedagogical methods to achieve this.
The authors of this article are academics and occupational
therapists who aimed to enhance teaching and learning on cultural
competency and culturally safe practice in the curricula of
undergraduate (UG) and master-entry level occupational therapy
(MOTPrac) programs provided by a university in Victoria, Australia.
Prior to 2018, the curricula focused on understanding culture as one
of the contextual determinants of health, fostering cultural awareness
and knowledge. Teaching was delivered mainly through lectures,
seminars, tutorials, and online modules for most students. A small
number of UG students were able to participate in inter-cultural
experiences overseas. In 2018 the revised Australian Occupational
Therapy Competency Standards (7) placed more emphasis on the
requirement for OTs to practice in a culturally safe and sensitive
manner. In addition to learning within the university setting, students
were expected to develop and practice cultural competencies in their
professional practice education fieldwork placements. In order to
better prepare our students for culturally safe and sensitive practice,
we explored adapting and integrating the Human Library program, to
create an educational experience to encourage students to interact
with people from diverse backgrounds and to have deep reflection on
their cultural competencies and learning.
The Human Library was a social movement, started in 2000 in
Copenhagen, aimed to provide a positive framework for conversations,
which challenge stereotypes and prejudices and therefore, build
positive relationships between people and promote inclusion (8). The
Human Library is similar to a standard library except that the books
are people with a story and the reading is a conversation (9). It unites
individuals who may not otherwise interact with each other (8) and,
as such, can be considered a social experiential learning opportunity.
Although positive effects of a Human Library are reported for
improving mental health literacy (10); social inclusion and promoting
recovery (11); respect and reducing bias (12); reframing attitudes (13);
and reducing prejudice (14) its effect on cultural competence in
student healthcare professionals has not been investigated.
This research was guided by the cultural competence model (15,
16) which conceptualizes cultural competence, as a non-linear,
interconnected, three-dimensional jigsaw, and ever-evolving process
towards culturally congruent care. The model has three layers, each
containing multiple elements (Table 1). The model values diverse
cultural experiences and posits that recgonising differences and
Frontiers in Medicine
Provider layer (the
The person moves between the following stages
healthcare professional or
towards culturally competent behavior: cultural
student)
diversity, awareness, sensitivity, and culturally
competent behaviors
Client layer
Individual, family, group, or whole community
who are the focus of healthcare services
Composed of their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors
that produces similarities or differences between
individuals, cultural groups, and subgroups
Outcome culturally
Outcome is achieved as providers mindfully
congruent care
interact with culturally diverse clients and the
provider and client layers unite
similarities between cultures allows personal insight and space for
cultural sensitivity to emerge (15). What follows are culturally
competent behaviors such as the ability to adapt and negotiate for
better health outcomes (15). This model was chosen because it is wellcited in healthcare literature (16–22) and provides a framework for
analyzing the development of cultural competencies of students after
attending a Human Library embedded in a teaching unit.
The Research questions for the study were:
1. What is the effect of participation in a Human Library on the
development of cultural awareness and sensitivity in
undergraduate OT students?
2. What is the students’ perspective on the influence of the
Human Library on their cultural competence?
Methods
We chose a mixed methods explanatory sequential pre-post
design without a comparison group, to explore the effectiveness, and
student’s perception of, a Human Library program in developing
cultural competency. We recognized that a combination of quantitative
and qualitative data results in a more comprehensive understanding
of a topic than either method alone (23). The quantitative data analysis
was used to refine the second qualitative phase including, participant
selection, and focus groups questions. In turn, the qualitative data was
used to explain and interpret quantitative results (23).
Educational intervention
The design of the Human Library program embedded in the
curriculum is based on experiential learning theory and principles to
provide opportunities for students to interact with people from diverse
ethnic, age, social backgrounds as well as people or carers with lived
experience of health issues. Students are required to complete an online
module introducing cultural concepts and to complete a self-reflection
task before attending a Human Library session. The pre-Human
Library reflection tasks ask students to reflect on their own culture, how
their culture influenced them, their perception of cultural competency
and any preconceived ideas of two human books selected from the
“books” available to them in the Human Library session. Students
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Pope et al.
10.3389/fmed.2023.1215464
attend a Human Library session, after which they complete a reflection
on the experience, noting any challenges to their preconceived ideas
and how they could apply what they learned in future OT practice.
Prior to COVID 19 travel restrictions the Human Library took place
face to face on the university campus. In April 2021, 98 onshore and
offshore OT students enrolled in an undergraduate 2nd year unit took
part in the Human Library sessions via video conferencing.
Fifteen volunteers from the university staff network and from the
community were recruited to be human books. Academic staff
organizing the Human Library explained the purpose of the Human
Library to volunteers, and discussed the guidelines about protecting
privacy and emotional risk when books share their stories. Students were
briefed about the expectation to be respectful, demonstrate professional
behavior, communication and to protect the privacy of the books, which
are essential competency for health professionals. Two Human Library
sessions were run online via a video conferencing platform, each with 15
human books, and 48 and 50 students, respectively. Groups of three to
five students engaged in conversation for 25 min each time with two
different human books. The human books told a personal story followed
by questions from, and discussion with, the students.
competence model (15, 16) was chosen as it is quick to administer and
suitable for participants with varying levels of education from less
than high school to graduate school level (19, 25). The CCA is
recommended for measuring cultural competence in nurses (20) and
is suitable to use with other healthcare providers (including clerical,
administrative staff, hospice workers, therapists, nursing assistants and
social workers) (19). The CCA uses a seven-point Likert scale. The
CAS subscale consists of 11 items (7 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly
disagree), with a maximum scale score of 77; and CCB subscale
consists of 14 items (7 = always, 1 = never), with a maximum subscale
score of 98 (19). Respondents are given choices to answer each
question with the answer “no opinion” or “not sure,” a score four out
of seven, equivalent to the score of “natural” was allocated to
these responses.
The CCA is sensitive to educational methods targeting cultural
competence making it suitable to use in research (19, 20, 25) and has
good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α 0.86–0.93) (20) indicating
that items proposing to measure the same construct produce similar
scores (26). It also has good test-retest reliability when tested on 51
hospice workers of varying disciplines and education levels (r = 0.85,
p = 0.002) (19) and has sufficient content validity (19, 20). Construct
validity has been assessed with 25 items having factor analysis loadings
above 0.42 (19).
Data were collected at three time points. Participants completed
the pre-Human Library CCA survey 7 days prior to the Human
Library event. Immediately following the Human Library, participants
completed the post-Human Library CCA survey (Figure 1).
After students had received the results for the academic unit,
consenting participants attended a 60 min online semi-structured
audio-recorded focus group to share their views of the Human Library.
Focus group questions were informed by the quantitative survey data
and designed to facilitate discussion of the participants’ prior level of
cultural awareness and sensitivity, their perspective of the Human
Library experience, levels of self-efficacy for cross-cultural
interactions, the impact of COVID-19 on opportunities to interact
with people from different backgrounds, and what participants would
do differently as a result of the Human Library. Quantitative data
analysis resulted in the addition of two questions to clarify unexpected
quantitative results, firstly, the lack of significant change in pre-post
cultural awareness and sensitivity and to investigate the effect of
COVID-related restrictions on participants’ intercultural interactions.
Recruitment
Second year undergraduate occupational therapy students (n = 98)
enrolled in a teaching unit in which the Human Library program is
embedded were invited to participate in the study through an
announcement on the online learning management system. Due to a
small single sample pool, quantitative sampling involved
non-probabilistic convenience sampling. Students were invited to
participate in the study by completing pre and post Human Library
surveys and attending a focus group. Explanatory statements and
consent forms were sent to eligible students via email approximately
2 weeks prior to the Human Library. Potential participants were
invited to attend one of two online recruitment sessions, where
information about the study were presented, and opportunities for
questions provided. All the recruitment procedures were administered
by a member of the research team not directly involved in teaching
these undergraduate students (KP) to avoid conflict of interest
and coercion.
To ensure participants with a range of characteristics and
experience were included, maximum variation sampling (24) was
used to group participants who provided informed consented to
participate in a focus group according to their gender, age, ethnicity,
location (onshore or overseas), work experience, cultural learning
experience, and exposure to people from different cultures.
Quantitative analysis
All data were cleaned and de-identified prior data analysis using
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (version 27.0).
Participant characteristic data were summarized using descriptive
statistics. Total CCA scores and that of each factor (CAS and CCB)
and each CCA item were assessed for normality by analyzing the
distribution of frequencies (26). Paired t-tests were used to evaluate
differences between pre-/post-CCA scores for the total scores, CAS
and CCB subscale scores. t-test results were considered to
be significant if p ≤ 0.05 (26). Effect sizes, using Cohen’s d, were
calculated to assess the magnitude of the differences of CCA, CAS,
and CCB score pre and post participation in the Human Library (26).
Independent t-test was used in subgroup analysis to compare
CCA, CAS and CCB scores for the following factors: participants’
Data collection
A Qualtrics survey was used to gather data on participant
characteristics (age, gender, onshore/offshore, home country and
number of languages spoken) and past experience in cultural
competency training.
The cultural competence assessment (CCA) (25), a 25-item selfreport tool was used to measure cultural competency across two
factors: cultural awareness and sensitivity (CAS), and culturally
competent behaviors (CCB). The CCA, based on the cultural
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Pope et al.
10.3389/fmed.2023.1215464
Results
location at the time of the study (onshore or offshore). with or without
previous work experiences in aged care, disability and health sector,
with or without previous cultural learning experiences, and those who
completed both pre and post Human Library surveys or not. In the
survey, we asked participants whether they had previous work
experiences in a variety of paid or non paid work in the aged care,
disability and health sector. We grouped the responses of all types of
aged care, disability and health work experiences into one group “with
previous work experiences in aged care, disability and health” to
compare with participants who did not have work experiences in these
fields. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was to be used for
subgroup analysis to compare CCA, CAS and CCB scores for the
following factors: age groups gender (male, female, prefer not to say),
and, frequency of intercultural interactions at work/university and
home/leisure time. The results of the quantitative data analysis were
used to refine the second qualitative phase of the research including,
participant selection and refinement of interview questions (23).
Participant characteristics
Fifty-five out 98 students participated in the study, the response
rate was 57%. Ten responses were excluded due to incomplete CCA
data occurring when participants started responding to demographic
questions but stopped before completing the CCA, resulting in a final
sample size of 45 (male = 12, female = 32, one prefers not to say).
Twenty-eight participants (male = 8, female = 20) answered both the
pre and post-Human Library surveys, with 17 participants completing
the pre-Human Library only.
The majority of participants were aged 18–24 years, more than half
of the participants were from North-East Asia including China, Hong
Kong, and Macau. Approximately one third were from Australia, and
the remaining were from Afghanistan, Brunei, England, France, India,
or Saudi Arabia. There were 39 participants studying in Australia at
the time of the research, with six offshore. Whilst the majority of
participants did not report their work experience, those that did,
noted the areas of aged care, health and/or disability.
Many participants reported infrequent intercultural interactions
with 40% having weekly or less than weekly intercultural interactions at
work, volunteering and/or university and 80% having weekly or less
than weekly intercultural interactions at home or during leisure/social
activities. The majority of participants (73%) reported speaking two or
more languages and 96% of participants indicated interest in learning
about different cultures and building intercultural skills. Detailed
demographic information of the participants are presented in Tables 2, 3.
Thirty participants reported prior cultural learning experiences
such as courses/workshops and living/studying abroad, whilst the
remaining five did not (see Table 4).
Qualitative analysis
The aim of qualitative analysis was to provide a rich description
of the data set on a new area of research (27) as is the case with the
Human Library. Each researcher first engaged in a process of
reflexivity where their own unconscious bias was explored as an
integral component of the qualitative phase of the research (27). The
qualitative analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s (27) six-phase
thematic analysis, incorporating the steps recommended by
Liamputtong (24), within step 1: familiarization of data. This involved
each author reading and re-reading the transcripts to develop
familiarity with the content and to gain an understanding of what
participants as a group were saying (24). Through continued
examination of the transcripts, the authors were able to move to steps
two and three with the generation of codes, a codebook (27) and each
author reviewing the codes to define and name themes (24, 27). Step
four involved the comparison of themes, and step five, reaching a
consensus on themes by discussion. The completion of steps 1–5
resulted in unbiased themes ready for reporting. Qualitative results
were compared with quantitative results through methodological
triangulation and as the final stage; multiple quotations demonstrating
the themes were chosen to be presented in text (24, 28)to ensure data
triangulation (24).
Quantitative analysis
Cultural competency as measured by the CCA
Cultural awareness and sensitivity
There was a significant increase in CAS mean scores (p = 0.043)
from the pre-Human Library experience (M = 64.04, SD = 5.93, range
50–73), to post-Human Library experience (M = 65.79SD = 6.23, range
49–75) out of 77. The mean increase in the CAS scores was 1.75, 95%
CI (− 0.27, −3.77) with a small effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.336).
Ethical approval and considerations
Culturally competent behaviors
There was a statistically significant increase in CCB scores
(p = 0.004) from pre-Human Library (M = 59.68, SD = 9.81, range
40–82) to post-Human Library (M = 66.18, SD = 12.58, range 42–97)
out of 98. The mean increase in CCB scores was 6.50, 95% CI (1.86,
11.1) with a moderate effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.544) indicating that the
Human Library had a moderate positive influence on self-perceived
culturally competent behaviors.
Approval was granted by the university’s Human Research Ethics
Committee (27411) and considered low risk. To avoid potential
coercion, the researcher involved with teaching and coordination of
the undergraduate curriculum was not involved in recruitment. To
avoid breaches of confidentiality, the researchers involved with
teaching and coordination of the undergraduate (EC) and masters
(KP) curricula did not have access to identifiable data and the UG
coordinator (EC) was not involved in interviewing students in phase
two. Quantitative and qualitative data were de-identified by a
researcher not involved in teaching OT students (HH-V) and stored
in a separate password protected file, accessible by all researchers
for analysis.
Frontiers in Medicine
Cultural competence
There was a statistically significant increase in CCA scores
(p = 0.001) from pre-Human Library (M = 123.71, SD = 10.18, range
99–145) to post-Human Library (M = 131.96, SD = 13.68, range
106–165) out of 175. The mean increase in CCA scores was 8.25, 95%
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10.3389/fmed.2023.1215464
TABLE 2 Characteristics of participants at baseline—age, gender, location and work experience.
Participants
characteristics
All students at baseline (n = 45)
Students who completed both pre and post Human
Library survey (n = 28)
N (%)
CAS
scores M
(SD)
CCB
scores M
(SD)
CCA
scores M
(SD)
N (%)
42 (93%)
61.95 (7.26)
59.29 (10.69)
121.24 (13.93)
26 (93%)
2 (4%)
61.50 (3.54)
41.50 (2.12)
103.00 (5.66)
1 (3.5%)
CAS
scores M
(SD)
CCB
scores M
(SD)
CCA
scores M
(SD)
Pre
63.88 (5.81)
60.54 (9.34)
124.42(9.24)
Post
65.57 (6.29)
66.81 (12.03)
132.38 (12.88)
Pre
59.0000
40.00
99.00
Post
64.00
42.00
106.00
Age
18–24
25–34
1 (2%)
73.00
57.00
130.00
1 (3.5%)
35–44
Pre
73.00
57.00
130.00
Post
73.00
74.00
147.00
Pre
59.25 (5.80)c
60.63 (11.24)
119.88 (13.42)
Post
63.50 (7.84)
66.00 (13.10)
129.50 (16.22)
Pre
c
65.95 (4.91)
59.30 (9.47)
125.25 (8.50)
Post
66.70 (5.42)
66.25 (12.71)
132.95 (12.87)
—
—
—
Gender
12 (27%)
58.92 (5.76)b
58.17 (10.32)
117.08 (11.98)
8 (29%)
Male
b
59.25 (10.77)
123.41 (12.14)
20 (71%)
38.00
36.00
74.00
0 (0%)
62.28 (7.57)
57.83 (10.97)
120.12 (14.37)
26 (93%)
32 (71%)
64.16 (5.93)
1 (2%)
39 (87%)
Female
Prefer not to say
Student location
Onshore
6 (13%)
61.50 (4.72)
62.50 (11.00)
124.00 (12.62)
2 (7%)
Offshore
Previous work
14 (31%)
d
65.43 (5.46)
59.64 (10.49)
125.07 (11.80)
10 (26%)
31 (69%)
60.71 (7.51)d
57.90 (11.31)
118.61 (14.73)
18 (64%)
Pre
63.96 (6.06)
59.62 (10.02)
123.58 (10.55)
Post
66.31 (5.83)
66.00 (12.96)
132.31 (14.15)
Pre
65.00 (5.66)
60.50 (9.19)
125.50 (3.54)
Post
59.00 (9.90)
68.50 (7.78)
127.50 (2.12)
Pre
e
67.00 (4.67)
61.00 (11.50)
128.00 (12.08)
Post
68.10 (6.77)
63.40 (15.17)
131.50 (15.60)
Pre
62.39 (6.03)e
58.94 (9.01)
121.33 (8.40)
Post
64.50 (5.69)
67.72 (11.07)
132.22 (12.97)
experiences in aged care,
disability and healthcarea
No work experience in
these fields
a
Frequency of work experience: unpaid caregiver (n = 5), health professional assistant (n = 4), personal/community/disability support worker (n = 2), shadowing a health professional (n = 1),
aged or community care volunteer (n = 1), others (n = 1). One participant had work experience as an unpaid caregiver and healthcare professional assistant.
b
Significant difference observed in baseline CAS score between male and female students, t(42) = −2.630, p = 0.012, response “prefer not to say” was not included in the analysis.
c
Significant differences observed between male and female CAS score (students completed pre and post test), t(26) −3.099, p = 0.005.
d
Significant differences in baseline CAS scores observed between students with/without work experience in aged care, disability or health sector, t(43) 2.108, p = 0.041.
e
Significant differences observed between students (completed pre and post test) with/without work experience in aged care, disability or health, CAS score, t(26) 2.089, p = 0.047.
CI (3.12 to 13.38) with a moderate effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.624)
indicating that the Human Library had a moderate positive influence
on overall self-perceived cultural competence.
baseline CAS scores between male and female, (p = 0.012). No
significant differences were detected between males and females for
pre-Human Library CCB and CCA scores. Age. Almost all the
respondents were within the 18–24 years old age group (n = 42), two
were between 25–34 years old age group and one was between 35
and 44 years old. We did not perform subgroup analysis for age as
a factor due to the uneven distribution between the three different
age groups.
The relationship between participant
characteristics and CCA scores at baseline
Gender
Before attending the Human Library, female students had
significantly higher CAS scores (M = 64.16, SD = 5.93) and CCA
scores (M = 123.41, SD = 12.14) in comparison to male students
CAS scores (M = 58.92, SD = 5.76) and CCA scores (M = 117.08,
SD = 11.98); those prefer not to report their gender (CAS = 38,
CCA = 74) based on analysis of variance. Only one participant
selected the gender option of “prefer not to say” and the CAS and
CCA scores for this participant were much lower than the mean
scores of the male and female groups. We used the independent
t-test to do further analysis to compare the male and female baseline
CAS and CCA scores. There were significant differences in both
Frontiers in Medicine
Work experiences
Participants who have work experiences in aged care, disability
and health have significantly higher pre-Human Library CAS, CCB
and CCA scores compared to those who do not. However, only the
differences of the CAS scores between the groups were significantly
different (p = 0.041).
Previous cultural learning experiences/interactions
There were no significant differences detected in pre-Human
Library CAS, CCB and CCA scores between participants with or
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10.3389/fmed.2023.1215464
TABLE 3 Participants ethnicity and country of origin at baseline (n = 45).
Ethnicity/
count
Country of origin
India
Hong
Kong
Australia
Macau
England
France
China
Afghanistan
Saudi
Arabia
Brunei
Total
1
Aboriginal
1
and/or Torres
Islander
Australian
10
1
11
1
North-West
1
European
1
Southern and
1
Eastern
European
1
North African
1
and Middle
Eastern
South-East
1
11
2
2
1
1
18
Asian
North-East
3
1
2
1
4
Asian
South and
1
1
5
Central Asian
3
Prefer not to
3
say
Total
2
19
14
2
1
1
3
1
1
1
45
TABLE 4 Summary of number of participants participating in previous
cultural learning experiences (n = 45).
Cultural learning experiences
Quantitative Data Collection
Number of students
Cultural learning course only
5
Cultural learning workshop only
11
Lived abroad only
3
Studied abroad only
6
Cultural learning immersion program only
1
International homestay only
1
Other cultural learning experience only
1
Multiple cultural learning experiences
12
Not participated in any cultural learning
5
Survey distributed 7 days pre-Human
Excluded (n=10)
Pre-Human Library
responses (n=55)
Quantitative Data Collection
Survey distributed immediately post-
experience
Completed pre
and post HL
Survey
without previous cultural learning experience that may include
cultural learning courses or workshops, lived abroad, studied abroad,
cultural immersion programs or international homestay experiences.
We also found no significant associations between the pre-Human
Library CAS, CCB, CAS scores and the frequency of participants
engaged in intercultural interactions at work or university, at home or
during leisure activities.
Only completed
pre-HL survey
(n=17)
(n=28)
Included in
final analysis
(n=45)
Geographical location
There were no significant differences in pre-Human Library CAS,
CCB and CAS scores between participants who were onshore
or offshore.
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Incomplete CCA
Data
FIGURE 1
Quantitative data collection.
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“After this subject I think I kind of more understand and more
open to different culture and yeah, and I will understand more um
the thought of different culture” (Belle).
Completion of pre and post survey
There was a significant difference (p = 0.025) in pre-Human
Library CAS scores for participants who completed pre and post
CCA (n = 28, M = 64.04, SD = 5.93) and those who completed the
pre-Human Library CCA only (n = 17, M = 59.11, SD = 8.23). No
significant differences were detected between pre-Human Library
CCB or CCA scores for participants who completed or not
completed both pre and post-test surveys. This may indicate that
completion of both pre and post-Human Library CCA had a
moderately positive influence on pre-Human Library CAS scores.
Therefore, participants who completed both pre and post-CCA
started at a higher level of cultural awareness and sensitivity than
those who completed the pre-Human Library CCA only. (See
Table 2).
For participants who completed both pre and post Human
Library surveys, significant differences in pre-Human Library CAS
scores were observed between male and female (p = 0.005); and
participants with or with or without previous work experiences in
aged care, disability and health (p = 0.047). CAS, CCB and CAS
scores between subgroups of participants based on their location or
previous
cultural
learning/interaction
were
not
significantly different.
A capacity for culturally competent behavior was demonstrated
prior to the Human Library by some:
“If you put it into action, um… you meet them and you get to talk
with them, you will try to avoid kind of like, letting those
stereotypes and assumptions affect your relationship with
them” (Ash).
Whilst others reflected on their learning needs in this area:
“I suppose I have not properly worked out how to control the,
you know sort of modify how I act to suit everyone’s different
needs, cause obviously they will not all have the same views and
values” (Abbi).
Despite reporting the positive impact of university activities on
their levels of cultural competence, participants identified barriers to
opportunities for intercultural interactions, including personal
barriers such as confidence:
Qualitative analysis
“I think I am introvert and not very good at opening up a topic
and even in my same language I’m not very good at speaking very
confidently or speaking very fluently” (Belle).
Three participants consented to participating in the qualitative
phase of the research. Two participants joined a focus group and
one participated in a single interview. Audio recordings were
transcribed verbatim by the lead researcher and de-identified
replacing names with pseudonyms during the transcription
process (29). Two main themes resulted from analysis of the
qualitative data including: cultural competence prior to the Human
Library and the influence of the Human Library on
cultural competence.
The impact of online learning due to coronavirus disease in 2019
(COVID-19) on opportunities to have personal intercultural
interactions was noted by participants:
“At university, um maybe because I had only 1 day at uni and the
rest of it was online via tutorials, so you did not really get the
chance to connect with people” (Abbi).
“Especially in the pandemic situation, I do not have many chances
to really see people or communicate with different people so yeah,
it give me one more chance to” (Belle).
Cultural competence prior to the Human Library
Participants felt they already had a level of cultural awareness and
competence prior to the Human Library, influenced partly by personal
experience, including the cultural environment they grew up in “the
school I went to was very diverse” (Abbi), with one international
student noting:
Influence of the Human Library on cultural
competence
Participants viewed the Human Library as another opportunity to
practice intercultural interactions and highlighted the importance
of listening:
“I think in my culture people are still not very open to having
touch, like they are not very used to hugging each other or like
kissing or whatever… they keep the distance between people, but
in Western culture, they are more open to having physical touch”
(Belle).
“I think it’s just about giving me more chance to practice or to face
different people from different culture” (Belle).
Participants reflected on the influence media had on their
assumptions about others with one saying: “The main assumptions I had
was just the stuff I was seeing through movies and social media” (Abbi).
Participants noted that prior university-based cultural learning
experiences facilitated improved awareness of, and sensitivity to,
differences between cultures:
The Human Library encouraged new realizations and new
concepts for participants with one participant remarking on an older
human book’s use of technology:
“I learnt a lot this year and last year at uni about certain
cultures…” (Abbi).
“I did not take into consideration that we were in the 21st century
and they may have like other family members who have taught
Frontiers in Medicine
“From listening alone, you can learn a lot about a person’s culture
and life story” (Ash).
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“I think my willingness stayed the same, it maybe just reminded
me to do more” (Ash).
them with the technology or maybe they have like a lot of
exposure already throughout the years and they may be more
experienced than us” (Ash).
When asked how they would do more, they responded:
Participants experienced moments of surprise when their
unconscious assumptions were challenged As illustrated by a
participant who gained insight that a mother could still be very
actively involved in providing care for her son, even though he is
an adult.
“Maybe get an interpreter beforehand discuss what you are gonna
talk about so that there’s no misinterpretations when the
interpreter is translating. And also, if you are about to suggest like
recommendations or an intervention plan to the client from a
different culture, maybe do a bit of research beforehand to see if it
aligns with their culture and their customs” (Ash).
“My initial impression on this was that the mother has a very
young son, less than 10 years old, but I did not expect him to be a
full grown man” (Ash).
Another participant reflected that they had never asked friends
about their different cultures and that those conversations would
be important moving forward into clinical placement:
Another participant reflected that the story she heard helped her
to consider that the skills of healthcare professionals does not
guarantee acceptance from the client:
“Having those conversations like we do not normally do would
be a first step and it’s not a difficult step either” (Abbi).
“I thought she must be very capable and very skilled in handling
this issue but after her presentation, she mentioned her brother
not willing to accept her help she can do nothing” (Belle).
Similarly, a participant identified that as a result of the Human
Library; they would explore other opportunities to interact with
people from different cultures:
The Human Library encouraged participant self-reflection and
highlighted differences between people when human books, and their
stories, did not meet expectations. Self-reflection helped students
identify that their own values could affect others and that a person’s
views and values can influence their behavior:
“I think maybe join more different volunteers or explore more
chances to get in touch with different culture” (Belle).
The same participant, when asked what they thought might
change as a result of the Human Library, talked about the importance
of considering people’s different backgrounds and perspectives,
emphasizing that they learned not to judge others by their appearances:
“Reflecting on how my values affect other people and
understanding that other people have different views and values
to me and then obviously that will affect how they behave as well
and finding the mutual respectfulness balance” (Abbi).
“I will take more consideration about people—everyone has their
life story, and we have to respect their story and we should not um
give a first impression about their appearance or… um yeah we do
not have… we should not judge the person about their appearance
but we have to understand that they have different stories” (Belle).
The Human Library encouraged another participant to reflect on
her own life situation and common humanity when reflecting on the
experience of the human book:
“She has to take care of um a disabled family member which make
me for um feel I’m so glad to um live in a relatively perfect um
situation which I do not have to worry too much” (Belle).
Discussion
The aim of this research was to examine the effect of participation
in a Human Library on the development of occupational therapy (OT)
students’ cultural awareness and sensitivity. The quantitative findings
from the pre-post CCA (25) indicate that some students had higher
levels of cultural awareness and sensitivity, and culturally competent
behaviors than others prior to the Human Library. Factors influencing
these baseline scores were gender and work experience (client layer).
The influence of gender on the baseline cultural awareness and
sensitivity scores was noted with women having statistically
significantly higher levels than men as measured by the CAS (25).
Interestingly, this difference was not carried through to the post
Human Library scores which may indicate that males’ levels of CAS
improved more than females as a result of the Human Library.
The influence of previous work experience on cultural awareness
and sensitivity was noted with statistically significantly higher levels
recorded on the CAS (25) for participants with work experience in
health, aged care or disability. Presumably some of these participants
would have been exposed to people from different cultural
Participants recognized how the pre and post-Human Library
reflection activities, and completion of the CCA, helped them get
more from the Human Library:
“I think the interview itself was amazing but I do not think
I would have taken away as much if I did not do the reflective
part…cause otherwise I would have attended, listened and moved
on. I really liked that part, it really made you think when you do
the survey” (Abbi).
The Human Library served as a reminder to participants to
be aware of their own unconscious beliefs, values, and biases; and to
continue towards developing culturally competent behavior. One
participant felt that, although their cultural awareness and sensitivity
did not necessarily change as a result of the Human Library, it
reminded them to continue to reflect and inspired them to take action
to promote culturally congruent healthcare practice:
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backgrounds in their work allowing for opportunities to reflect on
these interactions and potentially build awareness and sensitivity to
cultural differences.
Eighty two percent of participants reported having daily to weekly
intercultural interactions at work/study compared to 38 percent at home
or during leisure time. This potentially reflects that the research was
undertaken at a time of enforced COVID 19 restrictions which
dramatically reduced opportunities for intercultural interactions for
many participants, particularly within their personal lives. As one
interview participant pointed out, the students in this cohort had 1 day
of face-to-face learning since starting university in March 2020 followed
by mostly online learning into 2021, during which the Human Library
took place. As suggested in a recent report by the Tertiary Education
Quality and Standards Agency in Australia (30) one of the main
negative effects of an online university environment is student social
isolation, lack of engagement with others, and reduced motivation.
Qualitative findings support this in that students identified feeling
isolated from peers, despite the online learning environment, citing lack
of informal interactions and reduced access to shared social spaces.
Significant positive changes from pre to post Human Library CAS,
CCB and CCA scores supported that the Human Library had a
significant impact on increasing students’ cultural awareness and
sensitivity, as well as self-perceived culturally competent behaviors.
Even with participants who had previous work experience having
significantly higher baseline CAS scores, the differences in CAS scores
between those who had work experience and those who had not were
not significant post Human Library. This suggests that students with
less exposure to diverse populations through work might benefit more
from this program. This reflects previous studies on the Human
Library which noted how the activity highlights differences between
people and serves to draw attention to discriminatory attitudes and
stereotyping (9, 11, 13). Cultural competence can be seen as a
behavioral construct that includes the ability to learn about people
from different cultures, and adapt care to meet their needs (15). The
Human Library helped some participants build on their prior levels of
cultural awareness and sensitivity to begin considering how they could
modify their behavior to provide culturally congruent services.
Participants for example, discussed accessing resources to ensure their
future therapy interventions aligns with cultural needs, having
conversations with clients about their cultural preferences, and
exploring more opportunities for further intercultural interactions to
improve readiness for clinical placement.
Experiential learning methods, especially ones that target diversity
awareness and behavior change can be instrumental in helping
healthcare profession students become culturally congruent
practitioners (31). Importantly the positive effect the Human Library
had on students’ development of cultural competence in this current
study supports findings of others that local experiential methods for
developing cultural competence, such as the Human Library, are more
financially and logistically viable than immersive experiences (32, 33).
Remuneration for human books who wish to tell their stories or make
a social impact, the hiring of facilities (if not available in kind), and
catered refreshment breaks is much less expensive than immersive
experiences, especially those involving international travel to live or
study abroad (32, 33). Furthermore, as was needed for this study due
to COVID-19 restrictions, the Human Library can be conducted
online and still produce positive changes in cultural competence. This
reflects previous studies exploring low-cost educational methods for
Frontiers in Medicine
the development of cultural competence (34–37). From an educators’
point of view a Human Library, whether in person or online, therefore
provides the opportunity for a more accessible and equitable learning
method for large cohorts of healthcare students.
Qualitative findings suggest that participants made gains in
cultural awareness and sensitivity through the pre and post Human
Library self-reflection activities with one participant noting that they
would not have gained as much from the experience without the
reflective component. Although the findings were based on three
participants, the use of reflection as a transformative process and to
develop deeper learning is commonly documented in the literature
(38) with reflection enabling people to align their own values with
their professional actions (39). In the context of culturally safe care
this is an important aspect of the Human Library activities. Cultural
safety builds on awareness and sensitivity and requires a continual
process of reflection on practice with the health professional reflecting
on their own cultural identity and privilege (4, 40, 41). Reflective tasks
are therefore built into the educational element of the Human Library
as mandatory submitted pass/fail tasks, but were not part of the
research analysis. This was due to consideration of potential student/
research bias with students knowing that the research analysis was
conducted by academics associated with the program. As Cranton
(42) notes, the importance of learners’ privacy needs to be respected
and consideration given to how reading personal reflections could
induce the learner to write what they think the educator wants to see.
Reflection should therefore be a fundamental part of a Human Library
experience from an educational and cultural safety perspective but
future research will need to consider how to use this data without
compromising disciplinary power (42).
Limitations
The measurement tool used in this study, the CCA (25) measures
cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity as one construct which
potentially means that changes in cultural sensitivity as a result of the
Human Library are not captured independently from cultural
awareness in this study. The results of this study represent data
collected from one cohort of undergraduate second-year students,
from one university who had fewer opportunities to interact with
people during the COVID pandemic. We therefore need to be cautious
in interpreting the results. Although the results of this study supported
the use of the Human Library together with reflection to enhance
cultural competency development, we do not know how the effect of
this pedagogy compares with other teaching methods. We aimed to
collect data from a larger sample size, but the response rate was not
high. A small sample size limited our ability to measure the influence
of various factors that may contribute to one’s cultural competency. In
future research, conducting randomized controlled studies to compare
Human Library and teaching methods would provide further evidence
for the effectiveness of using a Human Library to facilitate the
development of cultural competency. Qualitative sampling did not
result in participant numbers suitable for purposive sampling or a
focus group. The opinions of the three participants could be biased
and therefore limit their ability to explain quantitative data. A larger
sample size would be needed to reduce this bias in future research. It
is also difficult to generalise the findings to the wider health
student population
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Conclusion
requirements. The participants provided their written informed
consent to participate in this study.
The findings of this small study suggested that gender and having
experiences in working in the aged care, disability and health sector
in a country with a diverse population have a positive influence on the
person’s cultural awareness. However, the factors may not have
association on a person’s cultural behavior. As recommended by
Bezrukova et al. (31) teaching diversity and cultural competence is
best accomplished using integrated, mandatory, cumulative and multimodal approaches across a curriculum rather than stand-alone
approaches. The Human Library, as a social experiential learning
opportunity, can be considered for inclusion within a suite of learning
methods for healthcare professional student curricula as a costeffective, flexible teaching method for cultural competence. It offers a
unique opportunity to listen to a person’s story and learn not only
about the storyteller, but also about ones’ self. When offered early in
the curriculum and in conjunction with other teaching methods
including self-reflection activities, the Human Library can serve to
facilitate student healthcare professionals to progress from cultural
awareness and sensitivity towards the building of culturally competent
behaviors and ultimately the provision of culturally congruent care.
Author contributions
EC, KP, and HH-V: conceptualization, writing-review and editing.
EC and HH-V: quantitative data analysis. HH-V and KP: qualitative
analysis. All authors contributed to the article and approved the
submitted version.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the students who volunteered to
participated in the study. The authors would also like to thank the
human books who share their stories and create valuable learning
opportunities for students.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Publisher’s note
Ethics statement
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations,
or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product
that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
The studies involving humans were approved by Monash
University Human Research Ethics Committee. The studies were
conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional
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TYPE
Brief Research Report
06 November 2023
10.3389/feduc.2023.1284618
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EDITED BY
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University of Zaragoza, Spain
REVIEWED BY
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Universidad de Cádiz, Spain
Masako Kubo,
University of Salamanca, Spain
Alicia Puente Martínez,
University of the Basque Country, Spain
*CORRESPONDENCE
Ryosuke Onoda
ronoda@yamanashi.ac.jp
RECEIVED 28
August 2023
October 2023
PUBLISHED 06 November 2023
ACCEPTED 16
CITATION
Onoda R and Omi Y (2023) The value of
extracurricular activities to Japanese junior
high school students: focusing on the
expression of a school’s attractiveness in
writing.
Front. Educ. 8:1284618.
doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1284618
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© 2023 Onoda and Omi. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of
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does not comply with these terms.
The value of extracurricular
activities to Japanese junior high
school students: focusing on the
expression of a school’s
attractiveness in writing
Ryosuke Onoda * and Yasuhiro Omi
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Yamanashi, Kofu, Japan
This study explores the value of extracurricular activities to Japanese junior high
school students and how this value can be transmitted to junior students through
essay writing. The study participants involved Japanese seventh graders; the essay
focused on school attractiveness and covered the following three conditions:
(1) “control condition,” where juniors (sixth graders) are assumed to be readers,
(2) “emphasis condition,” where the teacher requested participants to assume
a more specific view of the juniors, and (3) “emphasis–visualization condition,”
where the teacher requested participants to assume a more specific view of
juniors and where the participants visualized the characteristics of juniors before
completing the writing assignment. More information regarding extracurricular
activities was provided in the emphasis–visualization condition. This suggests
that when Japanese junior high school students are highly aware of their juniors,
they evaluate extracurricular activities as an attractive school feature and readily
transmit this value to younger students.
KEYWORDS
extracurricular activities, junior high school students, value transmission, visualization
in writing, school transition, Japan
1. Introduction
Extracurricular activities as part of school life are believed to positively affect adolescent
development (Eccles et al., 2003). However, they also have several negative aspects, such as overbusyness (Kremer-Sadlik et al., 2010) and stress among the children. In Japan, approximately all
junior and senior high schools participate in extracurricular activities, with students often
choosing one activity (club) to engage in. Japanese students engage in diverse extracurricular
clubs, including sports clubs such as a “basketball club,” arts clubs such as a “brass band,” and
academic clubs such as a “computer club.” In most countries of the Organization for Economic
Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and its partner countries, extracurricular activities
are more prevalent during the school year (before and/or after classes) than during holidays
(Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2017). However, in Japan, such
activities are common not only during the school year but also during holidays, as sufficient time
is devoted to extracurricular activities throughout the year. According to an Organization for
Economic Co-Operation and Development (2019) survey, teachers in Japan dedicate 7.5 h/week
to extracurricular activities, which was much higher than the average of 1.9 h/day among
teachers from other countries that participated in the survey. Additionally, since the Organization
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Onoda and Omi
10.3389/feduc.2023.1284618
for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2019) does not
account for the time dedicated during holidays and long vacations,
Japanese teachers might be more excessively engaged in extracurricular
activities than this result suggests.
Although participation in club activities (extracurricular
activities) is formally “voluntary,” a survey by the Japan Sports Agency
(2018) revealed that 92% of junior high school students and 81% of
senior high school students participate in these activities. Many
students in Japanese schools start participating in extracurricular
activities from the time they are in junior high school and continue
until their graduation. Previous studies revealed that those who are
actively involved in extracurricular activities are more highly satisfied
with school life (Sumiya, 2005) and more psychologically adapted
(Takemura et al., 2007; Okada, 2009). However, those who were
actively involved in extracurricular activities at the time of their
enrollment but later withdrew or became reluctant to participate in
such activities may experience an increased sense of maladaptation.
Therefore, many students are unable to leave extracurricular clubs
(Omi, 2019) despite the negative aspects of extracurricular activities,
such as over-busyness (Kremer-Sadlik et al., 2010) and injury (Merkel,
2013). Thus, extracurricular activities in Japanese schools are
extremely important considering the contemporary Japanese school
culture and its relevance to school adaptation.
One of the factors that increases the importance of extracurricular
activities in Japanese schools is the relationship between seniors and
juniors. In many junior and senior high schools in Japan, senior
students are called “senpai” and junior students are called “kouhai.”
This seniority-based relationship is hierarchical and highlighted in
extracurricular activities. For example, there is a tacit understanding
that juniors must comply with the instructions of seniors, while the
seniors have authority over the juniors. Therefore, some students who
wish to leave a club may not do so because of the possible negative
reactions from seniors, even if it is technically easy to quit the club
(Omi, 2019). Another characteristic of extracurricular activities in
Japanese schools is that their values are transmitted from seniors to
juniors. This includes not only manifested content such as practice
methods, but also implicit content, such as attitudes toward
extracurricular activities (e.g., our baseball club activities override
academic activities). These values may also account for the
psychological phenomenon of being unable to leave the club and
provide a basis for increasing cohesion within the club and
relationships that enhance mutual development (Omi, 2019).
Extracurricular activities in Japanese schools are unique from an
international perspective in that participation is voluntary but semimandatory (e.g., Omi, 2015). The excessive practice time of
extracurriculars is equivalent to the working hours in the Japanese
work environment, implying that the Japanese culture can also
be expressed in extracurricular activities (Omi, 2019). Thus,
extracurricular activities in Japanese schools are significant from an
educational psychological perspective. Such activities provide an
understanding into the Japanese education system and, by extension,
the Japanese culture. Therefore, this study focuses on extracurricular
activities in Japanese schools to determine how junior high school
students value extracurricular activities and whether the transmitted
value is specific to extracurricular activities.
Extracurricular activities in Japanese schools represent a special
school culture and participation in such activities can be considered
an important factor for school adaptation. This consideration is based
Frontiers in Education
on the correlation between extracurricular activities, a sense of
fulfillment, and psychological adaptation in schools (Takemura et al.,
2007; Okada, 2009). In Japanese schools, several other factors (e.g.,
studies and friendship) are related to fulfillment and psychological
adaptation. Therefore, we explore the importance of extracurricular
activities in Japanese schools by ascertaining their value relative to
other factors. Relative understanding is essential in clarifying the
mechanism by which the value of an extracurricular activity is
conveyed from seniors to juniors.
To clarify the importance of extracurricular activities in Japanese
schools, self-report research methods may be considered, such as
allowing students to assess the importance of several major school
activities themselves. However, this method may lead students to
provide socially desirable answers, such as prioritizing academic work.
In this study, to naturally enable junior high school students to
externalize the value of activities in their school life, we conducted a
writing assignment to determine their perceived school attractiveness.
The value of extracurricular activities was clarified using the
information characteristics identified by the students regarding the
attractive features of the school. Specifically, we conducted a writing
assignment for seventh graders to present the attractiveness of junior
high school to sixth-graders. An analysis was then conducted to
explain how and to what extent students described their
extracurricular activities as attractive features of their school.
In the writing process, audience awareness is an important factor
that determines the structure and the content of the text (Hayes and
Flower, 1980; Midgette et al., 2008). In Japan, instruction is
systematically provided for students to adjust the text to the needs
of the reader based on the educational level (e.g., Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 2017). Junior
high school students can assess the audience and choose writing
styles that correspond with the characteristics of the audience
(Midgette et al., 2008). Therefore, conducting a writing assignment
for junior high school students to present the attractiveness of their
school to elementary school students will help us understand what
attractive features of junior high school life they identify for the
incoming students. The method of assessing students’ value for
certain information using writing assignments is unique and is
considered suitable for identifying school attractions. The
extracurricular activities are considered valuable if students
selectively describe them in the writing assignment as an attractive
feature of the school.
This study aims to clarify the value of extracurricular activities to
Japanese junior high school students and how this value can
be transmitted to junior students through essay writing. For this
purpose, we conducted a writing assignment for seventh-grade
students just after their entrance into junior high school. We examine
the extent to which the value of extracurricular activities is recognized
early in the first year of junior high school and how the value is
transmitted to younger students. The rationale for targeting seventhgrade students is that the evaluation of extracurricular activities is
closely related to the problem of school transition in Japan. School
transition is one of the most important events in early adolescence and
is likely to decrease well-being (e.g., Katsantonis et al., 2023), and
transitional problems can have a significant impact on later life
(Virtanen et al., 2019). School transition is also important in Japan.
Compulsory education in Japan lasts nine years and, in most cases, is
divided into six years of elementary school and three years of junior
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Onoda and Omi
10.3389/feduc.2023.1284618
2.2. Instruments
high school. The relationship between students and teachers changes
from a system in which a designated teacher presents most of the
subjects to a system in which different teachers present different
subjects. In addition, students do not use honorific titles (e.g., “-san”)
in elementary school, but lower graders (kouhai) in junior high school
use them for upper graders (senpai). These are major environmental
changes in relationships that trigger a variety of problems (e.g., Hou
et al., 2020). School belongingness and connectedness may
be important for the successful transition (Jindal-Snape et al., 2020),
and in Japan, active participation in extracurricular activities is an
important factor in enhancing school belongingness and adaptation
(Takemura et al., 2007; Okada, 2009). Therefore, clarifying the
mechanism of rapid sharing of extracurricular activity value is
expected to provide suggestions that will contribute to solving
adaptation problems in the school transition.
2.2.1. Pre-survey items
To control for the difference between the conditions before the
writing assignment, students’ self and task perceptions in the Japanese
language were measured. It was expected that students with positive
attitudes toward Japanese language classes would actively engage in
the writing assignment. Using Ichihara and Arai’s (2006) self and task
perceptions scale, we developed a scale to measure ability/expectancy
(e.g., I am confident that I will get a good grade in the Japanese
language class in the future), intrinsic interest value (e.g., I like
Japanese language classes), and attainment/utility value (e.g., It is
important for me to get a good grade in my Japanese language class).
All items were answered on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
2.2.2. Writing assignment and categories of
school attractiveness
2. Method
Teachers conducted the writing assignments on the topic
“Presenting the attractiveness of your junior high school to sixth
graders at elementary schools.” As future seniors, students were asked
to write a 20-min 400-character essay about the school’s attractiveness
to imaginary sixth graders who might become juniors. Students could
request extra essay sheets if their response exceeded one sheet.
The categories of school attractiveness were developed referring to
the “school attractiveness” shown in the leaflets and websites of the
junior high school. Initially, the first author extracted six school
attractiveness categories, including “Philosophy,” “Facilities,”
“Education,” “Extracurricular activities,” “Academic achievements,” and
“Friends” from leaflets. Next, the teachers at the school confirmed
whether these categories expressed the attractiveness of their school
without excess or deficiency, and it was confirmed that the defined
categories were appropriate. As a pilot study, we conducted the essay
writing assignment on school attractiveness with the cooperating
school’s eighth graders (n = 157, 89 boys and 68 girls), who were
assumed to have a good understanding of the cooperating school’s
attractiveness. No student refused to consent to participate in the study.
The first author and the teacher who conducted the writing assignment
classified the sentences and found that all statements about school
attractiveness were classifiable, and the kappa coefficient calculated
using the same criteria as in the present study was sufficient (.88).
Table 1 shows the examples of sentences corresponding to each category.
A single sentence was classified as a unit. When a long sentence
contained more than one topic, the classification was based on
semantic content. The first author and another rater, who did not
know about the research, independently classified the responses. The
kappa coefficient was .79, and reliability was judged to be sufficient.
Disagreements between the raters were resolved through discussions.
2.1. Participants
A total of 120 seventh-grade students (74 boys and 46 girls) from
a Japanese junior high school participated in the study. All the selected
students actively participated in extracurricular activities. The school
had not achieved outstanding results in sports or arts tournaments for
any extracurricular activities; therefore, it was considered a suitable
sample for clarifying specific aspects of common extracurricular
activities.
To examine the emphasizing reader assumptions, the participants
were divided into three groups based on the following conditions: (1)
“control condition” (n = 40, 23 boys and 17 girls), in which only
information about the readers (sixth graders) was presented; (2)
“emphasis condition” (n = 40, 26 boys and 14 girls), in which, in
addition to the information about readers, participants were given
verbal interventions to increase their awareness of the readers before
starting writing; and (3) “emphasis–visualization condition” (n = 40,
25 boys and 15 girls), in which, in addition to the interventions in
“emphasis condition,” participants were asked to describe the
characteristics of the readers in the margin of the composition paper
before starting writing. If the number of extracurricular activity
descriptors increased under the “emphasis” and/or “emphasis–
visualization” conditions, extracurricular activities are considered as
attractive features that should be valued and presented to elementary
school students. Practically, it was difficult to conduct similar writing
assignments more than once in a short period at a junior high school;
thus, experiments were conducted with a non-equivalent three-group
post-test design after measuring the covariate variables in advance.
Ethical approval was not required as no formal ethical procedures
were applicable to the type of research conducted. The study was
conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional
requirements, and with the approval of the principal and teachers at
the cooperating school. Written informed consent for participation
was not required from the participants or the participants’ legal
guardians/next of kin because the practices in this study were part of
a previously conducted class in which no personal information of the
students was handled, and the researchers were given anonymized
information. The students provided their assent for participation and
were informed that they could withdraw from the analysis at any time.
Frontiers in Education
2.3. Procedure
Generally, junior high school enrolment in Japan takes place in
April. The composition task was conducted in the middle of May to
clarify how seventh graders who had just begun participating in club
activities (extracurricular activities) valued the attractiveness of their
school. Two days after the pre-survey, a Japanese language class (50
min) was used for the composition task. Although 30 min were
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10.3389/feduc.2023.1284618
TABLE 1 Examples and descriptive statistics for each category (pilot study).
Example descriptions
M (SD)
na
Philosophy
In this school, students can be independent.
0.16 (0.38)
24 (15.3)
Facilities
The library’s collection is one of the largest in the country.
2.71 (1.22)
154 (98.1)
Education
The veteran teachers will teach you in a way that suits each student.
0.57 (0.86)
61 (38.9)
Extracurricular activities
You can choose from several extracurricular clubs to suit your own needs.
0.48 (0.70)
59 (37.6)
Academic achievements
This school has a large number of students going on to higher education.
0.03 (0.16)
4 (2.5)
Friends
The large number of students in this school allows you to find friends whom you are comfortable with.
0.18 (0.46)
24 (15.3)
a
n = 157. The number of students describing attractiveness in each category. The numbers in parentheses indicate the percentage of describers.
TABLE 2 Reliability coefficients and descriptive statistics of student’s self and task perception.
Ability/expectancy
α
ω
Control
Emphasis
Emphasis–
visualization
.76
.80
3.02 (0.63)
2.80 (0.83)
3.06 (0.69)
Intrinsic interest value
.83
.85
3.77 (0.72)
3.08 (0.89)
3.86 (0.79)
Attainment/utility value
.73
.76
3.70 (0.73)
3.58 (0.57)
3.78 (0.74)
allotted to write the essay, factoring in the instruction time, the
effective writing time was 20 min. After the topic was written on the
board, a composition sheet was distributed to students, and they were
asked to write on the topic.
To vary the strength of audience awareness across conditions,
we implemented Onoda’s (2021) procedure, which also manipulates
audience awareness in Japanese junior high school students. In all three
conditions, we first presented “Let us present the attractiveness of junior
high school to sixth graders” on the blackboard and in the emphasis and
emphasis–visualization conditions, just before the writing activity, the
teacher told students, “This writing assignment is to be done as a
presentation for sixth graders. You need to write as if you are introducing
the good points of a junior high school to elementary school students
who have come for school information sessions.” The inclusion of the
term “school information session” was intended to encourage students to
envision the readers. In addition to these instructions, in the emphasis–
visualization condition, the students were instructed to write the readers’
characteristics in the margin of their papers.
of students describing each category was used as the objective variable.
“Facilities,” which most students described, and “Academic achievements”
and “Philosophy,” which most students did not describe, were excluded
from the analysis because the coefficients could not be estimated. The
number of descriptions of the entire text, excluding the number of
descriptions of the categories that served as the objective variable, was
used as the control variable (e.g., when the number of students writing
about “Education” was the objective variable, the number of statements
in the entire text, excluding the number of statements about the school’s
“Education” was used as the control variable).
Logistic regression analysis was performed, with the number of
describers in each category as the objective variable. “Emphasis
dummy” (emphasis condition = 1, other conditions = 0) and “emphasis–
visualization dummy” (emphasis-visualization condition = 1, other
conditions = 0) were used to evaluate the differences between
conditions. The scores of self and task perception in the domain of the
Japanese language, gender (girls = 0, boys = 1) and the number of
descriptions in the entire text, excluding the number of descriptions in
the category that served as the objective variable, were controlled for.
The results are presented in Table 4.
No significant dummy variables were found for “Education” and
“Friends.” However, a significant positive coefficient was found for the
emphasis–visualization dummy for “Extracurricular activities,”
indicating a tendency for the number of students describing
extracurricular activities to increase in the emphasis–visualization
condition than in the control condition. These results indicate that
extracurricular activities in Japanese schools tend to be described as
an attractive feature of schools more frequently when elementary
school students are strongly considered as readers.
3. Results
3.1. Measurement items
By confirming the reliability of the score of “Student’s self and task
perception in the domain of Japanese language” measured in the
pre-survey, the mean value of each of the three subscales was treated as
the subscale score as sufficient reliability was found (Table 2). The scores
of the items measured in the pre-survey were used as covariates in the
subsequent tests on the difference in means between the conditions.
4. Discussion
3.2. Difference between conditions
Students in the emphasis–visualization condition, who were highly
aware of junior students, described extracurricular activities as an
attractive feature of the school. There were no significant differences
between conditions for the descriptions of “Education” and “Friends,”
suggesting that information about extracurricular activities was
The descriptive statistics and number of descriptors per category are
shown in Table 3. There was a deviation in the distribution of the number
of relevant descriptions per category; the differences between the
conditions were verified using logistic regression analysis, and the number
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10.3389/feduc.2023.1284618
TABLE 3 Means, standard deviations, and number of descriptions of the school’s attractiveness.
Control
Emphasis
Emphasis–Visualization
M
SD
na
M
SD
na
M
SD
na
Philosophy
0.05
0.22
2 (5.0)
0.02
0.16
1 (2.5)
0.12
0.33
5 (12.5)
Facilities
2.17
0.59
40 (100.0)
2.00
1.01
36 (90.0)
2.55
1.13
40 (100.0)
Education
0.80
0.61
28 (70.0)
0.85
0.66
27 (67.5)
0.90
0.81
27 (67.5)
Extracurricular activities
0.25
0.44
10 (25.0)
0.22
0.48
8 (20.0)
0.48
0.51
19 (47.5)
Academic achievements
0.05
0.22
2 (5.0)
0.08
0.27
3 (7.5)
0.02
0.16
1 (2.5)
Friends
0.12
0.33
5 (12.5)
0.18
0.38
5 (12.5)
0.12
0.33
5 (12.5)
n = 40 for all conditions. aThe number of students describing the attractiveness in each category. The numbers in parentheses indicate the percentage of describers.
TABLE 4 Results of the logistic regression analysis.
β
βSE
OR
95%CI
−0.37
1.59
0.69
0.03, 14.83
Emphasis dummy
0.20
0.58
1.21
0.39, 3.86
Emphasis–visualization
0.48
0.57
1.62
0.53, 5.09
Ability/expectancy
0.74*
0.37
2.10
1.04, 4.41
Intrinsic interest
0.23
0.39
1.25
0.58, 2.73
Attainment value
0.26
0.44
1.30
0.56, 3.23
−0.71
0.49
0.49
0.18, 1.26
−0.86**
0.27
0.42
0.24, 0.70
0.02, 8.36
particularly valued as information that should be communicated to
younger students. The fact that the seventh graders increased their
descriptions of extracurricular activity immediately after their enrollment
in junior high school by assuming imaginary junior students as readers
suggests that the value of extracurricular activities was shared within the
first month of school, and they are potential value transmitters.
Information about extracurricular activities tends to be activated when
junior students are perceived as audience, and therefore the value of
extracurricular activities is likely to be transmitted from seniors and
shared among students immediately after their enrollment. In Japan,
extracurricular values are transmitted through the senior–junior
relationship (Sumiya, 2005; Takemura et al., 2007; Okada, 2009), and it
is assumed that having values like those of seniors increases junior
students’ school belongingness and connectedness to school, which
enhances well-being (Jindal-Snape et al., 2020). In contrast, students who
are reluctant to participate in extracurricular activities are less likely to
have belongingness and connectedness to school, which may cause
school transition problems (e.g., Katsantonis et al., 2023). Therefore, it is
important to support students during the transition period by helping
them to focus on attractions other than extracurricular activities, such as
educational content and school life, showing them that the appeal of
school is multifaceted.
Education
Intercept
dummy
Gender
Other information
Hosmer–Lemeshow test: χ2(8) = 6.14, p = 0.63
Extracurricular activities
Intercept
−0.78
1.37
0.46
Emphasis dummy
−0.43
0.60
0.65
0.19. 2.13
Emphasis–visualization
1.30*
0.52
3.68
1.36, 10.71
Ability/expectancy
−0.02
0.34
0.98
0.50, 1.95
Intrinsic interest
−0.08
0.37
0.92
0.44, 1.98
Attainment value
0.36
0.38
1.43
0.65, 3.24
Gender
0.53
0.47
1.69
0.68, 4.39
−0.52*
0.23
0.59
0.37, 0.92
−0.51
2.04
0.60
0.01, 30.87
Emphasis dummy
0.03
0.76
1.03
0.21, 4.67
Emphasis–visualization
0.46
0.72
1.60
0.38, 6.82
Ability/expectancy
0.16
0.48
1.17
0.48, 3.14
Intrinsic interest
0.12
0.51
1.13
0.43, 3.23
Attainment value
0.07
0.55
1.07
0.37, 3.25
−0.36
0.61
0.70
0.21, 2.36
−0.78*
0.32
0.46
0.24, 0.83
dummy
Other information
4.1. Limitations and perspectives
This study was conducted in a single junior high school. The findings
are thus limited regarding generalizability. The target schools were typical
Japanese schools, where no bias existed regarding the exclusive
enrollment of low-income (or high-income) students, and where the level
of extracurricular activities was average. However, the tendency to
actively communicate the value of extracurricular activities to younger
students may have been more pronounced when schools with high levels
of extracurricular activities (e.g., schools aiming to win a national
championship) were targeted. Accumulating findings on students’
evaluation of extracurricular activities and value transfer among students
in various schools would enable a more in-depth analysis of school
transition problems from the perspective of extracurricular activities.
The second limitation is that students’ evaluations of extracurricular
activities were not measured. If the value of extracurricular activities is
deeply rooted in the Japanese school culture, students with low
evaluations of such activities may transmit them as an attractive aspect
of their school. It is thus necessary to clarify the relationship between
the evaluation of extracurricular activities and the transmission of the
attractiveness and value of club activities.
Hosmer–Lemeshow test: χ2(8) = 13.07, p = 0.11
Friends
Intercept
dummy
Gender
Other information
2
Hosmer–Lemeshow test: χ (8) = 14.01, p = 0.08
“Facilities,” which almost all respondents wrote about, and “Philosophy” and “Academic
Achievements,” which few students wrote about, were not included in the analysis. VIF < 3
for all variables. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
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Onoda and Omi
10.3389/feduc.2023.1284618
Data availability statement
Funding
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was
supported by JSPS KAKENHI (grant number: JP21K13691).
Ethics statement
Acknowledgments
Ethical approval was not required for the studies involving
humans as no formal ethical procedures were applicable to the type
of research conducted. The study was conducted in accordance with
the local legislation and institutional requirements, and with the
approval of the principal and teachers of the cooperating school.
Written informed consent for participation was not required from the
participants or the participants' legal guardians/next of kin because
the practices in this study were part of a previously conducted class,
no personal information of the students was handled, and the
researchers were given anonymized information. The students
provided their assent for participation, and were informed that they
could withdraw from the analysis at any time.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the teachers and
students of the school for their cooperation in the study. We also thank
Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
Author contributions
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and
do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or
those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that
may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
RO: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition,
Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Writing – original
draft, Writing – review & editing. YO: Supervision, Validation,
Writing – review & editing.
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TYPE
Review
15 November 2023
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1276539
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Dario Paez,
Andres Bello University, Chile
REVIEWED BY
Gonzalo Martínez-Zelaya,
Viña del Mar University, Chile
Carolina Beatriz Alzugaray,
Santo Tomás University, Chile
*CORRESPONDENCE
Jianzhan Wang
lili1320605@126.com
Research hotspots and frontiers of
ethnic cultural identity——based
on analysis of “web of science”
database
Lidan Kuang 1†, Xingmei Gao 2†, Bingliang Liu 3 and
Jianzhan Wang 1*
1
Marxism School, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, China, 2 School of Foreign Languages,
China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, China, 3 Business School, Ludong University, Yantai, China
†
These authors have contributed equally to this
work and share first authorship
RECEIVED 12
August 2023
October 2023
PUBLISHED 15 November 2023
ACCEPTED 31
CITATION
Kuang L, Gao X, Liu B and Wang J (2023)
Research hotspots and frontiers of ethnic
cultural identity——based on analysis of “web
of science” database.
Front. Psychol. 14:1276539.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1276539
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Kuang, Gao, Liu and Wang. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication in
this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted which
does not comply with these terms.
Cultural identity is of great significance to the formation of group consensus
and the establishment of cultural self-confidence. In order to understand the
history, current situation and trend, and provide theoretical support for future
research, this paper makes a quantitative analysis of knowledge map including
annual publication volume, trend, distribution of authors and institutions, cooccurrence, clustering and timeline of keywords as well as emergent keywords
on the literature concerning ethnic cultural identity published in “Web of Science”
database for a period from 2012 to 2022, with CiteSpace software as a tool.
The results show an overall upward trend with diversified ethnic and regional
characteristics; major institutions including universities of the U.S., the U.K.,
Australia, China and other countries and regions engage in their research from
different disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethnology and education; the
researchers have not formed a core group of authors despite their accumulating
number; research hotspots are indicated by keywords such as national identity,
identity, ethnic identity and attitude; specifically, keyword clusters fall into three
categories: emotional perception, multicultural identity process and ethnic
cultural adaptability; researchers probe into various issues at different stages
with direct relation to international situations and regional cultures. This study
has positive implications for understanding and mastering the current research
hotspots and development trends of ethnic cultural identity in the world.
KEYWORDS
ethnic cultural identity, CiteSpace, acculturation, cultural adaptation, psychological
adaptation
1. Introduction
Cultural identity is an individual’s recognition of a group’s attitudes, feelings, degree of belonging
(Berry et al., 1989), ideals and values (Schwartz et al., 2006), and other social identities such as class,
nationality and race, which is of enormous importance to a culture’s unity, consensus and selfconfidence (Villarroya, 2012; Över, 2016; C. Zhang et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2021; Azada-Palacios,
2022). It is the foundation of cultural self-confidence, national stability and unity for a country to
enhance its cultural identity (Schwartz et al., 2006; Li et al., 2015; Waechter, 2015; Yuan et al., 2022).
However, numerous studies have shown that it is not easy to construct cultural identity (Minnaert,
2014; Van Der Zwet, 2016; Grajzl et al., 2018; Chitima, 2022). Due to obvious differences between
groups and individuals in terms of geographical space, historical and cultural environment, etc., a
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10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1276539
country has different cultural cognitions, attitudes, ideals, beliefs and even
values, profoundly affecting people’s lifestyles, behavior patterns, and
emotional expressions, which consequently poses big challenges to form
cultural identity and strengthen national unity. With complicated
situations and escalated conflicts, cultural identity research has gained
increasing worldwide attention from scholars.
Previous studies on ethnic cultural identity have mainly focused
on its definition, process of acculturation, changes in psychology and
behavior, and perceived discrimination, most of which have been
investigated in local situations from one discipline. Few scholars have
used bibliometric software to analyze the entire research hotspots and
trends. For this reason, based on the literature on cultural identity
included in “Web of Science” (WOS) database from 2012 to 2022, this
paper uses the bibliometric CiteSpace software (6.2.R3) to conduct a
quantitative analysis of trends, author and institution distribution,
keyword co-occurrence, clustering and timeline, and emerging
keywords, combined with systematic sorting of current affairs politics,
cultural policy, cultural adaptation, to analyze the literature concerning
cultural identity. This paper aims to explore the culture identity
research’s evolution process, grasp its hotspots, and predict its future
development trends to provide implications for other scholars.
downloaded from WOS database, a yearly distribution map on ethnic
cultural identity research is drawn in Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows the general rising trend despite its fluctuations in
the publication volume from 2012 to 2022. The number of papers
published is 70 in 2012, and reaches a peak of 120 in 2019. Although
the number of papers published in other years fluctuates slightly, the
overall trend is upward. The data reflect the continuous concern of the
international community on the issue of cultural identity. Among
these documents, 996 are research papers and 16 are review papers.
The researchers, who mainly come from the United States, Britain,
Australia, China, Germany and other countries, focus on ethnology
and psychology, followed by sociology, pedagogy, cultural studies and
other disciplines, with diversified cross-discipline methods comprising
mixture-analysis, meta-analysis, structural equation modeling and
literature analysis.
The research features apparently differentiated national and
regional characteristics, such as immigration issues in the U.S., South
Korea, the U.K., Russia and other countries (Ha and Jang, 2015;
Canefe, 2018; Grajzl et al., 2018; Grigoryan and Ponizovskiy, 2018),
cultural policy issues in Spain, the Netherlands, Iran and other
countries (Villarroya, 2012; Minnaert, 2014; Attarzadeh and Seyfodini,
2022), post-colonial contexts (Chitima, 2022), religious beliefs (Younis
and Hassan, 2019), cultural tourism (Över, 2016), ethnic identity (Van
Der Zwet, 2016; Christophe et al., 2020). Chinese scholars are
interested in cultural festivals (Zhang C. X. et al., 2019), bicultural
identity integration (Long et al., 2021), national unity education (Luo,
2019), dual identity adaptability (Dai et al., 2018), collective memory
and traditional culture (Hou, 2021), cultural heritage (Wu et al., 2022).
They appeal to strengthening national unity education, inheriting
national culture, and enhancing national cohesion, which
demonstrates the current research hotspots and development trends.
2. Research methodology
CiteSpace software, the abbreviation of Citation Space, is an
information visualization software developed by Dr. Chaomei Chen,
who is a professor of computer and information science at Drexel
University in the United States. Based on Java language and citation
analysis theory, it can visualize document data through co-occurrence
analysis, co-citation analysis and other methods, so that the
relationship between certain items including authors, institutions and
keywords can be presented in the form of a scientific knowledge map,
which clearly shows the evolution path of a certain subject field
CiteSpace. This study uses CiteSpace software (6.2.R3) to analyze the
data from the sub-databases of Web of Science (WOS), the
comprehensive online literature database in the United States, namely
Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index
Expanded (SCI-Expanded). The selected literature types include
English-written research and review papers from January 2012 to
December 2022, with the collection and retrieval method of
“Topic = cultural identity AND national identity.” A total of 2,824
relevant documents are obtained through retrieval; because some
documents are relatively weak, the research field is limited to
psychology, social sciences, educational research, sociology, ethnic
studies, cultural studies, regional studies, etc. After manually reading
and reviewing the titles, abstracts and keywords of the documents,
1,012 valid documents were finally obtained.
3.2. Analysis of authors and institutions
3.2.1. Analysis of author cooperation
In the CiteSpace software, author is set as the node type, and the
parameters are Top N = 20, Top N% = 20.0%, g-index = 25. As shown
in Figures 2, a total of 299 author nodes (N = 299) are generated, the
3. Analysis of research hotspots and
frontier
3.1. Analysis of publication volume
The publication volume is an indicator that effectively reflects the
popularity of a specific topic within a certain period of time, and
visually shows its development trend. Based on the literature
Frontiers in Psychology
FIGURE 1
Annual publication volume of research on ethnic cultural identity.
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FIGURE 2
Knowledge map of authors.
number of connections between authors is 74 (E = 76), and the
network co-occurrence density is 0.0017 (D = 0.0017). The index
shows a low cooperation concentration of authors in spite of their
growing number. Among them, authors with a large number of
publications and significant cooperative relationships include Maykel
Verkuyten, Anouk Smeekes, Kumar Yogeeswaran, Caroline Ng
Tseung-Wong, Olivia Spiegler, Levi Adelma, etc., who come from
Utrecht University, University of Canterbury, University of
Mauritius, University of Oxford, and who focus on cultural
belonging, religion and immigration. Among these significant
cooperative relationships, scholars make collaborate research within
a tiny number of countries, which shows the urgency that scholars
strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in this
research field.
the influence and attention of the paper (Li, 2008). The minimum
publication volume is calculated according to the Price formula:
M c = 0.749 ∗ N cmax
Mc refers to the minimum number of citations of a single paper,
and Ncmax refers to the maximum number of citations of a single paper
(De Solla Price, 1969).
The statistics show that the maximum number of citations is 251,
Mc ≈ 11.866, taking an integer of 12, and that those who meet the
above two indicators at the same time are the core authors, namely
Verkuyten Maykel, Sibley Chris G, Benet-martinez Veronica, Faas
Daniel, and Bekus Nelly. These authors mainly come from Utrecht
University, University of Auckland, Catalan Institute for Advanced
Research, Trinity College, University of Exeter. Among them,
Verkuyten Maykel has the largest number of publications with a total
of 139 citations. Most of his articles are related to nationality, ethnicity
and culture. In one article published in 2020, he points out the
enormous importance of developing a sense of identity and common
belonging to strengthen community cohesion in diversified multiculture contexts (Velthuis et al., 2020), which has laid a good
foundation for the following research.
According to Price’s law, when the number of published papers by
core authors reaches 50% of the total number of published papers, it
means that a core group of authors has been formed in this field (Liu
et al., 2015). However, the number of papers published by the abovementioned core authors only takes up 2.3% of the total, significantly
lower than this standard. Therefore, it can be seen that the current
research has not yet formed a core author group, and that the
cooperation is relatively scattered. But at the same time, it also shows
that the authors have diversifications without effective cooperation.
3.2.2. Analysis of core authors
Tables analyzing the number of publications and research
directions of the core authors can better demonstrate the overall trend
of the discipline. Here, De Solla Price (1969) formula is used to select
core author candidates. The formula is:
M p = 0.749 ∗ N pmax
In the formula, Mp is the minimum number of articles published
by core author candidates, and Npmax is the highest number of articles
published by authors within the selected literature (Liu et al., 2015).
The results show that Mp = 2.247 is calculated, taking an integer of 3,
indicating that during the period from 2012 to 2022, the number of
papers published by the core author candidates is no less than 3.
The number of citations is also an important indicator to measure
the quality of a paper, and the citation frequency indirectly indicates
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FIGURE 3
The knowledge map of author’s institutions.
3.2.3. Analysis of research institutions and
countries
number of times a node serves as the bridge of the shortest path
between two other nodes. Nodes with a betweenness centrality greater
than 0.1 are key nodes (Chaomei et al., 2009), and key nodes can
predict hotspots with in-depth analysis and interpretation (Ren,
2021). Setting the node type to “keyword,” the time slice to “1 year”
with the rest as default values, and importing 1,012 English documents
into CiteSpace, we get a knowledge map of 362 nodes (N = 362), 2,109
connections (E = 2,109) and keyword co-occurrence network with a
density of 0.0323 (D = 0.0323) (Figure 4).
In the formula proposed by Donohue (1973):
According to the knowledge map of author’s institutions (Figure 3)
and the top 21 foreign institutions (Table 1) in terms of the number of
published papers, Utrecht University ranks the first with the largest
number of 24 papers, followed by California State University with 20
papers and University of London with 18 papers, respectively. The
authors mainly come from the universities of the U.S., the U.K.,
Australia, China, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
South Korea, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Turkey and Belgium (Table 2).
Among them, 276 papers come from the U.S., followed by the
U.K. (141), Australia (97), China (85), and Belgium (18). Major
concerns include race relations (Neblett et al., 2012; Yogeeswaran
et al., 2014; Gökay and Hamourtziadou, 2016; Grajzl et al., 2018;
Walton et al., 2018; Huguley et al., 2019), culture conflict (Keddie,
2014; Dupré, 2018; Son, 2019; Tseung-Wong et al., 2019), immigration
(Però, 2013; Morrice, 2017; Mole, 2018), social welfare (De La
Sablonnière et al., 2020), economic development (Storm, 2018),
cultural policy (Villarroya, 2012; Minnaert, 2014), mental health
(Howe et al., 2014; Weber et al., 2021), cultural identity (Zhang
S. et al., 2019), identity (Chen et al., 2019) and sense of belonging (Zou
et al., 2021).
−1 +
T=
2
I is the number of keywords, and T is the threshold of highfrequency keywords. By calculating the threshold, high-frequency
words can be quickly found (Wei and Tang, 2016). According to the
information presented by CiteSpace, I value is 362, and then T ≈ 26.41
is calculated, that is, the list of high-frequency keywords with a
frequency greater than 26 is obtained (Table 3). Therefore, combining
the knowledge map of keyword co-occurrence (Figure 4) and the
high-frequency keyword list (Table 3), screening the nodes with a
frequency greater than 26 and betweenness centrality greater than 0.1,
we can get key words such as “national identity,” “identity,” “attitude”
and “ethnic identity.”
The results show that “national identity” has the highest frequency
of occurrence and the largest betweenness centrality, which appears
in 205 articles, accounting for 20.3% of the totality. It occurs in the
lowest number of 10 articles in 2013, while in the highest number of
31 articles in 2020. Meanwhile, “identity” ranks second in terms of
3.3. Analysis of research hotspots
3.3.1. Analysis of keyword co-occurrence
Being highly condensed and generalized, key words can enable
readers to quickly grasp the core content of the research, and hence
contribute to analyzing hotspots and predicting development trends.
The betweenness centrality calculated by CiteSpace represents the
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TABLE 1 Foreign institutions with no less than 7 publications on ethnic cultural identity.
No.
Quantity
Neutrality
Time
Institution
1
24
0.1
2012
Utrecht University
2
20
0.08
2012
University of California System
3
18
0.03
2013
University of London
4
13
0
2013
Australian National University
5
12
0.07
2012
Harvard University
6
12
0.03
2017
State University System of Florida
7
11
0
2013
Aarhus University
8
10
0.12
2013
California State University System
9
10
0.01
2013
University of Oxford
10
9
0
2012
University of Auckland
11
9
0.03
2018
University of Texas System
12
8
0
2014
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
13
8
0.02
2013
KU Leuven
14
8
0
2013
Monash University
15
7
0
2013
Bar Ilan University
16
7
0.06
2013
Chinese University of Hong Kong
17
7
0.02
2013
Columbia University
18
7
0
2016
Education University of Hong Kong
19
7
0
2014
Florida State University
20
7
0.01
2012
Tel Aviv University
21
7
0
2019
University of Melbourne
TABLE 2 Country distribution of ethnic cultural identity research (unit:
articles).
No.
Country
1
USA
276
2
ENGLAND
141
3
AUSTRALIA
97
4
PEOPLES R CHINA
85
5
CANADA
59
6
GERMANY
51
7
ISRAEL
50
8
NETHERLANDS
50
9
NEW ZEALAND
35
10
SOUTH KOREA
25
11
SPAIN
25
12
DENMARK
24
13
ITALY
24
14
TURKEY
23
15
BELGIUM
18
Mao and Shen (2015) find that the changed cultural identity of
expatriates is the interaction between personal choices, organization
of cross-cultural relations, and individual host country background,
in which individuals play a key role in shaping their own cultural
identity. Employing the structural equation model, Reijerse et al.
(2013) verify that the cultural representation conforming to the
symbolic form of local nationalism, highly valued by multi-ethnic
countries, exert prominent influence on cultural identity, which can
better explain immigration attitudes and promote the harmonious
coexistence of immigrants and indigenous people. Long et al. (2021)
conclude that collectivists can obtain a sense of anxiety relief from
collective identity when faced with difficulties that require joint efforts
after studying the relationship between ethnic identity and COVID-19
anxiety. Other keywords such as “acculturation,” “politics,”
“identification,” “culture” also reflect the research focus to some extent,
although their betweenness centrality is not higher than 0.1. These
keywords demonstrate the research hotspots from different aspects by
interlinking with other related keywords, such as cultural identity of
teenagers from bicultural backgrounds (Manzi et al., 2014), the
relationship between cultural factors and sociopolitical status (Gidron
and Hall, 2017), the relationship between positive ethnic identity and
functioning of health and adaptability (Rivas-Drake et al., 2014).
Quantity
3.3.2. Analysis of keyword cluster
frequency and centrality with a total number of 159 documents,
occupying 15.7%. It has the largest number of occurrences in 23
articles in 2019 and 2022, respectively. International researchers have
creatively explored ethnic cultural issues in local contexts from
different perspectives. From the perspective of cross-culture network,
Frontiers in Psychology
Keyword clustering analysis is a measurement of closeness
between keywords using a similarity scale, which can serve a basis for
classified statistics (Yan et al., 2022). The analysis can help researchers
understand the commonality among hotspots, which is conducive To
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FIGURE 4
Knowledge map of keyword co-occurrence.
The keyword cluster map shows a total of 7 cluster categories
namely #0 prejudice #1 ethnic identity #2 well-being #3 adolescent #
4 school diversity #5 international student and #6 collective memory.
The original clusters can divided into three categories after manual
sorting and induction as is shown in Table 4.
The first category is on emotional perception, which mainly
includes #0 prejudice, and #2well-being, involving high-frequency
keywords such as “multiculturalism,” “attitudes,” “discrimination,”
“depression” and “adjustment.” Scholars mainly explore the
relationship between national cultural identity and negative or positive
emotions and psychology from the perspective of emotional
perception of individuals or groups from multicultural backgrounds.
Huguley et al. (2019) point out that family groups can promote the
formation of a strong sense of identity by guiding young members to
understand their own ethnicity, race and related cultures, which is
conducive to the shaping of ethnic (racial) identities. Ethnic (racial)
identity and ethnic (racial) socialization help youth get rid of the
plight of racial discrimination, and the positive meaning of ethnic
group membership enable them to better understand and experience
the world (Neblett et al., 2012). This positive ethnic (racial) emotion
plays an important role in adjusting social psychology and reducing
its inherent health risks (Rivas-Drake et al., 2014), hence better
guiding internal members to shape correct values. Due to variances
in local conditions and customs, people may have certain differences
in national cognition and cultural acceptance, both of which bring a
common core emotion, that is, self-confidence (Huang et al., 2022).
This self-confidence, which comes from the confidence endowed by
the entire nation and country, is also the endogenous force for group
members to maintain independent thinking and strengthen national
TABLE 3 High-frequency keywords related to ethnic cultural identity
research (frequency ≥ 26).
Frequency
Betweenness
centrality
Year
1
205
0.18
2012
National identity
2
159
0.12
2012
Identity
3
78
0.12
2012
Ethnic identity
4
61
0.11
2013
Attitudes
5
59
0.1
2012
Acculturation
6
58
0.08
2012
Politics
7
40
0.05
2014
Identification
8
40
0.05
2012
Culture
9
36
0.06
2012
Social identity
10
35
0.05
2013
Prejudice
11
33
0.05
2013
Multiculturalism
12
32
0.07
2012
Adolescents
13
29
0.07
2012
Discrimination
14
26
0.04
2015
Cultural identity
15
26
0.06
2013
Gender
No.
Keywords
systematic analysis. Selecting “LLR” algorithm for cluster analysis on
keywords, we can obtain a cluster map. As is shown in Figure 5, the
module value Q = 0.3439, which means that The cluster structure is
significant; at the same time, the average profile S = 0.7337, which
means that the clustering result is convincing (Jie and Chaomei, 2015).
Frontiers in Psychology
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FIGURE 5
Keyword cluster map.
TABLE 4 Table of keyword cluster.
Categories of cluster
Emotional perception
Process of multicultural identity
Cultural adaptability
No. of cluster
#0, #2
#3, #4, #5
#1, #6
identity when faced with multicultural conflicts. Generally speaking,
members with a high sense of national identity and happiness are
more likely to be positive and optimistic about the future development
of the country (Chen et al., 2019). At the same time, due to the
intensification of globalization process, the ideological level of the
society has largely surpassed the cultural differences in the traditional
sense, and individual members are encouraged to actively go out of
the traditional setting, carry out cross-cultural communication and
multiculturalism baptism, respect others’ cultural values and
identities, and build a harmonious and pluralistic society in
cooperation with multiple parties (Taylor-Gooby and Waite, 2014).
The second category is on the process of multicultural identity, in
which #3 adolescent contains keywords such as “culture,”
“marginalization” and “cultural identity,” #4 School diversity includes
keywords such as “assimilation” and “care-work,” while #5
international student brings together “life course,” “expatriate
adjustment” and “school adaptation.” From the keywords covered in
the above clusters, it can be seen that the process of multicultural
identification by international students and workers is still a hot spot
for many scholars. Due to socioeconomic factors, bicultural identities
frequently grabbed the public attention. The research demonstrates a
positive relationship between bicultural identities, psychological
adaptation, and sociocultural adaptation, hence bicultural individuals
have stronger adaptability, flexibility, and a stronger sense of cultural
pride and belonging (Nguyen and Benet-Martínez, 2013). Young
people are the future and hope of a nation, so the research on the
process of their learning and cultural adaptation from multicultural
Frontiers in Psychology
Name of cluster
Prejudice, well-being
Adolescent, school diversity, international student
Ethnic identity, collective memory
backgrounds will help build a diverse and harmonious social
relationship. Umaña-Taylor et al. (2014) point out that family relations
with strong ethnic ties will prompt their members to actively explore
ethnic relations during adolescence, and that it is very important to
place ethnic identity in other identity contexts, which is conducive to
strengthening their sense of belonging to group culture. Education
plays a key role in the process of strengthening multicultural identity.
Local and international students should be helped to eliminate
potential conflicts in terms of class, race, language, culture, etc., to
provide a reasonable space for dialogue in order to better promote the
practice and development of international education in the world (Jia
et al., 2022). At the same time, students should also be actively
encouraged to establish good international friendships, which can
produce positive emotional and social support for them to reduce the
intense pressure of cultural adaptation brought about by culture shock
(Sheng et al., 2022). In the interweaving cultural exchanges, it is
thought-provoking how ethnic minority groups can find appropriate
access to their own culture and other mainstream cultures. Ozer et al.
(2017) points out that ethnic cultural elements, compatible with new
cultural elements, can not only protect unique national culture, but
also integrate its uniqueness into multi-cultures in globalization and
cross-culture exchange.
The third category is on national cultural adaptability, in which #1
ethnic identity and #6 collective memory contain keywords such as
“cultural policy,” “identity politics,” “national identity,” “media” and
“cultural trauma.” These keywords are all about how to realize one’s
own cultural identity, how to better adapt to new life in different
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cultural backgrounds, and how to realize the interaction and
integration of one’s own culture identity and new culture.
Acculturation is a continuous and dynamic process. The dynamic
dialogue between knowledge construction and identity recognition
can be used as a reasonable theoretical tool to help us better
understand this process. At the same time, complex acculturation
involves identity changes of self and others, as well as religions,
traditions and customs, which are connected with all areas of life and
the social relationships other than cultures (Andreouli, 2013).
Acculturation process is conditional and relative, since ethnic groups
feature different cultures, histories, values and beliefs (Bornstein,
2017). Therefore, ethnic particularity and consciousness hidden in
language should be taken into consideration in formulating cultural
policies (Zhao and Lu, 2022). Researchers should start with common
memory and perception to avoid conflicts caused by cultural system
mismatch, which can hinder cultural exchanges. Cultural factors are
crucial regulating factors. The high identity of foreign tourists with the
culture of the host country will in turn enhance their pleasure and
value perception, and stimulate their participation in cultural
activities, thereby further enhancing the communication and
recognition between multiculturalism (Zhang S. et al., 2019). Cultural
activities are precipitated into cultural heritage, which shows the
history, traditional culture and social cohesion of the host country
from different aspects. Therefore, the inheritance and protection of
cultural heritage will help bolster up a good international image (Liu
et al., 2014). Festival celebrations are a better way to inherit traditional
culture. Some methods like festival tourism can strengthen collective
identity and memory, and improve experience quality and perceived
value of festival activities with more innovations, ultimately enhancing
the sense of belonging and identity of tourists (Zhang et al., 2021). The
traditional festivals play an important role in the inheritance and
dissemination of culture. Zou et al. (2021) demonstrates that that the
Lantern Festival strengthens the local collective memory and identity
through its strong social attributes, embodies the national culture, and
promotes the inheritance of national culture. Zhang S. et al. (2019)
finds that recreational festivals linked with local people’s national
identity can dilute colonial culture and better shape national and
ethnic identities after Macao’s return. Major cultural events often
arouse citizens’ patriotic sentiments and national identity, which can
be maintained through mass media to enhance their coverage and
influence (Chen et al., 2019).
2013), risks and opportunities brought about by diversified
development (Jensen and Arnett, 2012), cultural conflicts between
individuals and multi-culture groups (Martiny et al., 2012), and
identity integration effects (Swann et al., 2012). Meanwhile,
researchers also pay attention to the identity and autonomy issues that
easily trouble adolescent growth (Fuligni and Tsai, 2015), and the
stronger resilience of members of bicultural identity to adversity and
discrimination (Huynh et al., 2014) and adaptability
(Sirikantraporn, 2013).
The second stage is from 2017 to 2019, when the research grows
rapidly. Although this stage is not long, there are many words that
emerge, with a total of 14 prominent words. Among them, psychology
has the strongest degree of emergence, which shows that many
scholars tend to link national cultural identity to psychology to build
interdisciplinary disciplines since psychological approach to the
search is significant. Researchers are mainly interested in adaptation
of immigrants and groups with dual identity backgrounds to society
(Ferguson et al., 2017) and their psychological and behavioral impacts
and changes. On the one hand, complex bicultural identity will lead
individuals to produce positive psychological and sociocultural
outcomes. On the other hand, it will lead to potential risks in
intergroup relations (Chu et al., 2017). It is of positive significance for
youngsters to explore how to fully display their subjective initiative
and consciously adjust their cultural identities in interactive behaviors
to so that they can adapt to the social environment of globalization in
the new era (Ferguson et al., 2017). Cultural identity is a dynamic
process rather than a static one. Ethnic policies vary with social
backgrounds and national conditions with the aim to eliminate
prejudice and discrimination (Luo, 2019), strengthen social bonds,
resolve cultural conflicts and build cultural intimacy (KaniaLundholm and Lindgren, 2017), reconstruct local social entities (Sun
et al., 2019).
The third stage is from 2020 to 2022, when ethnic cultural
identity grows steadily. There are four emergent keywords at this
stage, namely Hong Kong, impact, value, and scale. Researchers
revolve around keywords such as national pride, trust, cultural
intelligence, association, stress, ethnic-racial identity, host country
nationals and depression. They focus on strengthening national
identity, shaping the form and means of cultural identity and its dual
impact (Zhang et al., 2021; Chow-Garcia et al., 2022). Cross-cultural
psychologists point out that through the intermediary role of cultural
identity, an individual’s psychological state or identity perception will
change, leading to corresponding behavioral changes (Zhang et al.,
2021). The impact of cultural identity is multifaceted including
national identity (Zhang et al., 2021), identity confusion (Cheon
et al., 2020), sense of belonging (Chow-Garcia et al., 2022), network
socialization (Cai et al., 2022), cultural plasticity (Gagnon, 2022),
mental health (Li et al., 2022), and psychological adjustment of
adolescents (Safa et al., 2022).
3.3.3. Analysis of research trend
The emergent keywords can analyze the topics with greater
influence over a period of time, and show the span between the first
appearance and the end of the keyword, which can help researchers
better analyze the development trend (Wang and Sun, 2020). The
keyword time zone map can vividly reflect the evolution of hotspots
along with the timeline, which is helpful to accurately grasp the
development of hotspots. Based on the existing literature, the
emergent keyword map (Figure 6) and the keyword time zone map
(Figure 7) are drawn.
Through the comprehensive analysis of the two graphs, we can
find that the research evolution path can be divided into three stages.
The first stage is from 2012 to 2016, when the research develops stably.
This stage includes 6 prominent words, among which “perceived
discrimination,” “cultural policy” and “segmented assimilation” rank
top 3 in terms of intensity. At this stage, researchers focus on the
interaction between original and dominant cultures (Samnani et al.,
Frontiers in Psychology
4. Conclusion and discussion
From the WOS database, a visual analysis of the literature on
cultural identity in the past decades was conducted, based on
bibliometrics and knowledge graph research methods. The results
show that cultural identity has become a topic of common concern
to many international scholars, whose research covers the disciplines
including psychology, sociology, ethnology, education and political
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FIGURE 6
Emergent keyword map.
science, with focus on cultural issues such as ethnic conflicts,
immigrant groups, cultural identity process, cultural adaptability
and national unity. On the one hand, the research on national
cultural identity has distinctive characteristics of regions,
nationalities and nations. On the other hand, the joint efforts
between different countries and regions are emphasized to actively
build mutually-understanding and harmonious community with a
shared future for mankind while focusing on national identity and
cultural identity. At the same time, a quantitative analysis of
researchers shows inadequate international cooperation among
research institutions in this field with a high degree of dispersion,
which indicates that cross-cultural international research group has
not been formed. Global cooperation among cross-cultural research
institutions needs to be strengthened to achieve the ultimate goal of
building a community with a shared future for mankind in a
multicultural context. In addition, “national identity” is the keyword
with the highest frequency of occurrence and the largest
betweenness centrality, indicating the research of national identity
is still the core issue that researchers are most concerned about. It
also reflects the roots of extreme occurrences of nationalism in
certain countries and regions, hence more emphasis should be put
on cultural identity between countries, rather than narrow
national identities.
Frontiers in Psychology
In fact, complex cultural identity not only covers different
countries, ethnic groups, regions and even social groups, but also
involves individual cognition, emotion and cultural adaptability. It is
important for formulating national policies, developing cultural and
educational undertakings, or solving the contradictions and conflicts
of globalization. Therefore, in order to properly solve this series of
practical problems, scholars should work together and collaborate to
strengthen cultural interaction and exchanges between ethnic groups
and countries, so as to actively promote and construct a harmonious
community with a shared future for mankind.
Limitations of this study: (1) The results of the analysis mainly rely
on the downloaded journal documents and the knowledge map drawn
on this basis, while the research results on ethnic cultural identity are
of various types, including conference reports, dissertations,
monographs. This study has not incorporated other content into the
statistical source, so the results of the analysis have certain limitations.
(2) We do not grasp the comprehensive international situation and
conduct an in-depth analysis of some factors affecting national
cultural identity in other countries, so the research results are not
all-embracing. (3) This study only uses CiteSpace software to draw the
knowledge map, and the results inevitably have some deviations. In
subsequent studies, multiple software can be used in order to obtain
more comprehensive and accurate analysis.
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FIGURE 7
Keyword time zone map.
Author contributions
Acknowledgments
LK: Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology,
Visualization, Writing – original draft. XG: Writing – review &
editing. BL: Supervision, Visualization, Writing – review &
editing. JW: Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – review
& editing.
We thank all authors for their participation in this study and their
insightful comments during the revision process.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research
was funded by Jiangsu University Philosophy and Social Science
Research Ideological and political work special project “Research on
the Integration of National Feelings Education into Ideological and
Political Teaching in medical colleges” (No.2022SJSZ0031) and the
second batch project of the Ministry of Education‘s IndustryUniversity Cooperative Education Project in 2022 (No.
220903230040427).
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations,
or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product
that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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TYPE
Original Research
06 December 2023
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251497
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra,
University of Zaragoza, Spain
REVIEWED BY
Antonio Luque,
University of Almeria, Spain
Zhe Li,
Osaka University, Japan
Carmen Urpí,
University of Navarra, Spain
Iñaki Celaya Echarri,
University of Navarra, Spain
Integration of Shangshan culture
into the STEAM curriculum and
teaching: results of an
interview-based study
Chen Qian 1, Jian-Hong Ye 2,3* and Chaocan Zheng 1
1
Jinhua Polytechnic, Jinhua, China, 2 Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China,
National Institute of Vocational Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
3
*CORRESPONDENCE
Jian-Hong Ye
kimpo30107@hotmail.com
RECEIVED 01
July 2023
November 2023
PUBLISHED 06 December 2023
ACCEPTED 17
CITATION
Qian C, Ye J-H and Zheng C (2023) Integration
of Shangshan culture into the STEAM
curriculum and teaching: results of an
interview-based study.
Front. Psychol. 14:1251497.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251497
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Qian, Ye and Zheng. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication in
this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted which
does not comply with these terms.
Introduction: Interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, arts, and
mathematics (STEAM) courses are a popular trend in international education
than can help inculcate creativity in students. Although STEAM courses have
been widely promoted in China, they are generally unsustainable because they
are merely imitations of European and American courses and lack Chinese
humanistic factors; a close integration between disciplinary ideas and thinking
levels is also lacking. C-STEAM, which is designed to pass down China’s culture, is
a form of STEAM education with local Chinese characteristics that are focused on
integrating interdisciplinary knowledge with the thought process oriented toward
cultural heritage.
Methods: In this study, an innovative higher vocational college course with
C-STEAM interdisciplinary principles was constructed, with art and design as the
framework, and with the integration of Chinese local culture. Semi-structured
interviews were conducted to sample 12 learners from a total of 90 students in
the experimental class of the C-STEAM course. The study aimed to provide a
deeper understanding of the effectiveness of taking a Packaging Design course
combined with C-STEAM from multiple perspectives. After the interviews, based
on the BAO model, coding statistics and thematic analysis were conducted to
understand the learners’ beliefs, actions, and outcomes after taking the course,
and their plans for acquiring C-STEAM interdisciplinary knowledge and learning
Chinese local culture.
Results: The integration of the Shangshan culture (上山文化) into the Packaging
Design course proved the importance and significance of adding C-STEAM to the
art design course, which helped us understand the specific feelings of students
after completing the course and gain a deeper understanding of the changes in
their knowledge and skills and their learning effects.
Discussion: Integrating C-STEAM education into courses related to art and
design is highly warranted to encourage students to apply their interdisciplinary
knowledge to artistic exploration and creation. Moreover, to effectively develop
a curriculum system with local characteristics, teachers should provide more
opportunities for students to explore and learn C-STEAM in the future, and
integrate multiple elements into their teaching. In general, a cultural perspectivebased interdisciplinary education helps facilitate the creative transformation of
traditional Chinese culture.
KEYWORDS
belief-action-outcome model, C-STEAM, packaging design, fine traditional Chinese
culture, practical teaching, STEAM course, teaching reform
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1 Introduction
et al., 2023), creating a long-term impact on training talents with local
characteristics (Deng et al., 2022) and innovating China’s outstanding
local culture education (Zhan et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2022).
Chinese local culture is a source of spirituality to the people of the
nation that combines the values and ethics generally accepted by the
native people. It embodies the profound ideology, artistic values, and
esthetics of the nation’s culture, and serves as inspiration for creative
expression (Huo et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2021). Shangshan culture
represents a Neolithic cultural site in Zhejiang province, eastern
China, that exemplifies China’s local culture and has a strong influence
across the world.
“Wannian Shangshan” is considered the origin of the world’s
painted pottery civilization, Chinese farming villages, and the world’s
rice cultivation culture (Jiang, 2013; Qian, 2019). Pottery, stone tools,
wooden buildings, seed base, and various types of household
equipment and production tools have been found at the Shangshan
sites (Jiang, 2007). Ancient Chinese people who lived at these sites
fully demonstrated diligence and wisdom through their scientific site
selection, rice cultivation, construction of houses, decoration of
pottery and stone tools, and measurement of tool making. The
characteristics and cultural experiences of Shangshan culture are
consistent with C-STEAM education’s science-based, reality-oriented,
multidisciplinary knowledge and multisensory experiences that unite
students (Qian et al., 2022). Therefore, integrating Shangshan culture
into the STEAM course, students were instructed to design product
packaging with the Shangshan culture and local specialties around the
Shangshan sites as the theme. This could help them enhance their
understanding and identity of national culture; develop their hands-on
and creative expression skills through planning, research, observation,
extraction of cultural elements, problem identification, practical work,
and reflection; and apply their knowledge to solve real-life problems.
Therefore, the purpose of our study was to explore the similarities
among traditional Chinese culture, STEAM education, and art design
courses in vocational colleges, examine the characteristics of the art
creation process, and further analyze the packaging design STEAM
course based on the Shangshan culture, so as to construct a C-STEAM
course model for art design. Semi-structured interviews were
conducted with students with different levels of thematic design
works, and finally, thematic analysis was conducted using the
theoretical framework of the belief-action-outcome (BAO) model.
Specifically, the present study aimed to identify Chinese college
students’ feelings about taking the art and design course combined
with C-STEAM. The results can not only help develop teaching
practices with Chinese Characteristics in higher education and train
art talents, but will also be helpful in protecting, utilizing, inheriting,
and developing local culture, ultimately creating a win-win situation.
At the same time, the results can provide theoretical support for the
academic community from the perspective of art and design, and can
make further contributions to diversifying the elements of disciplines.
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and
Mathematics) is an interdisciplinary integrated form of education
(Dinh, 2021; Hacıoğlu and Suiçmez, 2022), focusing on heuristic
teaching and learning (Perignat and Katz-Buonincontro, 2019; Sha
et al., 2021) and guiding students in hands-on operation and critical
thinking (Yakman and Lee, 2012; Fan and Ye, 2022), as well as aiming
to improve their reading comprehension (Henderika, 2021; Shinya
and Tomohiro, 2023), imagination, and creativity, which can truly
spur the social change caused by innovation (Yakman and Lee, 2012;
Quigley and Herro, 2016). STEAM education is not just limited to the
fields of engineering and science (Hernandez et al., 2014; Honoka
et al., 2022), but is also closely related to the education of physical
applications of art and design (Fan and Ye, 2020; Jazariyah, 2023). Art
and design are activities that involve solving new problems in different
ways and creating new products (He et al., 2019), and require cognitive
abilities of creative expression and appreciation (Qian et al., 2022).
Solving tedious problems requires innovation and skills. An art and
design course that develops creativity and fosters scientific awareness
can improve students’ creative expression abilities (Hong et al., 2022),
thinking skills, and techniques (Fan and Ye, 2020). In addition,
quality-oriented education should run throughout the education
system and be given special attention in both general and vocational
education. Higher vocational education, in particular, is closely linked
to the national economy (Chen, 2023). Only by providing better
quality-oriented education for vocational education students can
we help them find employment and, as a result, build a buoyant,
robust national economy (Ye et al., 2023).
In recent years, STEAM education models have combined courses
and physical design (Workosky and Willard, 2015; Tian et al., 2023).
Such training can not only help students enhance their abilities to
express themselves creatively and use broad knowledge to solve reallife problems (Jia et al., 2021; Shibata, 2022), but can also shape them
into well-rounded talents with a distinctive innovative spirit
(Daugherty, 2013; Yao and Liu, 2023). Many educators have
emphasized that the reason for integrating STEAM education into art
and design courses (Hong et al., 2019; Qian et al., 2022) is that
designing products, such as textiles, packaging, and fashion products,
involves different cognitive skills such as creativity, imagination, and
other complex and multifaceted activities (Hong et al., 2019).
Packaging design is a case in point. Its process is rigorous and
complex, and requires consideration of the details of the material and
design structure of packages, which is closely aligned with STEAM
(Qian et al., 2022). Therefore, art and design courses are highly
relevant to STEAM (Fan and Ye, 2020).
In the history of STEAM courses in China, studies have mostly
focused on innovation in basic education, learning projects, and core
literacy, while paying scant attention to higher education, especially
higher vocational education (Qian et al., 2022). Meanwhile, overly
imitating Western STEAM courses (Zhao and Fan, 2019) has resulted
in inadequate humanistic thoughts (Zhan et al., 2023), a lack of
integration with existing courses, and unsustainable development
(Qian et al., 2022). Therefore, Zhan et al. (2022) suggested that
we should consider China’s actual conditions to promote STEAM
education integrated with excellent local culture (abbreviated as
C-STEAM). This approach has provided a new direction for the
localized development of STEAM education (Wu et al., 2022; Zhan
Frontiers in Psychology
2 Literature review
2.1 STEM education and art and design
education
STEM education is an integrated form of education combining
multiple disciplines (Fan and Ye, 2020). It intends to disrupt the
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2.3 The belief-action-outcome model
framework
boundaries between subjects and respond to how to cultivate students’
innovative thinking and problem-solving abilities (Shibata, 2022).
Quigley and Herro (2016) reported that through STEM courses,
students can become more engaged. These courses would make the
curriculum more dynamic and interesting, thus stimulating students’
interest in learning and their desire to explore questions. During the
courses, students build on a foundation of mathematical logic and use
hands-on creation and artistic forms to demonstrate the essence of
science and technology, thereby developing an ability to
face challenges.
Art and design education, on the other hand, focuses on esthetic
education and the cultivation of comprehensive qualities in designers
(Schat et al., 2023). This includes cultivation of appreciative,
expressive, and creative abilities (Peng, 2022). Art and design is a
highly integrated discipline (Fang et al., 2022). For example, the
packaging design process involves considering various factors such
as packaging materials, size, structure, manufacturing techniques,
and visual esthetics (Qian et al., 2022). Therefore, in the packaging
design field, the emphasis on materials, functionality, structure,
esthetics, and precise dimensions all closely align with STEM
principles (Fan and Ye, 2020). Consequently, this study explored the
integration of STEM in the packaging design context, thereby
developing it into a learning curriculum activity and investigating
students’ learning outcomes.
The Belief-Action-Outcome (BAO) model consists of belief,
action, and outcome. Belief is an expression of a self-perceived state
that drives an individual to hold strong beliefs and plan how to
carry out actions to achieve a desired outcome; action is the process
of achieving their goal; and outcome is the result of their actions
(Pilditch and Custers, 2018). The BAO model has been considered
effective in terms of explaining an individual’s action, their final
outcome (Melville, 2010), and how their beliefs affect their
subsequent action, which can have a significant impact on the
outcome of their behaviors (Hong et al., 2022). In other words, the
BAO model framework can help understand the cause of beliefs and
explain how an individual’s beliefs influence the outcomes (Molla
et al., 2014). Recent research has shown that the BAO framework
can be helpful in explaining the relationship between learning
beliefs, actions, and effectiveness in higher education (Nong et al.,
2023). As noted above, the BAO model framework effectively
explains the learning experience of learners. Therefore, this study
used the BAO framework to explain how the beliefs of the
interviewees affected their actual behaviors, outcomes, and
performances after the course.
3 Methods
2.2 Curriculum design under the C-STEAM
concept
3.1 Course design
C-STEAM implements localized interdisciplinary integration
within STEM education (Zhan et al., 2022), primarily focusing on
cultivating the ability of students to solve complex real-world
problems through interdisciplinary thinking (Qian et al., 2022). It
emphasizes inherently integrating interdisciplinary knowledge and
thinking guided by the preservation of local cultural heritage (Zhan
et al., 2023), rather than simply incorporating traditional culture into
existing STEM courses (Huo et al., 2020; Zhan et al., 2022). C-STEAM
guides students in understanding and appreciating local culture,
conducting research, and incorporating scientific, technological,
engineering, artistic, and mathematical knowledge into culturally
enriched creative work (Zhan et al., 2022). This approach intends to
bridge the gap between art, culture, and daily life, thereby nurturing
students’ humanistic spirit, reinforcing their understanding and
identification with national culture, and thus enhancing national pride
and confidence (Qian and Wang, 2022). Moreover, art and design
education based on Chinese cultural values facilitates the construction
of an indigenous knowledge system in China. This system is a crucial
foundation for the country’s development. The C-STEAM curriculum
model discussed in this study is a comprehensive program integrating
interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary knowledge, mainly focusing
on promoting China’s rich local culture, particularly the Shangshan
culture, as a core value in the localized STEM education. This
approach enables students to creatively apply knowledge from
multiple disciplines in thematic projects, and facilitates the creative
transformation and innovative development of China’s outstanding
traditional culture. This, in turn, continually improves the country’s
cultural soft power and global cultural influence.
In this study, the “Packaging Design” course combined with
C-STEAM was constructed; the framework is shown in Appendix 1
in Supplementary material, and its outline is based on the “packaging
design” textbook edited by Liu et al. (2021). The curriculum is
categorized into four units and is closely related to the higher
education curriculum. The modules combine STEAM education and
Shangshan culture (Fan and Ye, 2020), evolve from the elementary to
the profound level, and promote a high degree of integration of
interdisciplinary knowledge and practical skills, focusing on training
students with comprehensive qualities of culture, science, skills, and
esthetics to encourage them to grow into highly qualified and skilled
talents with knowledge, technical ability, artistic ability, and cultural
taste. The duration of the teaching experiment was 9 weeks (72 h-long
periods in total). The students’ learning progress was monitored every
lesson or every week by acquiring their design works, and they were
instructed in a timely manner; expertise and skills in each field of
C-STEAM were added by explaining each step so that students could
fully understand the principles of packaging design and production
(see Appendix 2 in Supplementary material).
The C-STEAM concept was used to develop the professional
knowledge and skills of the Packaging Design curriculum, and was
first developed by the lead teacher, subsequently examined by the
course leader and the dean of the college, and finally reviewed and
corrected by three experts and scholars with senior titles and with
nearly 20 years of teaching experience. The integration of C-STEAM
into packaging design was proposed to test the units of the Packaging
Design course and the professional knowledge and skills required by
students (see Figure 1).
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culture into
packaging production
FIGURE 1
Curriculum planning chart.
learners were selected from 90 students in the experimental class of
the C-STEAM course who were at the high, intermediate, and low
levels (Table 1). The sample comprised seven (58.33%) female
students and five (41.67%) male students. A semi-structured
interview was conducted with them at the end of the course, which
was consistent with the purpose of this study.
TABLE 1 Basic information about the participants.
Number
Gender
A
Female
Age
Awards
Previous majors
21
National level
Art and design
B
Male
21
Provincial level
Art and design
C
Female
z
National level
Art and design
D
Male
21
College level
Digital media art and
design
E
Female
21
None
Digital media art and
F
Male
20
Provincial level
Art and design
G
Female
21
National level
Digital media art and
3.4 Research tools
design
Interviews were conducted according to the interview guide or
presentation (which was used as a framework prior to the start of the
interview) proposed by Lin et al. (2005). No severe constraint was
imposed on the wording and sequence of questions, and the content
was consistent with the research questions. Questions were asked in a
flexible manner. In this study, the interview outlines were adapted
according to the opinions of Zhan et al. (2022, 2023), and the specific
questions are presented in Table 2.
design
H
Male
21
None
Art and design
I
Male
21
National level
Digital media art and
design
J
Female
21
National level
Art and design
K
Female
21
Provincial level
Art and design
J
Female
20
None
Art and design
3.5 Data collection and analysis
First, written consent was obtained from the respondents, and the
interviews were recorded using notes and audio recordings, ensuring
that the information obtained was accurate. Immediately after the
interviews, the respondents’ comments and opinions were sorted, and
the responses that were consistent with the research topic were
screened through a review form to establish authenticity and
dependability (Wang et al., 2022). Furthermore, while reviewing the
data in cooperation with a supervising professor to clarify the concepts
and ensure the correctness and reliability of the analysis, three
colleagues majoring in art and a part-time teacher from a company
were invited to assist in data review and feedback because triangulation
can avoid biases and distortions in data analysis caused by personal
emotions or opinions.
A 50–60 min interview was conducted one on one with the
respondents, which involved questions in Chinese on the Tencent
meeting online platform. To ensure the effectiveness of the interview
data, the data were immediately recorded and used to perform a
micro-analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). After the interviews, the
data were coded using MAXQDA 2020.
After collecting the raw data, researchers sorted the data and
conducted subsequent analysis through cross-sectional and
longitudinal comparisons to understand the learning effects of the
curriculum. A coding system was created, as shown in Table 3.
3.2 Research method
Semi-structured interviews were conducted to learn about the
students’ performance in the art and design course combining the
C-STEAM concept. A total of 12 learners (who were at the high,
intermediate, and low levels) were selected when they completed
the course. Among them, four learners achieved excellent packaging
performance, four learners achieved medium performance, and
four learners delivered poor performance. At the end of the course,
a 50–60 min interview was conducted with the learners to
investigate their perceptions of the learning method and their
acceptance of the curriculum change, including the cause of
difficulties and what sparked their interest, to verify the results
based on causal reasoning.
3.3 Research subjects
In this study, interest sampling was performed to select
sophomore students in a higher vocational college in China
majoring in art and design. After the classes were scheduled by the
teaching office of the college at the beginning of the semester, 12
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TABLE 2 Interview outline.
Number
Questions
Q1
What did you like the most about the Packaging Design course integrated with C-STEAM?
Q2
What did you dislike the most about the Packaging Design course integrated with C-STEAM?
Q3
What difficulties did you encounter in this course? What methods did you use to overcome them?
Q4
What are the advantages (benefits) of the learning method in this course compared with conventional teaching (teachers lecture all the time)?
Q5
What are the advantages (benefits) of the learning style in this course compared with the conventional course design?
Q6
What is the biggest gain that the learning style in this course has brought you?
Q7
How did you learn about local culture, conventional Chinese culture, and Shangshan culture in this course? Could you integrate the culture into
the creation of art and design and make use of it?
Q8
Did the use of interdisciplinary knowledge (culture, science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) help you to create “personalized”
packaging? What did you find difficult?
Q9
Would you like to learn more in the C-STEAM course if you have an opportunity in the future?
Q10
Would you like to learn about traditional culture in the future (can you explain in detail what kind of traditional culture), and would you like to
contribute to the transmission of China’s excellent local culture?
Q11
Will you rely on the culture in your future designs?
Q12
What would you recommend if you continue to take this course?
4 Findings and discussion
the Chinese people. Therefore, focusing on local Chinese culture is
critical for promoting their long-term development.
The respondents’ words were transcribed, and based on the BAO
model, subject analysis was performed to obtain relevant information.
The learners shared their positive and negative learning experiences,
their learning beliefs, actions, and outcomes, and specific reasons for
participating in the C-STEAM Packaging Design curriculum, and
provided suggestions for the course. Interview data were analyzed, and
the results are shown in Table 4.
I got a feeling of freshness and specialty when learning about the
history and culture unique to Jinhua that I had never known
before (M-03-Q01).
The respondents indicated their lack of knowledge of packaging
(as shown below), lack of experience of packaging design before
taking the Packaging Design curriculum, and their knowledge of
using software for graphic design but not of 3D rendering. Due to
their limited knowledge and skills, they tended to be emotionally
affected, and disliked the course.
4.1 Learning beliefs of the students taking
the packaging design course combined
with C-STEAM
I didn’t know how to apply it [the culture] to a specific project
before I learned about packaging because I had never come into
contact with it before (F-01-Q02).
The present study was conducted mainly to understand students’
experiences of taking an art and design course combining STEAM
based on Shangshan culture. Based on the interview texts, the
students’ learning beliefs can be divided into positive and negative
aspects. Students’ positive learning experiences refer to their positive
states such as favorable feelings, interest, gains, and learning outcomes
of the C-STEAM integrated Packaging Design curriculum. Positive
beliefs include a deeper interest in studying Chinese culture. In this
study, students’ negative learning experiences refer to their negative
perceptions of the Packaging Design curriculum combining
C-STEAM, such as dislike, evasion, negation, repetition, and
negativity. Negative beliefs include a lack of a priori knowledge of
packaging, a lack of creative ideas at the early stage, and a limited
understanding of the meaning of the culture.
Some participants found studying Chinese culture highly
interesting (as shown below). They enjoyed learning about Shangshan
culture, which in turn sparked their interest in the Packaging Design
curriculum combining C-STEAM. The students considered
Shangshan culture as the origin of Chinese culture and as having a
long history and great cultural significance. The local Chinese culture
is diverse and comprises the commonly accepted values and ethics of
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Some learners indicated that they lacked creative ideas at the start
of the design. Specifically, they were confused about choosing a
product for packaging, the structure to wrap products, and the
painting style to decorate their packages. Furthermore, some
respondents would follow the herd because most used the rice grain
as the main image of “Shangshan Xiaobai (上山小白).”
The first step of choosing products based on the theme was the
hardest part because I didn’t know what to choose (M-08-Q03).
After I overcame the difficulties encountered in this course, I came
up with a new idea (F-05-Q03).
Some students believed that their understanding of the cultural
meanings was superficial. Owing to the extensive and profound
Shangshan culture, the subjects generally worried that their
understanding of the culture was one-sided and that they could not
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TABLE 3 Table of the data code.
Description
Code
Example
Description of the example
Subject
CN
C1N-33
33rd Student in class 1
C2N-33
33rd student in class 2
Learning outcome
Learning
Learning C1N-33
Learning outcomes of the 33rd student in class 1 on March 2, 2023
records of students interviewed
interview
Interview F-01-Q01
Subject interviews
F, M
Gender codes: female (F), male (M)
1–12
Different interviewee codes
Q1-Q12
Question numbers of the interview outline
completely grasp the cultural characteristics and meanings, indicating
their lack of confidence in the extracted cultural elements and their
design works.
I excel at running software and drawing designs, so I like it
(F-07-Q01).
Choosing packaging materials and structures was perceived to
be difficult by some students (as shown below). This difficulty was
attributed to the various packaging materials that are currently
available, such as different types of paper, as well as the materials for
making different products. Therefore, they tended to be bored with
repeated choices. Furthermore, some respondents stated that various
packaging structures are available, and choosing the right package was
tedious. Therefore, they tended to be confused or annoyed because it
required considerable time to experiment during the
production process.
I would make mistakes in the design, fearing that I could not
capture the characteristics of the Shangshan culture and would
stray from the point, not reflecting the culture (F-07-Q03).
4.2 The learning actions of the students
taking the packaging design course
combined with C-STEAM
Based on the interview texts, students’ learning actions can
be divided into positive and negative aspects and learning
suggestions. The positive aspect includes the joy of art creation and
pleasure in producing works by hand, whereas the negative aspect
includes the difficulty in choosing packaging materials
and structures.
In this study, learning suggestions refer to the students’ suggestions
or insights after taking the Packaging Design course combining
C-STEAM. These suggestions can be useful for optimizing and
developing the course in a better manner. It can be concluded that the
suggestions for improvement include more detailed explanations of
each area of knowledge and various teaching methods. Expanded
suggestions include integrating various local cultures, increasing the
number of study tours and domestic and international design cases,
and promoting interaction between teachers and students. The reasons
were comprehensively analyzed.
Some students found producing works of art enjoyable because
creating things by combining the long history and culture with
modern art not only made them happy and was enjoyable, but it also
resonated with other people.
When I began designing structures, I could not find a suitable box.
I tried out many different packaging forms to store the products,
but I did not know whether they were suitable (F-12-Q02).
Some participants suggested detailed explanations of each area of
knowledge (as shown below), especially mathematics. Most students
felt that their mathematics skills were weak and that they required
detailed explanations for accurately measuring the size and assembling
the package. Typography skills were also deemed necessary. Though
they had applied their previously acquired skills to graphic design,
they were required to apply those skills to three-dimensional design,
for which they required detailed explanations.
What we need to learn is a bit too comprehensive, and there is no
detailed explanation of a particular area (F-11-Q05).
Some respondents felt the diversity of teaching (see below) and
enjoyed greater freedom in the packaging design class. They suggested
that teachers should focus on the students who lacked initiative; teach
using a variety of approaches such as class discussions, group
discussions among students, and interactive discussions between
teachers and students; and provide frequent instructions on their
homework to promote student development.
Combining the culture assigns a different cultural meaning to the
design work and makes people understand deeper meanings
(M-02-Q01).
We enjoyed greater freedom in the class, so some students who
lacked initiative would muddle along in the class (F-12-Q05).
Some participants enjoyed crafting, and they mentioned that they
would practice crafts in their spare time, so they had experience of
practicing crafts before taking the course. Furthermore, they stated
that they would enjoy giving play to what they were good at and
interested in during the course.
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Some students suggested that apart from Shangshan culture, other
local cultures should be integrated (see below). They proposed that the
integration of other traditional cultures, instead of only one culture,
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TABLE 4 Coding statistics.
BAO
Code list
Belief
Positive
Interest in learning
Studying Chinese culture is extremely interesting
12
Negative
Learning difficulties
Lack of knowledge of packaging
5
Lack of creative thinking in the early stage of the design
10
Action
Positive
Sub-category
Interest in learning
Frequency
Superficial understanding of cultural meanings
7
Producing works of art is enjoyable
3
Handcrafting is enjoyable
4
Learning effect
Negative
Learning difficulties
Difficulty in choosing packaging materials and structure
5
Suggestions
Suggestions for improvement
Detailed explanations of each field of knowledge
10
More kinds of teaching methods
3
Expanded suggestions
Outcome
Positive
Interest in learning
Learning effect
Negative
Intention
Learning difficulties
Learning intention
Improvement of abilities
Cultural utility
Various local cultures should be integrated
3
Study trips and design cases at home and abroad are expected to increase
4
Interaction between teachers and students should be strengthened
6
Acquiring new knowledge of packaging is extremely interesting
4
C-STEAM multidimensional learning has aroused interest
6
Familiarity with new knowledge of packaging
6
Ability to appreciate and learn from good design cases has improved
4
Humanistic literacy and cultural confidence have improved
13
Self-exploration and thinking ability have improved
8
Problem-solving ability has improved
4
Hands-on ability and production level have improved
3
Ability to express creativity has improved
7
Integrated design ability has increased
8
Limited hands-on ability or production level
9
Weak in mathematical calculation
18
Traditional culture is profound and fascinating
13
Continued improvement of cultural heritage and development
14
Personal cultural attainment continues to improve
7
Personal artistic design level continues to improve
5
Constant creative inspirations
9
Comprehensive thinking of the functions of packaging
4
Completion of works continues to improve
12
Recognition of artwork continues to increase
3
Packaging accuracy and protection continue to improve
6
Chinese national wisdom continues to be passed down
9
Cultural identity and cultural confidence continue to grow
9
Vitality of the artworks is lasting
10
into the course is necessary because China is a large country with an
exceptionally rich cultural heritage.
In terms of culture, the course should be more diverse to give us
more choices (M-04-Q12).
(as shown below). They believed that field trips would be more
effective than learning indoors. Furthermore, they expected that
more domestic and international art and design cases should
be shared so that they can extend their knowledge and broaden
their horizons.
Some participants suggested that more study trips and
domestic and international design cases should be incorporated
It is better to share more creative cases, for example, western
design cases or domestic award-winning cases (F-01-Q12).
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If there is a chance, we can go and visit the Shangshan site, so that
the course content is richer (M-02-Q12).
Making an unfolding drawing on the computer, then drawing an
effect picture, and finally printing to make the complete work
brought me a sense of achievement and is my biggest gain in the
packaging design class (M-04-Q06).
Some respondents suggested that the interaction between teachers
and students should be strengthened because most students lacked
relevant learning experience before opting to take the course. They
tended to be confused about future courses, and some introverted
students did not take the initiative to approach teachers for help.
Therefore, they suggested that teachers should focus on such students
and strengthen communication with them.
The participants’ confidence in their ability to appreciate and learn
from excellent design cases increased (as shown below). By
appreciating vivid and interesting packaging cases, especially
anthropomorphic design works, they could not only broaden their
horizons and improve their esthetics but also learn how to apply them
to their studies.
The teacher would show us many interesting and award-winning
packaging cases with anthropomorphic packaging designs in class
(F-01-Q01).
All learners agreed that they had gained a deep understanding of
humanities and increased their self-confidence in their own culture
(as shown below). Students gathered at the school from all over the
country to learn the traditional local culture, deeply experience the
unique charm of various cultures, and produce their works of art
combining the culture, which embedded the culture in their hearts
and increased their self-confidence in their culture.
Sometimes students are too shy to take the initiative to
communicate with their teachers. They should not always have
their head buried in books. They need more communication with
and assistance from their teachers (F-07-Q05).
4.3 The learning outcomes of the students
taking the packaging design course
combined with C-STEAM
According to the interview texts, the students’ learning outcomes
can be grouped into positive and negative aspects. The positive aspect
includes an interest in learning and academic performance, such as a
greater interest in acquiring new knowledge of packaging, a growing
interest in multi-dimensional learning of C-STEAM, a deeper
understanding of new knowledge of packaging, greater abilities to
appreciate and learn from excellent design cases, improved humanistic
attainments, boosted cultural self-confidence, greater ability to explore
and think independently, better problem-solving skills, greater manual
dexterity, greater creativity, and greater ability to produce designs. The
negative aspect includes poor manual dexterity and arithmetic skills.
Some respondents found acquiring knowledge of packaging to
be very interesting (see below). Generally, students believed that the
transformation of a flat sheet of paper into a three-dimensional box
could help them feel different visual sensations, and learning how to
run the “Baoxiaohe” software and measuring and calculating sizes
expanded their knowledge and impressed them, making them believe
that learning is fun.
I have learned a lot about Jinhua culture and have come under the
influence of the culture. Therefore, my self-confidence in our own
culture has increased and I am proud of being Chinese
(F-10-Q06).
Some respondents felt that their ability to explore and think
independently had improved (see below). They mentioned that when
designing packages, they not only explored the wisdom of the ancient
texts, extracted cultural elements, and incorporated them into their
designs, but also understood how to improve their ability to manage
cost based on market demands.
I would not only consider its beauty or structure but also its
economy and practicality (F-01-Q06).
Some students believed that their problem-solving ability had
improved after the course. They mentioned that they tended to
be confused about the design theme and specific direction in their
works, but with the help of their teachers and through constant efforts
to integrate culture, sharing cases, thinking independently, and
studying online, their problem-solving ability had improved.
It gives me a great sense of achievement to transform a piece of
paper into a three-dimensional box by measuring each point,
drawing lines, cutting, folding, and pasting (M-09-Q01).
I could communicate well with my classmates and could
communicate easily with my teachers when I ran into intractable
problems (M-06-Q04).
Some participants were interested in learning C-STEAM (see
below), especially multidimensional learning. In addition, if one or
two knowledge nodes interested them, they tended to be interested in
the whole course and pay more attention.
The respondents felt their hands-on skills and production level
had improved after the course (as shown below). They mentioned that
the continuous processes of measurement and production increased
their enthusiasm because packaging design requires calculating
dimensions, drawing, and folding.
The course was taught in a non-traditional way, and aroused the
students' curiosity and increased their attention (F-03-Q04).
Some students were familiar with packaging (as shown below).
They could quickly grasp the whole design process, including market
research, cultural integration, packaging material selection, designing
structures, drawing unfolded and effect pictures, and printing, all of
which brought them a sense of achievement.
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My manual skills have sharpened and my enthusiasm for making
has grown, and I have learned how to do manual work better, such
as calculating dimensions, making drawings accurately, and the
knowledge of deciding which to use or discard (F-03-Q06).
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Some participants felt that their creative expression ability had
improved (see below). They believed that compared with previous
designs, their thought processes changed after completion of the
course. Specifically, the packaging structure could be extended
outward, and the packaging decoration can be anthropomorphic,
providing inspiration for their works.
Some students believed that their comprehensive design skills
improved (as shown below) because the Packaging Design curriculum
combined the knowledge of culture, science, technology, engineering,
art, and mathematics with that of running various design software
packages such as “Baoxiaohe” and AI. They mentioned that the course
allowed theoretical knowledge to be closely integrated with practical
creation, which strengthened their dynamic and active thinking and
broadened their design horizons.
In terms of the students’ intentions after the course, this study
concludes that the reasons for continued participation were the
extensive, profound, and fascinating traditional culture; continued
efforts to pass down and develop the traditional culture; and
continuous improvements in people’s cultural attainments and art
design level. Interdisciplinary knowledge includes creative inspiration,
comprehensive thinking about the functions of packages, increased
completion of works, continuous improvement of artwork recognition,
and increased packaging accuracy and conservation. The utility of
culture includes the continuous transmission of Chinese national
wisdom and the enduring vitality of artworks. These results are
comprehensively explained.
Some respondents believed that the traditional culture is
extensive, profound, and fascinating (see below). They cited examples
of traditional Chinese culture including the Dunhuang murals of the
Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, the Tujia culture of Hunan Province,
Chinese monochrome pictures, and the Shangshan culture of Zhejiang
province. Deep in meaning and rich in content, Chinese culture is a
spiritual home to all Chinese people.
The knowledge I had acquired before was all about graphic design,
but the knowledge I have gained in this class is about 3D design,
which is up-to-date and full of freshness (M-09-Q01).
I want to learn more traditional culture, like Chinese paintings.
Since childhood, I have been very interested in landscape painting,
which has a special pleasing quality (F-10-Q10).
The respondents believed that their personal hands-on ability was
limited and their production level was low (as shown below).
Specifically, when making unfolded drawings and drawing folding
boxes, they would often mix up the folding and cutting lines.
Therefore, they tended to make repeated mistakes when cutting and
had to draw and assemble again, leading them to become depressed
and frustrated.
All respondents were willing to continue to pass down and
develop the traditional culture. Specifically, they hoped to hand down
and promote culture through the art design they are good at, such as
drawing cartoon characters, illustrations, packaging, logos, and
emoji packs.
The integration of local culture and packaging design provided us
with more creative inspiration, allowed us to think fresh thoughts,
feeling that there was more room for creativity (F-07-Q06).
The traditional culture of the Chinese nation should be passed
down, which is also what Chinese people should do
(F-01-Q10).
I often had to remake boxes because the folding and cutting lines
were mixed up, or I bored the wrong folding lines or wrong holes,
so I had to redraw and refold (F-10-Q02).
Some learners believed that their cultural attainments (as shown
below) had improved. They genuinely believed that producing works
based on culture can bring both designers and audiences closer to the
culture and improve their cultural attainments through
materialized works.
All participants felt that their ability to perform mathematical
calculations was limited (see below), which further limited their
ability to measure and calculate the package sizes. They obtained
results that were either too long or too short, making complete
assembly packaging difficult for them. Therefore, the more frequently
the participants redid their work, the more likely they were to
experience negative emotions.
Local culture is a source of inspiration and can make the work
more meaningful and attractive (M-02-Q11).
Some students indicated an increase in their personal art and
design level (as shown below), which could be attributed to the fact
that the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge expanded their
creative ideas, enriched them, and made them more determined.
It was difficult to calculate sizes. Being about 0.5 cm larger will
result in a relatively empty box, which tends to cause waste and
high costs (F-12-Q02).
I can use what I have learned to contribute to the transmission of
Chinese culture. By doing so, we can not only spread traditional
culture but also foster artistic innovation (F-01-Q10).
4.4 Learning intentions of the students
taking the packaging design course
combining C-STEAM
Some participants were creatively inspired (see below). The
Packaging Design curriculum is student-oriented, combines
interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, and uses culture as a source of
inspiration for design, thereby providing students with constant
creative inspiration.
In this study, intentional learning experience refers to students’
behavioral responses, such as aspirations, hopes, and intentions, after
completing the Packaging Design course combining C-STEAM.
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Using a combination of knowledge inspires me to think
independently (F-11-Q09).
Some learners felt that their cultural identity and self-confidence
in their culture had increased, especially when they produced artworks
based on local culture. Furthermore, it strengthened their bond with
the culture, deepened their understanding and affirmation of the
culture, and subconsciously enhanced their sense of national pride.
The respondents believed that they could think comprehensively
about each function of packaging because designing packaging
requires not only drawing ability but also knowledge of mathematics,
science, and engineering, including measuring the size of products to
make packages and integrating the characteristics of products to
decorate packaging. Considering these factors can enhance the visual
impact of their work.
When producing various works of art combining local culture,
we felt the wisdom of our nation, and our self-confidence in our
own culture grew (F-10-Q09).
Some respondents perceived artworks as being full of continuing
vitality (as shown below) and believed that traditional local culture
provides a solid foundation for modern art design, infusing life into
the artwork.
The rich patterns on the pottery are of great significance to our
current creations, adding historical value to the work (F-11-Q07).
I didn’t have a clue at first about the design process, so I used
interdisciplinary knowledge to solve problems (M-08-Q08).
Some learners found that they could complete their work steadily
(as shown below). They could acquire considerable knowledge and
multiple skills from the Packaging Design curriculum combining
C-STEAM, and prepare packages by combining what they had learned
with their own personalities, eventually presenting their works in a
more complete manner.
5 Discussion
Focusing on the elements of Shangshan culture, the present study
aimed to explore the feelings of the college students completing the art
and design C-STEAM course, so that, based on their understanding
of China’s outstanding local culture, they could combine the multidisciplinary knowledge and skills such as science, technology,
engineering, art, and math to design and produce themed product
packs. According to the results, 72 h of training in packaging design
helped these art majors develop innovation, improve their
interdisciplinary attainments, practice their ability, boost their cultural
self-confidence, and sharpen their sense of patriotism. The findings of
Zhan et al. (2020) showed that C-STEAM interdisciplinary education
aimed at passing down the excellent local culture not only has great
significance for training professionals, but also has a significant impact
on the perceptions of cultural context.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted in this qualitative
research to explore the learning experience of the students taking the
C-STEAM interdisciplinary course and their willingness to acquire
the knowledge of C-STEAM and to learn the local culture. Twelve
students in the experimental class of the C-STEAM curriculum
answered the interview questions in detail. The students’ learning
beliefs, actions, and outcomes, and proposed future learning
intentions were comprehensively analyzed, providing an explanation
of the quantitative study.
Based on the interview texts, this study concludes that positive
learning experiences include a deeper interest in studying Chinese
culture (in terms of the learning beliefs), the joy of art creation (in
terms of the learning actions), improved humanistic attainments,
greater ability to explore and think independently, and better
problem-solving skills (in terms of the learning outcomes). Based
on the statements by Zhan et al. (2020) and Zhan et al. (2022),
integrating C-STEAM education can enhance cultural identity and
national self-confidence, stimulate students’ innovative ability,
broaden their knowledge, sharpen their skills in hands-on
experience, and overcome their fear of difficulty. This result is also
consistent with comments by Kong (2020) that the design course
integrating the STEAM concept can help students develop creativity
and inculcate them with the ability to appreciate their culture.
Furthermore, they integrated cross-disciplinary study and
We gained an understanding of the culture and then combined
our personalities through relevant software, which made the
whole package look more complete (M-04-Q08).
Some participants indicated that their artwork recognition
improved. Although most students used “Shangshan rice grain” as the
main image on the package, the details of the image and the painting
style differed considerably. Some designed the top box lid as a cartoon
hat with small ears, whereas some replaced the clothing and costumes
and integrated culture into their products for display, which was
extremely personalized.
Our works became more personalized, for example, the tissue box
is in the shape of a lid with small ears on top (F-03-Q08).
Some respondents believed that their precision of packaging
design improved, and packaging was accorded effective protection
(see below). After taking the course, the students concluded that
package dimensions should be measured and calculated using a strict
formula, rather than by decreasing or increasing the sizes of some
objects. In this manner, the package can fit the size of their products
and protect their integrity.
Applying the knowledge of math, I used a ruler to measure the
length, width, and height of the package (M-06-Q08).
The students believed that Chinese wisdom continues to be passed
down (see below), which is reflected in the fact that the Shangshan
ancestors who lived by water made beautiful pottery, stone tools, and
other household articles to change their original eating habits,
exhibiting their wisdom in a physical manner that continues even to
the present day.
The Shangshan people lived by water and created pottery for
production and living according to their living environment,
turning the kiln into a cooker, which promoted the development
and prosperity of human civilization (F-11-Q07).
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stimulated their innovation and creative expression in their
design works.
This study further concludes that the negative learning
experiences included difficulty in choosing packaging materials and
structures and poor arithmetic skills, which is consistent with the
findings of Zhou (2023), and Zheng and Chen (2023), who
highlighted the need to select the design based on products owing to
the diversity of packaging design materials and structures that
rendered the selection process tedious. Qian and Wang (2021)
asserted that because the art and design major in most Chinese
higher vocational colleges does not provide mathematics courses,
students majoring in art are weaker in mathematics than those
majoring in other courses.
All participants in this study expressed their willingness to
continue taking the Packaging Design curriculum combining
C-STEAM, and to learn more about the C-STEAM course in the
future. They expressed their desire to learn more about traditional
culture to contribute to the transmission of China’s excellent local
culture. They also shared their desire to integrate elements of culture
into their works of art in the future. This result is consistent with those
of Zhan et al. (2022) and Zhan et al. (2023) who stated that after
3 years of project practice (i.e., from 2016 to 2019), the total number
of students interested in participating in interdisciplinary STEAM
curriculum increased 15-fold, and the number of students interested
in learning about traditional culture increased from 28 to 96%. Fan
and Ye (2020) and Ye et al. (2020) reported that after STEAM
integration into a fashion design course, students became more willing
to invest more time and effort in promoting their art
learning performance.
included the joy of art creation and pleasure in producing works by
hand, whereas the negative aspect included the difficulty of
choosing packaging materials and structures. In terms of learning
suggestions, the interviewed students suggested detailed
explanations of each area of knowledge, greater diversity of
teaching, study trips, integration of local culture, and increased
interaction between teachers and students, providing inspiration for
future research and teaching. Third, the learning outcomes of the
students taking the Packaging Design course combined with
C-STEAM included positive and negative aspects. In terms of the
positive aspect, improved humanistic attainments and boosted
cultural self-confidence were mentioned most frequently; in terms
of the negative aspect, poor arithmetic skills were mentioned most
frequently. Fourth, in terms of learning intentions, all interviewed
students stated that they could effectively use interdisciplinary
knowledge and skills for “personalized” themes. They expressed
their willingness to take more C-STEAM courses in the future as
well as to learn about traditional culture and produce artworks
based on the culture. To summarize, the integration of C-STEAM
into the Packaging Design course can help students develop creative
expression and art integration abilities, which is consistent with the
purpose of the present study.
To accomplish the goal of building a culturally powerful country,
the country’s cultural soft power and Chinese cultural influence will
be enhanced by cultivating culturally oriented talents, and thereby
promoting cultural confidence. This study innovated the role of
C-STEAM education in the teaching of art design in a Chinese higher
vocational college, effectively applied interdisciplinary knowledge to
the teaching process, capitalized on geographical advantages, and
analyzed the historical value of the local culture. Efficient use of the
local culture can not only ensure its preservation, utilization,
inheritance, and development, but can also provide characteristic
education in higher vocational institutions and build artistic talent,
ultimately achieving a win-win situation. Furthermore, our study
provides theoretical support for the academic community from the
perspective of art and design, and contributes to the diversity of
disciplinary elements.
6 Conclusion and suggestions
6.1 Conclusion
Combining China’s actual conditions, this study designed an art
design C-STEAM course integrated with local culture for China’s
colleges. The integration of the Shangshan culture into the Packaging
Design course proved the importance and significance of adding
C-STEAM to the art design course, which helped us understand the
specific feelings of students after completing the course, and gain a
deeper understanding of the changes in their knowledge and skills and
their learning effects. This study, thus, enriches the literature on the
development of the art design C-STEAM course in China’s colleges by
means of qualitative research.
Based on the BAO model, this study selected four themes from
the interviews and analyzed them comprehensively. The results are
summarized as follows. First, the learning beliefs of the students
taking the Packaging Design course combined with C-STEAM
included both positive and negative beliefs. In terms of positive
beliefs, a deeper interest in studying Chinese culture was mentioned
most frequently. Negative beliefs included a lack of a priori
knowledge of packaging, a lack of creative ideas at the early stage,
and a limited understanding of the meaning of the culture. Second,
the learning actions of the students taking the Packaging Design
course combined with C-STEAM can be divided into positive and
negative aspects and learning suggestions. The positive aspect
Frontiers in Psychology
6.2 Contribution
The contributions of this study are as follows: (1) STEM education
is seen as the cornerstone of a country’s capacity for innovation and
creative development, and is the key to developing and shaping
students’ higher-order cognitive abilities and promoting their future
career development. To examine specific feelings of students after
taking the course and to understand students’ learning effects after
course experiments, this study developed a vocational C-STEAM
course on art and design with local characteristics, thus enriching
research on the development of C-STEAM art and design courses in
China’s higher vocational colleges through qualitative research. (2)
The study aimed to maximize the in-depth integration of
multidisciplinary knowledge of science, technology, engineering, art,
mathematics, and local culture. This can encourage students to apply
the acquired interdisciplinary knowledge to artistic exploration and
creation, as well as accelerate training talent who can satisfy the needs
of society. (3) The findings revealed that the students believed that the
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integration of C-STEAM into the Packaging Design curriculum is an
innovative and creative method of teaching that is removed from the
previous teaching methods. The course was designed to provide
students with time to think, accept their ideas, and respond in a timely
manner, thereby contributing to the development of a distinctive art
course in China’s higher vocational colleges.
Design innovation poses challenges to experts and art;
therefore, how to help art and design students develop creative
thinking and ability is an important research theme which needs
to be explored continuously. In the future, researchers need to
continuously examine the causes of difficulties in producing
works and ways to cope with them, the process of design creation,
the innovation in teaching and learning modes, teachers’
guidance methods, and so on.
Although the school and major selected for this study are typical
of art majors in Chinese higher vocational colleges, the participants
were all from the same college. The number of interviewees was
limited because of the strict rules enforced by the college regarding the
teaching period and the number of students. Therefore, follow-up
studies should involve larger samples to explore specific feelings of
students majoring in other courses on the theme in various colleges.
C-STEAM is a localized form of STEAM education oriented
toward China’s excellent traditional culture (Zhan et al., 2022).
Chinese culture is extensive and profound, comprising vivid and
unique cultures from distinct ethnic groups and regions (Qian, 2019).
In this study, C-STEAM was integrated into the Packaging Design
curriculum, including only the Shangshan culture. In the future, more
traditional Chinese local cultures can be integrated into the
curriculum to create innovative ideas for the development of STEAM
education in China. Moreover, the study can offer STEAM courses
based on ideological and political education (IP-STEAM) and expand
the C-STEAM educational model according to the characteristics of
the students’ majors.
6.3 Recommendations
Furthermore, in the subsequent part of the course, based on negative
learning experiences in students’ learning beliefs, actions and outcomes,
when running the Packaging Design curriculum combining C-STEAM
in the future, detailed explanations of science, technology, engineering,
art, mathematics, and culture should be provided to students, especially
in the areas where they are weak, such as measuring and calculating sizes
and assembling packages. More knowledge of traditional local culture
should be incorporated, rather than confining the content to the
knowledge of the Shangshan culture, to prevent students from merely
gaining local cultural knowledge. Moreover, classroom teaching, group
teaching, and individual teaching should be provided according to reality.
Additionally, teachers must focus on each student’s learning progress in a
timely manner and strengthen communication with introverted students
and those who are lagging behind.
In terms of the suggestions about students’ learning actions, the
course should be improved and extended to continuously optimize the
art and design curriculum. For example, a combination of indoor and
outdoor teaching activities is necessary. More study trips and field
trips to cultural heritage sites and local museums are recommended
so that students can understand the unique charm of the culture and
broaden their horizons and knowledge. Students’ development should
be prioritized, focusing on their participation in class, and multidimensional comprehensive evaluation should be conducted from
sketches, prototypes, and typesetting to the finished product to avoid
one-sided scoring, which would dampen their learning enthusiasm.
Studies on the STEAM curriculum in China have overly imitated
European and American courses, which has resulted in a lack of
appropriate localization and poor integration with existing courses
(Huo et al., 2020; Zhan et al., 2022). Therefore, integrating C-STEAM
education into courses related to art and design is highly warranted to
encourage students to apply their interdisciplinary knowledge to
artistic exploration and creation. Moreover, to effectively develop a
curriculum system with local characteristics, teachers should provide
more opportunities for students to explore and learn C-STEAM in the
future, and integrate multiple elements into their teaching.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by the Ethics
Committee of Dhurakij Pundit University (DPUHREC050/65NA).
The study was conducted in accordance with the local legislation and
institutional requirements. The participants provided their written
informed consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
Qian C, and Ye J-H: Concept and design and drafting of the
manuscript. Qian C, and Ye J-H: Acquisition of data and analysis.
Qian C, Ye J-H and Zheng C: Critical revision of the manuscript. All
authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
6.4 Limitations and further study
In this study, semi-structured interviews were used to gain
insights into the changes in knowledge and skills of students taking
the course, and the learning effects of the course. However, this
method could not provide an understanding of the participants’
thoughts, and the results could not be described quantitatively.
Therefore, our study can be supplemented with other research
methods such as questionnaires in the future to more comprehensively
understand students’ feelings about their learning and to gain a more
adequate and deeper understanding of the learning effect.
Frontiers in Psychology
Funding
This study was supported by “Research on Shangshan Cultural
and Art Value Protection, Activation and Utilization” which was
funded by the Humanities and Social Science Youth Foundation of
Ministry of Education of China in 2022 (Project No: 22YJC760072).
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Conflict of interest
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim
that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed
by the publisher.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Supplementary material
Publisher’s note
The Supplementary material for this article can be found online
at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251497/
full#supplementary-material
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
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TYPE
Original Research
08 January 2024
10.3389/feduc.2023.1322323
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra,
University of Zaragoza, Spain
REVIEWED BY
María Lorena Alonso,
Universidad Nacional de Villa María, Argentina
Carlos Ossa,
University of the Bío Bío, Chile
*CORRESPONDENCE
Alfonso Bonhomme
abonhomme@uahurtado.cl
RECEIVED 16
October 2023
ACCEPTED 19 December 2023
PUBLISHED 08 January 2024
CITATION
Bonhomme A and Rojas MT (2024)
Commitment and training: professionalization
narratives in the implementation of social and
emotional learning policies in Chilean
schools.
Front. Educ. 8:1322323.
doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1322323
COPYRIGHT
© 2024 Bonhomme and Rojas. This is an
open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
reproduction in other forums is permitted,
provided the original author(s) and the
copyright owner(s) are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic
practice. No use, distribution or reproduction
is permitted which does not comply with
these terms.
Commitment and training:
professionalization narratives in
the implementation of social and
emotional learning policies in
Chilean schools
Alfonso Bonhomme 1* and María Teresa Rojas 2
1
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile, 2 Facultad de Educación,
Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the discourse on mental health has
strongly permeated educational spaces. This is evidenced by the proliferation
of policies and initiatives related to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), which
urgently emphasize socio-emotional development and the psychological
and subjective well-being of students. This phenomenon makes it necessary
to study how professionals should take responsibility and implement a series
of practices to respond to these initiatives and policies, many of which are
improvised and poorly understood by the community. The aim of this article is
to analyze the narratives of professionalization produced by educational agents
responsible for implementing SEL policies in Chilean schools. For this purpose,
in-depth narrative interviews were conducted with 12 primary education actors,
including principals, educational psychologists, school climate coordinators,
and homeroom teachers. The participants were selected from different types
of educational institutions, including public schools, subsidized private schools,
and private schools. Through an inductive Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA),
two main themes were identified that articulate the professional experience
of implementing SEL policies among the interviewees: (1) commitment to SEL
and the (dis)continuities between institutions and personal efforts, and (2) initial
and ongoing training for the implementation of SEL. Moreover, from these
two proposed themes, various sub-themes emerged, classified according to
the types of professionals interviewed and the complexities associated with
the types of schools where they work. These sub-themes demonstrate how
discourses on the emotional dimension and SEL in schools translate into
concrete implications, both subjective and material, regarding the daily work
of the interviewees. Finally, the article discusses the complexity arising from the
narrative differences among professionals, particularly in terms of their initial
and ongoing training, as well as the importance of shared commitments among
communities in recognizing the work carried out by these professionals.
KEYWORDS
social and emotional learning, commitment, training, teacher professionalization,
narrative approach, educational policy enactment
Frontiers in Education
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10.3389/feduc.2023.1322323
1 Introduction
2018, 2019). Dewey (1997/1938) already took pains to argue how
emotional experience plays an important role in the formation of
intelligence and learning. Vygotsky, on his part, was not only
concerned with the role of emotions in learning but was also interested
in producing a theory about the development of emotions and their
interweaving with historical-cultural aspects of knowledge (Vygotsky,
1933/2017). In particular, it is feasible to think that Vygotsky
conceived emotional development under the same principles of
development as the rest of the higher psychic processes, characterized
by the functional systemic transformation of the psyche in relation to
socioculturally directed tasks and activities (Vygotsky, 1930/2014;
Bonhomme, 2021). Given this, the idea of the social situation of
development becomes important (González-Rey, 2000), as the
subjective experience during the learning process is fundamental to
understanding the meaning of these systemic transformations. Thus,
emotions are a psychological function capable of developing like any
other psychological function (memory, attention, language, thought,
perception, etc.) to become a higher psychic process (Bonhomme,
2021). At the same time, they play a transcendental role in the
experience—whether of school learning or not—in terms of giving
subjective meaning to any process of change and development
(González-Rey, 2000). This is fundamental to understanding a
pedagogy in which students have an active role in their learning
process and in the shaping of a liberating education (Bruner, 1990;
Freire, 2000/1970).
According to the above, emotions are not entities that inhabit the
interior of the subject and are oriented from the inside out in the
experience (Le Breton, 2013). In the educational field, it is crucial to
understand schools as institutions that transform learning processes
and guide development through specific socio-historically situated
ways (Rogoff, 1990). Based on this, education and the pedagogical
means of teaching can be understood in the same sense that Vygotsky
(1925/2006) attributed to the function of art: as a social technique of
emotion. Education plays an active role in the transformation of
psychological systems, having the potential to produce creative paths
of development (Vygotsky, 1931/2012). This is fundamentally
important when the socio-emotional development of students and the
shaping of affective schools take on particular socio-political relevance
(Kaplan, 2022).
However, the emerging concern for the socioemotional dimension
in learning had its most recent boom since the nineties through a
so-called emotional turn (Pekrun and Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014),
which has its main antecedent in the concept of Emotional Intelligence
(Mayer and Salovey, 1990). Similarly, from that term, the global agenda
of educational policies has placed emotions and the non-cognitive
dimensions of development as nodal aspects for the competencies of
the 21st century and in the promotion of well-being and social
development of students and educational communities (OECD, 2016;
OCDE, 2018; UNESCO, 2020). Although the term Emotional
Intelligence is no longer preponderant for educational policy in the
field of socioemotional development, the new conceptualization from
the SEL (CASEL, 2023a) shares the assumption of pointing to the
individual and cognitive capacity to manage and express emotions
correctly (Bisquerra-Alzina and Pérez-Escoda, 2007; Goleman, 2010;
Menéndez, 2018; Seligman, 2019; Barría-Herrera et al., 2021).
The term Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) was coined by the
Collaborative for Academics, Social, and Emotional Learning
(CASEL) and is defined as:
The last few decades have been characterized by what Pekrun and
Linnenbrink-Garcia (2014) have labeled the emotional turn in
education, which consists in the mass proliferation of studies on the
importance, application, design, and evaluation of programs aimed at
developing the emotional dimension in educational establishments,
with this phenomenon remaining stable since the mid 1990s to date.
Likewise, international entities such as The World Bank and the
Organization for Co-operation and Economic Development
encourage countries to implement educational policies that promote
the development of “soft skills.” These include socio-emotional skills,
regarded as one of the most relevant tools for successfully entering the
21st century job market (see The World Bank, 2015). With this goal
in mind, the OCDE (2017) administered the first PISA test of
Subjective Well-Being in 2015, a landmark event in the evaluation of
dimensions other than the cognitive which focused on students’
mental health.
In this regard, several policies have been introduced in Chile to
foster students’ socio-emotional development. These include the
definition of Education as an integral process, proposed in the General
Education Law, encompassing emotional and spiritual dimensions of
development, among others (Ley 20370, 2009); the updated version of
the National School Climate Plan (Ministerio de Educación, 2019);
and the Cross-Curricular Learning Objectives (OAT); among other
policies currently in force. Furthermore, efforts have been made to
expand the way in which education quality is measured and
understood. One such attempt was made in 2014, when Social and
Personal Development Indicators (IDPS) –e.g. academic self-esteem
and motivation, school climate, civic engagement, civics– were
introduced to complement the academic indicators measured by
SIMCE1 (Agencia de la Calidad de la Educación, 2017).
In addition to the above, after the pandemic and health crisis of
the year 2020, the Ministry of Education developed a set of documents
that are noteworthy due to the direct use of the term ‘socio-emotional’
(Ministerio de Educación, 2021), including a self-care guide entitled
“Keys to Well-Being. A Logbook for Teacher Self-Care Based on the
Emotional Intelligence and Positive Psychology Principles”
(Ministerio de Educación, 2020). The Ministry also produced a guide
for a socio-emotionally safe return to school (Ministerio de Educación,
2021) and a tool repository entitled “School Climate and SocioEmotional Learning Toolbox” (Ministerio de Educación, 2021).
Finally, in 2021, the Integral Learning Diagnosis System was
implemented, incorporating evaluation tools that provide diagnostic
information about students’ socio-emotional learning outcomes
(Agencia de la Calidad de la Educación, 2021); in addition, authorities
implemented the Socio-Emotional Guidelines and Skills System,
composed of a set of Pedagogical Fact Sheets for Socio-Emotional
Skills, along with the Strategies for Socio-Emotional Development
through the National Curriculum. All these documents were
developed upon the basis of the notion of Social and Emotional
Learning (SEL), following international guidelines (see CASEL, 2023a).
Emotions have a long history in education and are not necessarily
a topic of recent interest (see Abramowski, 2015, 2022; Toro-Blanco,
1 Education Quality Measurement System.
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The process through which all young people and adults acquire
and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy
identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective
goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain
supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring
decisions. (CASEL, 2023a, para. 1).
to bear in mind that what teachers or other educators actually do in
the classroom may be different, and that program implementations
can and do differ considerably across contexts” (Hoffman, 2009,
p. 534–535). Even though more than a decade has passed since
Hoffman advanced these views (2009), to date few researchers have
analyzed SEL policies taking into account how educational actors and
schools (re)interpret and translate them in order to enact them (for
some exceptions, see Vincent et al., 2016; Barnes and McCallops,
2019; Spohrer, 2021).
Studies focused on educational actors are still emergent (see Collie
et al., 2011; Muñiz, 2020; Sorondo, 2023), seeking to analyze internal
school factors crucial to the successful implementation of SEL
programs. Some of these studies highlight the importance of
commitment to SEL (see Collie et al., 2015; Nielsen et al., 2019) and
the training provided to professionals (see Esen-Aygun and SahinTaskin, 2017; Barnes and McCallops, 2019) as factors leading to
adequate SEL program implementation.
Based on the above, the present article examines the way in which
professionals narrate their experience during the policy enactment
process, underlining two main aspects of their professional activity:
commitment and training. In addition, the article seeks to reveal how
these factors involved in the implementation of SEL policies are
interpreted and experienced differently according to the interviewees’
professional discipline and specific functions as well as the values of
the school where they work.
CASEL is an organization that has among its objectives “to
establish high-quality, evidence-based SEL as an essential part of
preschool through high school education” (CASEL, 2023b, para. 10).
A pioneering force in the promotion of SEL with a three-decade
presence in the USA, it proposes that SEL is based on the development
of 5 specific competencies: Self-management, Self-awareness,
Responsible decision-making, Relationship skills, and Social awareness.
At the educational policy level, SEL can be regarded as a
“multifaceted umbrella term that encompasses multiple types of social
and emotional competences as well as moral attitudes and
dispositions” (Pérez-González, 2012, p. 58). It is worth noting that
educational policies can present emotional education in both a
restrictive and a lax sense (Pérez-González, 2012). Restrictive policies
are explicitly aimed at developing thoroughly defined competencies
(e.g., RULER, PATHS, Second Step). In contrast, lax policies cover
multiple actions and statements that loosely incorporate efforts
associated with a broad spectrum of what SEL is. These aspects of SEL
may include various related concepts such as classroom climate,
participation and involvement, academic, self-esteem, and sense of
belonging, among many others, which encompass and/or compose the
socio-emotional dimension of learning. In this regard, the plans and
adjustments of SEL-oriented educational policies can be highly
variable and not refer to specific programs (Pérez-González, 2012).
Due to the complex political reality of education in Chile, it makes
sense to adopt the lax SEL policy categorization to discuss the situation
in the country’s educational establishments. Thus, it is possible to
identify a cluster of SEL-oriented policies, like those mentioned above,
aimed at incorporating this dimension of learning in a variety of ways,
beyond the implementation of specific programs.
It is important to understand schools as “places of intersection of
networks and processes that exceed the physical and institutional
boundaries of school space” (Rockwell, 2005, p.28). In addition,
according to Ball et al. (2012), “policies create context, but context also
precedes policies” (p. 19), which means that SEL policies converge in
the specific context of a school, coexisting with other policies and
other contexts. Likewise, many policies co-occur in schools, with
certain subsets targeting similar principles (such as the SEL policies
mentioned above) and others focusing on a wide variety of purposes.
Furthermore, it is worth stressing that not only Ministry-developed
policies coexist in schools, since there are also internal, municipal, and
other policies in place (Braun and Maguire, 2018). Thus, the authors
of policy enactment theory focus on how top-down political demands
are absorbed in various ways depending on the particular context of
each school, according to how valuable they are to schools and to
individual educational agents (Ball et al., 2012; Vincent, 2019).
An important aspect of the enactment of policies is how they are
translated and interpreted by educational agents (Ball et al., 2012).
According to Hoffman (2009), most research on SEL policies focuses
on the implementation and evaluation of specific programs, seeking
to describe and defend said programs. Based on the nomenclature
proposed above, these studies examine restrictive SEL policies (PérezGonzález, 2012). In this regard, to study SEL policies, “it is important
Frontiers in Education
2 Method
2.1 Design
This article is an outgrowth of a project aimed at analyzing the
narratives about emotional factors and the enactment process
conveyed by professionals in charge of implementing Social and
Emotional Learning (SEL) policies. Its research design is grounded in
a narrative perspective (Schöngut-Grollmus and Pujol, 2015) whereby
narratives are regarded as performative and transformative actions,
embracing the view that subjects who produce them simultaneously
construct their own experience and its meanings (Schöngut, 2015).
Also, the study is inspired by the theoretical-methodological
contributions of Ball et al. (2012) concerning the implementation of
educational policies, acknowledging that they are not blindly and
linearly reproduced by educational actors, but that they are translated
and interpreted by them.
Fieldwork was conducted during 2021, while lockdown measures
were in force. The data production strategy employed was the
narrative interview (Murray, 2018), which can be either structured or
semi-structured depending on the issue that the researcher intends
to study (Roulston and Choi, 2018). This technique was adopted in
order to capture both the emotional dimension and the
implementation efforts of the interviewees. The interviews, which
lasted between 1 h 30 min and 2 h 15 min, were conducted over Zoom
and audio-visually recorded.
2.2 Participants
The interviewees were professionals who worked with students in
primary education and who were in charge of implementing SEL
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proposals, initiatives, and policies in their schools. They were selected
according to their position in the school hierarchy, considering the
availability and overall presence of these positions in Chilean
educational establishments as well as the agents’ involvement in the
promotion, management, and enactment of SEL policies. For this
reason, institutional affiliation was not used as a selection criterion,
and efforts were made to safeguard the interviewees’ personal
anonymity and that of their schools.
The sample included all three school administration types in Chile
(Municipal, Subsidized Private, and Private), with one agent per
position being interviewed for each.
Based on the above, agent positions and the number of
interviewees per school type are shown in Table 1. In almost all cases,
it was possible to conduct the minimum number of interviews
required by the methodological design (one representative per
position and school type). Nevertheless, in order to uphold the
agreement with the participants and take advantage of the richness of
the interviews, the decision was made to conduct two interviews with
homeroom teachers from two different subsidized private schools,
which were subsequently transcribed and analyzed.
that of grounded theory; however, the study freely switched from
theoretically oriented (deductive) thematic generation processes and
processes directly derived from the data (inductive).
An inductive RTA revealed two main topics that articulate the
professionals’ experience during the implementation of SEL policies:
(1) commitment to SEL and discontinuities between the institutional
level and their personal efforts; (2) initial and continuing training for
the implementation of SEL. The aforementioned themes were
extracted in the search for factors that influence the implementation
of SEL policies by the participants, either hindering or facilitating their
professional practice. Thus, two main categories were recognized:
contextual factors and individual factors. Within the individual
factors, commitment and training (initial and continuous) were
identified as two fundamental thematic nodes in the construction of
professionalization narratives by the agents interviewed.
The interviews were thematically coded using Atlas.ti V.22 and
were then sorted according to a criterion of familiarization with the
data, themes, and sub-themes. Thus, the analysis process can
be charted in the following sequence: (1) familiarization with the
transcribed interviews; (2) production of initial codes; (3)
identification of common themes that encompass the experience of
the professionals; (4) review of the constructed themes and analysis of
narrative discontinuities; (5) definition of the two main themes and
classification by professional role and type of establishment; and (6)
elaboration of the narrative (dis)continuities as sub-themes that stress
the professional roles in the implementation of SEL policies.
The analysis path can be seen in the diagram in Figures 1A–C by
focusing on the individual factors present in the research project data.
2.3 Analysis strategy
The data were examined using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA),
considered to be a specific approach derived from Thematic Analysis
(TA), which is a general term used to refer to a set of approaches
focused on the identification of themes (meaning patterns) present in
the data (Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2022). The defining traits of RTA
are its theoretical flexibility and the opportunities that it provides for
the researcher’s subjectivity to play a major role. This means that the
researcher’s subjectivity can be used in various situations to answer
and adapt to multiple types of research questions, where neither the
researcher’s analytic choices nor the topics constructed are neutral
(Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2022). This perspective openly acknowledges
the impossibility of attaining neutrality and is built on the assumption
that the thematic selection of data already introduces a complex,
theoretically motivated act of analysis. However, although the analysis
performed adopts the criteria of an RTA, the topics presented in this
article were inductively proposed, being derived from the data
themselves (Patton, 1990; Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2022). Based on
this logic, the theme production process for this article was similar to
2.4 Ethical considerations
The study followed the core ethical principles laid out in the
TCPS2 (2018) pertaining to actions and tasks that involve human
subjects: respect for persons, beneficence (or concern for welfare) and
justice. Furthermore, the Institutional Review Board of Universidad
Alberto Hurtado ruled that both the design and the Informed Consent
(IC) protocol met its ethical standards. Each participant took part in
the IC process voluntarily, signing the document prior to the
interview. In addition, alongside the researchers, the participants read
their rights and the IC and were given the opportunity to voice their
doubts and/or questions regarding the process or the objectives of
the project.
TABLE 1 Total number of participants by position and school type.
Participants by
school type
3 Results
No.
Municipal
Subsidized
private
This section presents the professionalization narratives of actors
tasked with implementing SEL policies and initiatives in schools.
These narratives revolve around two proposed topics, linked to
specific factors that the agents describe as central in their daily SEL
implementation work: (I) commitment and (dis)continuity between
the institutional domain and their personal efforts; (II) initial and
continuing training. Each of these themes will be organized by type of
school and type of participant.
Figures 1B,C shows in a didactic way the main discursive nodes,
narrative discontinuities, and implications (professionalization and
de-professionalization) that emerge from the results in an
Private
Principals
1
1
1
Homeroom teachers
1
2
1
Psychologists
1
1
1
School climate
1
1
1
4
5
4
coordinators
Total by school type
Total no. of participants
13
Source: own work.
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FIGURE 1
Diagram of the analysis structure and the main results.
intersectional manner (according to the role of the agents interviewed,
type of institution and main topic: commitment/training).
teachers said, “okay Mrs., I’m going to that girl’s house myself to
hand her the booklets, the material, the texts”; that’s commitment,
that’s truly devoting your life to education (Principal, Subsidized
Private School).
3.1 Commitment to SEL and (dis)
continuities between the institutional level
and personal efforts
Commitment to SEL —and education in general— is an important
factor in school principals’ professionalization narratives. However,
they reference the individual professional calling of their school’s
teachers, a quality they may be entitled to demand but one that is
challenging to target and address using administrative tools. Thus, a
lower level of control over the teaching team can lead to discontinuities
between administrative/institutional guidelines and the actions of
individuals. This issue is described as follows by a municipal
school principal:
When referring to their work implementing SEL initiatives and
policies, the interviewees organized their professional narratives
around commitment, but this position varied across types of
professionals and schools.
3.1.1 The importance of one’s professional calling
according to school principals
Principals of all school types appealed to educational community
members to make a personal commitment to students’ SEL. For
example, the principal of a private school states the following:
I still have a couple of teachers who are still a bit, so to speak,
rigid, but I cannot criticize them because I used to be like them
too, but I’m trying to soften them and tell them that this is not a
waste of time, because teachers sometimes come here and say,
“hell, I started the lesson and wasted 30–40 min because the
students were not feeling well at first, they did not have a good
night’s sleep, had trouble sleeping, the others were still saying
they were afraid.” So now I tell them that this is not a waste of
time, in fact, it’s a way to gain experience, at the very least you are
making students feel that someone’s listening to them (Principal,
Municipal School).
First, we need to be personally convinced that emotional aspects
are important, so, if I’m certain of this and I see a child crying in
my class, I’m going to stop the class, and of course I’m not going
to say, “you, crybaby, get out,” and resume my Math or Language
lesson. So, I need to demonstrate that emotional aspects are
valuable to me, that’s really important for me as an educator
(Principal, Private School).
Overall, the interviewed principals tend to highlight the value of
community members’ individual commitment to SEL. In this regard,
for the principals, being committed to the emotional aspects of
teaching is part of every actor’s duty to education in general and a
major component of their professional calling. Another principal
illustrates this point as follows:
3.1.2 The ethical production of teacher
commitment
In contrast, for the interviewed teachers, commitment is an aspect
of their daily efforts aimed at increasing their students’ well-being. In
their view, commitment is related to the ethics-based work that they
carry out every day:
The main thing is to be committed to education, to one’s
profession, that’s the most important thing, one’s commitment to
education, because that drives everything. A committed person
will make every effort in their power; last year, some teachers from
this school went to students’ homes because their parents did not
answer the phone, did not come here, did not check their
messages, did not answer their emails, so, because of that, some
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If you ask me, I worked really hard last year to make sure the kids
were all right and had everything they needed, plus, I wanted all
the objectives to be met and to fulfill all my expectations; maybe
it has to do with the things you want… you think, “I want those
things to happen, I want them to happen my way, I have to do
things my way,” so, at least on my part, I achieved all I had set out
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to do, which was to ensure a good outcome for my students
(Homeroom Teacher, Subsidized Private School).
It completely depends on the homeroom teacher’s attitude,
I mean, in the case I was just telling you about, the homeroom
teacher is great, he really takes an interest in this, he communicates
with us a lot, but if we had a teacher… there are some teachers
who do not care at all, they do not listen to us, and there’s not
much we can do either (SCC, Private School).
In line with the above excerpt, another homeroom teacher is
unable to separate her commitment to SEL from her commitment as
an educator, because, as a teacher, she spends long stretches of time
and several subjects with her students. She links this phenomenon to
the cross-curricular nature of SEL in her daily actions and her
pedagogical work:
This excerpt indicates that an SCC’s professionalism can either
be hindered or increased by the continuity or discontinuity between
agents’ level of professional commitment to SEL. Yet, while the
interviewed teachers state that commitment to SEL requires practical
work and ‘changing’ their approach, the SCCs consider that SEL is
closely associated with their profession, since they tend to view it as
the ‘core of their work’. From this viewpoint, an Educational
Psychologist (EPs) stresses that, since the pandemic, some progress
has been made —even if only discursively— to foster the confluence
of individual levels of commitment to SEL:
So, regarding the cross-sectional nature of this emotional
education, I’m the one in charge, me alone, as the homeroom
teacher, because I’d say that teachers of other subjects do not really
take charge, it’s the homeroom teacher who has to do nearly
everything. There are some evident reasons; I spend 22 h per week
with my class. The way things work in my school, I teach every
subject, I teach Natural Sciences, Language, Social Sciences,
Mathematics, and Orientation, I mean, I spend a lot of time with
them, so (…) my personal intention (…) the decision to continue
delivering this emotional education is mostly mine (Homeroom
Teacher, Private School).
In 2020, I think there was something of a perspective shift, or
maybe we started giving more importance to the socio-emotional
area, and therefore to school climate teams. Before the pandemic
I felt a little alone in this regard, in my job, but now I feel we are
working more collaboratively and that the people, the community
are beginning to understand the importance of this (EP,
Subsidized Private School).
Aligned with this perspective, the interviewed teachers’
responsibility entails an ethical commitment that manifests itself in
the relationship with their students, which is inextricably linked to
their implementation of SEL. Therefore, even though the interviewed
principals regard commitment as a quality related to one’s calling, for
the teachers, responsibility and commitment to SEL are not necessarily
intrinsic to their status as educators. Commitment to SEL is actualized
and produced through practice, and like every cultural practice, it is
grounded in a set of socio-historical ethos and the actualization of
teaching work, based on the socio-cultural demands in which it is
embedded. In this regard, a teacher illustrates how professional duties
and commitments make it necessary to modify their teaching
approaches and pedagogical priorities:
As illustrated above, commitment to SEL involves aspects that,
be them cultural or contingent, require a match between the
professional commitment of each individual and that of the school
community as a whole. Thus, when SEL becomes an urgent concern,
the interviewed SCCs report feeling professionally recognized.
3.1.4 Professional commitment in the face of
market logics and an outcome-driven focus
When factors are observed which link individual commitments
to institutional and/or socio-cultural continuities, it is interesting to
note that, in institutions with a strong association between market
logics and academic achievement (such as private schools) and where
institutional SEL initiatives —despite being internal— seek to fill a
void in a changing market, there emerge greater barriers to the
establishment of communities committed to SEL. This is vividly
illustrated by professionals of schools of this type. Specifically, one of
them points out the following:
Let me tell you, it’s been 6 years since I changed; they are children,
and, look, I live with two children here, and I’d also like someone
to ask them what’s going on. I would not like them to have a cold
teacher, so I think that also made me change; I would like my
children to have a teacher who’s interested in them, not one who
comes into the classroom, teaches her lesson, and leaves, but one
who cares about how they are feeling (Homeroom Teacher,
Municipal School).
Your child getting straight sevens2… we have our whole lives
ahead of us, let us focus on that. And it’s me who devotes a very
large part of my interview guidelines to emotional development.
I talk about social, academic, and emotional aspects. However, I’d
say I try to tone down the importance of academic outcomes,
especially because I work with 3rd graders, it’s not so important
what grades they get. I mean, they are an indicator, evaluations are
important (…) they show me whether I’m teaching well (…). It’s
important not to leave any gaps, but I think, in my school, parents
and even people at the institutional level are rather
This point of view is grounded in a moral attitude toward teaching,
which means that commitment to SEL in the implementation of
associated policies is not a generalized aspect of their ‘teaching
persona’, but a product of a personal and individual process that makes
it possible to articulate professionalization narratives in this area.
3.1.3 School climate coordinators and
educational psychologists and their intrinsic
commitment to SEL: continuities and
discontinuities
According to a School Climate Coordinator (SCCs), there can
be continuities or discontinuities between this actor and teachers
regarding their commitment to SEL:
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2 Equivalent to straight As.
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academically-oriented, even though our discourse highlights the
importance of the emotional dimension (Homeroom Teacher,
Private School).
right, because they had so much work at home, but we, all the
assistants, kept coming to school and stayed here, it’s like
we organized the school so that it would keep functioning (…)
and so the pedagogical aspect suffered, but it was because of
people’s lives, you know? People kept on living and the school was
a source of support (…) that’s not the only function of the school,
but it’s still a great source of emotional support for families (SCC,
Municipal School).
Similarly, despite the seeming interest that SEL arouses in most
private schools —considering the material and professional resources
devoted to it— this interest does not appear to extend beyond a
declarative level, as commitments are ultimately reliant on each
individual’s professionalism. Illustrating this situation, an SCC
describes it as a specific event where, despite the resources and means
promoted by his institution, his efforts as a promoter of SEL
are hindered.
As the above SCC notes, recent discursive changes regarding
education and the material complexities derived from the pandemic
made it possible for actors to differentiate their individual duties and
distinguish themselves professionally. This generates disparities in
professionalizing discourses concerning SEL, especially in the area
discussed below: the initial and continuing training that
professionals receive.
Globally (…), they organize an event that’s like the world wellbeing day, the [name of program], and they plan it in England (…)
that’s where the head office is, so to speak, and they organize really
cool activities, schedule talks by experts, develop lots of things,
and here things are done quite differently compared to England,
the focus is different, I think the principal likes spectacle, so to
speak, she likes things to look beautiful, but there’s very little
content, so, for example, last year we had these activities and
we had a budget and I was trying to arrange a presentation by an
expert, but she spent it all hiring some jugglers (…) so that on the
day, as they came into the school, parents would see a show with
confetti, jugglers, and all that stuff (…) that happens a lot, it’s like
they try to show that we really care about this topic (SCC,
Private School).
3.2 SEL implementation: initial and
continuing training
As noted earlier, difficulties in the creation of professionalization
narratives about the enactment of SEL initiatives result from
discontinuities between individual and cultural/institutional
commitments; in contrast, with respect to initial and continuing
training, there are gaps between the actors’ professionalization
narratives associated with their individual disciplinary domains.
3.2.1 Administrative training narratives connected
to ministry mandates in subsidized schools
Consistent with the above, the last two interviewees state that a
market-driven and/or outcome-oriented perspective is not enough to
develop a professional and professionalizing SEL approach and that a
fundamental component for achieving this goal is a collective
commitment to SEL from educational communities.
Finally, and in contrast with prior experiences, in State-subsidized
schools (both private and municipal), commitment to SEL begins to
converge within the communities in response to wider socio-cultural
demands that materialize into Ministry mandates or guidelines.
Specifically, the pandemic helped actors to align their commitments
and, as more importance was attached to the socio-affective
dimension, professionals detected the need to acquire up-to-date
knowledge or transform themselves; in the case of psychologists and
school climate coordinators, they began to receive recognition
as professionals:
From an administrative point of view, schools that start
receiving Ministry pressure and demands concerning the socioaffective dimension are forced to implement measures and
initiatives of their own, within a climate of uncertainty. With
respect to this issue, the interviewed school principals highlight the
absence of guidelines:
The Quality Agency’s diagnostic test has a socio-emotional
section, right? But whatever specific guidelines we have used in
our work, we have had to find, compile, and develop ourselves,
because, as I was telling you, we prepared booklets for 2020 and
also 2021, and we used our own compilation of material, because
there’s nothing else… this urgency appeared suddenly for
everyone, with no time to prepare, so it seems they left schools
free to devise their own plans to develop the socio-emotional area
(Principal, Subsidized Private School).
What we have been able to improve is one thing we’d mentioned
before, that emotional learning should be given more importance,
and school climate teams as well, that has actually changed, I feel,
at least compared to my previous job and my first year here, the
perspective (…) because the approach used to be much more
reactive (…) and now it’s more preventive (EP, Subsidized
Private School).
As the interviewee points out, schools were faced with uncertainty
and needed to resort to their own resources and strategies to enact
SEL. Likewise, they had no choice but to draw on their own
professional experience to acquire the necessary resources to
implement these policies. Thus, at the school administration level,
actors are affected by a scarcity of tools and training that prevents
institutions from meeting the new demands. A municipal school
principal describes the situation as follows:
In the same vein, a school climate coordinator describes how the
pandemic and her job were re-signified during the pandemic:
This year, for example, the pandemic made the situation clear:
teachers were not coming to school (…) they did not come
because they asked for permission not to come, and I felt it was
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I think we have certain tools we acquire throughout our lives and
in our professional career, our day to day work allows us to learn
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from colleagues, what they are experiencing, what’s going on with
their families, and so on, but I feel we need a well-defined path to
work on socio-emotional issues in the right way, or rather (…) in
a consistent, linear way, I think the Ministry should begin by
offering a good course, with psychologists, assistants, I do not
know, they should offer a comprehensive view of the issue
(Principal, Municipal School).
nutritious environments for learning (SCC, Subsidized
Private School).
According to school climate coordinators, educational
communities require professional training in SEL and school climate.
They stress the importance of continually acquiring new concepts and
tools, and analyze their schools critically, demanding a more
professional approach to the emotional dimension:
As this participant illustrates, there is a particularity in the
professionalization narratives about the training available to schools
that receive State subsidies and Ministry mandates. The interviewed
principals begin to notice the pressure exerted by SEL policies, but,
simultaneously, the internal weaknesses of their institutions start
coming to light; in this context, schools must respond using their own
strengths, although this does not preclude calls for additional training
and professional advice.
In a different sphere, professional recognition begins to focus on
initial teacher training. At this point, the efforts of professionals from
other disciplines take center stage, since, according to the logic laid
out by the interviewees, they are better equipped to implement SEL
policies. Thus, the interviewees consider that it is a strength for
communities to have access to professionals from a wide range of
areas, as this should enable them to address the many SEL-related
challenges facing schools:
I feel there’s more awareness of emotions, greater ability to identify
them, especially, but very little capacity to work on them
adequately, in general, there’s this typical attitude that, I do not
know, anger is a highly negative emotion, sorrow is an emotion
that must be private, there’s no further development beyond that
(SCC, Private School).
3.2.3 Narratives of acknowledgment regarding
mental health logics in SCCs
Educational psychologists, on their part, manage to develop
narrative continuity between the role that their profession demands
and their initial and continuing training; therefore, their continuing
training is not part of a process detached from their professional role:
I really like what I do and I’m highly aware of the importance of
starting to give more importance to socio-emotional issues. I do
not like to do things I know nothing about, so I study a lot, I buy
lots of books, I read a lot, I want to do things only if I have support,
that way I can also back what I say (EP, Private School).
Right now, we are making use of our own experience as
professionals in each of our roles and the enormous support that
the psychologist has been giving us since August, at a municipal
level, plus the experience of the 2 psychologists and the social
worker in our staff. And the tasks that each one of us must fulfill
according to our respective roles. But I feel we are coming up
short in that regard, I think we need proper training, proper tools
(Principal, Municipal School).
The professional training process allows for narrative continuity
to exist between what the professional says and does at school and the
professionalism that grounds these words and actions. Thus,
continuing training is a process linked to each actor’s initial training
and their personal SEL implementation efforts. Likewise, commitment
and training are articulated in each actor through institutional change
narratives, which make it possible to attach meaning to one’s
professional duties:
In conclusion, continuing training is deemed to be essential for
addressing the gaps between the professionalization narratives of
teachers and other professionals who are better equipped to enact
SEL policies.
3.2.2 SCCs and institutional strengthening
narratives
I’m really happy with everything I’ve achieved because I think I’ve
managed to make people understand that there must be a balance
between academic outcomes and broader, comprehensive
educational objectives (…) and that’s what we are working on,
that’s where we are going (EP, Private School).
Even though knowledge or initial training shortcomings can
be counterbalanced by the personal commitments discussed earlier,
what the interviews reveal is an ‘openness’ on the part of schools to
embrace domains outside the pedagogical, with certain professionals
playing a more central role in educational cultures. In this regard,
professionals with a greater affinity for SEL draw attention to a lack of
continuity in the knowledge required for the promotion of these
policies in schools:
Since the pandemic, the role of EPs became much more
meaningful, precisely as a result of the greater weight of the emotional
dimension. This professional begins to occupy an exclusive and
particular place within the school, mostly as a result of their
contributions derived from their initial education process (as
a psychologist):
A problem I see in my community is that people have little
knowledge about school climate concepts, I think that may be a
factor, well, I do not blame them, my school is a subsidized private
one and, to be frank, they only care about money (…) I think
whatever little discussion there is about emotional issues is
capitalized or monopolized; that focus on money obscures
everything else, and we stop learning new concepts, new
terminologies, and new tools that not only enable us to do that,
but also help us with our primary duties: generating healthy and
Frontiers in Education
[during the pandemic] we also tried to reach parents by making
recommendations (…) to foster well-being, self-care, talking
about what emotions are, what types of emotions exist, teaching
them the importance of the emotional dimension; we did the
same with teachers and educational support staff, we gave them
presentations to raise awareness so that this could also be applied
in classes (EP, Subsidized Private School).
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The intrinsic value that EPs begin to have since the pandemic
resulted from their relationship with mental health, with professional
requirements also focusing on that area:
acquiring the capacities needed nowadays. In any case, these
deviations from their initial education process involve competences
associated with mental health disciplines such as psychology:
Last year, of course, we were unable to organize the workshops
and other similar activities, so I worked a lot as a clinical
psychologist. Some days I’d phone several children and we talked
and I sort of interviewed their parents (EP, Municipal School).
In college, we learn the tiniest bit of psychology, probably in 1st
year, and when you are out there, actually working, you do not
remember much, you learn along the way, but there are some
technical concepts, for instance, I had no idea the OPD even
existed, I did not know schools had the obligation to report
violations of children’s rights, well, I did not really know what
school psychologists do (Homeroom Teacher, Subsidized
Private School).
Therefore, initial education has a larger impact than continuing
education on the professional recognition of educational psychologists.
This occurs regardless of the distinction between educational
psychology and clinical psychology, for example, since the value
attached to them results from the relationship between their discipline
and the notion of mental health as well as from these professionals’
presumed mastery of socio-affective factors.
The interviewed teachers’ professionalization narratives are
focused on their insufficient knowledge about a specific domain, but
address the importance of seeking tools and engaging in continuous
learning about topics unconnected to their initial education. Thus,
they appreciate the support offered by schools and the resources
provided the Ministry, which allow them to acquire tools and concepts
from other disciplines:
3.2.4 Teacher ‘de-education’ narratives
For the teachers interviewed, initial and continuing education
involve the acquisition of disciplinary aspects different from those of
pedagogy and all the other knowledge acquired during their years of
initial education. In this regard, in the face of the proliferation of SEL
policies, the interviewed teachers narrate how their professionalization
depends on tools that are unrelated to those of their initial education
process. This is the case of a private school teacher who had the
opportunity to complete a graduate program at a prestigious
European university.
It would be greatly beneficial for us as teachers, since we get so
many training programs all the time, a special socio-emotional
program would be great because… yes, to be fair, we have received
some training opportunities because of our ties with [name of
facilitator], I do not know if you have met her, she’s a really good
psychologist, we have had those sessions in our school (…) there
are talks that we have been able to attend. In general, the school
tries to organize events for us to receive information and
resources, both for teachers and families (Homeroom Teacher,
Private School).
I think the great progress I’ve made with this very complex class
I was telling you about, I owe it to having studied mediation in
socio-educational settings; first of all, that program taught me
mediation as a method, a resource for solving problems through
peaceful means. It’s amazing (…) how useful that’s been for
navigating everyday issues, daily conflicts, children who come to
class crying, those who are frustrated (Homeroom Teacher,
Private School).
The resources provided by each type of school, along with
personal resources, generate differences when establishing narrative
continuity in the interviewed teachers’ professional experience.
However, training programs are not everything, because it is in the
teachers’ daily efforts and in the actualization of their ethical
commitments that they devise ways of overcoming their educational
‘weaknesses’ through auxiliary tools or resources:
Professionalization narratives with respect to this issue concern
finding among one’s tools, or in aspects of one’s specific education
process, beyond one’s initial education, the necessary strengths to
navigate SEL policies and the new socio-emotional challenges that
they pose. As an exception, a homeroom teacher with an
undergraduate degree in Physical Education considers that the nature
of her pedagogical education and the role of her discipline in her
school have the potential to help her to promote SEL in her students:
I try to incorporate learning into my classes (…) especially with
1st and 2nd grades, in character as a clown, telling stories and
creating stories, and after that, we return to the routine that
we have implemented in our school, and we show, for example,
several videos to facilitate a learning process (Homeroom Teacher,
Municipal School).
I cannot ask them to do 60 sit ups in 1 min, like we used to… and
those who only did 40 but made a huge effort, got a 5 out of 7, so
that means frustration for the person who made his best effort,
while someone else did 60 and spent 30 doing nothing because
he was a machine. Well, in my school, some teachers have been
there for years, so they know what each student is like, but in my
subject, since it’s soft, flexible, we do a lot of work on selfimprovement, the process, soft skills (Homeroom Teacher,
Subsidized Private School).
This excerpt shows that the interviewed teachers’ training
narratives follow the same productive logic of their commitment to
SEL; however, receiving training in this area is a task that, again,
requires them to transform their initial education.
4 Discussion
Commitment and training are factors that influence the way in
which actors depict their professionalization processes in connection
with their work implementing SEL policies and initiatives.
Initial and continuing education establish the possibility of
distinguishing oneself from other teachers, or staying ‘relevant’ by
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The school principals interviewed in the study, for example,
produce commitment narratives that make reference to the
professional calling of the people working in their institutions. In
these appeals, there is a notion of professional calling that articulates
the configuration of an affective category in teachers (Abramowski,
2022) that plays a key role in their professionalization frameworks,
and which is not precisely the remnant of a supposedly religious order
that should be ignored (Abramowski, 2015); rather, this category has
the function of politically organizing teachers around a profession
that, at the time, constituted a modern educational project
(Abramowski, 2015, 2022). This appeal operates as both a general and
an individual call to actors in the educational domain, urging them to
act professionally.
The individualistic notion regarding professional vocation aligns
with evidence indicating that teacher commitment is commonly
associated with dedication to teaching, students, and school. However,
commitment is less associated and studied about adaptability to
change (Sun, 2015). On the other hand, research indicates that teacher
commitment is significantly influenced by instructional leadership
and alignment with institutional value systems (Collie et al., 2015;
Sun, 2015; Anyon et al., 2016). Studies suggest that narrative
discontinuities may explain how principals disengage from their role
within SEL commitment, which impacts teachers’ job stress (see Collie
et al., 2015).
On the other hand, the ethical production of commitment by
teachers has an ethical and contingent quality, linked more to their
professionalism than to their vocation, is strongly interconnected with
the teachers’ training narrative, because both are intertwined in the
‘subjective theories’ of professionals (Cuadra-Martínez et al., 2018a,b).
Examining professional narratives and their discontinuities allows
not only the identification of factors but also the recognition of the
contents and depth of discourses on the agents’ practices. In this way,
it is possible to understand the discursive effects of policies on the
work of teachers and other educational agents, noting, for example,
their potential de-professionalizing effect on some of them.
With respect to training, the interviewees’ narratives highlight the
introduction of new Ministry mandates; new demands which make it
necessary to possess certain resources. In this context, it is worth
anticipating the idea that schools respond to guidelines imposed by a
hyper-vigilant State (Falabella, 2018) by requesting economic,
material, and/or professional resources, along with specific training
programs that cover areas related to SEL.
In contrast, to understand the commitments of teachers, it is
necessary to acknowledge that they are (re)actualized daily, being
produced in their professional practice in a situated manner. In this
regard, it is worth mentioning the contributions of Cornejo et al.
(2021), who show how the socio-affective efforts of the teachers who
took part in their study represent a constant process of situated
professional learning “that is not acquired in the initial education
process (…), with emotional knowledge being constructed in specific
contexts upon the basis of mutual experiences that take place over
time” (p. 19). This is consistent with the findings presented, where
commitments are inextricably associated with the interviewed
teachers’ daily efforts to improve their students’ well-being and
learning outcomes. As the interviews show, the teachers are aware of
their weaknesses and the tools that they need, demanding some of this
in the form of continuing education; however, their training narratives
often reveal a search for further education in fields or subjects different
Frontiers in Education
from their core discipline. This process leads to a differentiation that
may derive from the need to produce professional certifications that
enable them to compete with each other under a performative marketdriven education logic (Falabella, 2018), in contexts where SEL gained
great relevance (for example, during the pandemic). In consequence,
the interviewees highlight the importance of an initial education
process sensitive to these issues. Such an approach may be enriched
by the studies conducted by Bächler et al. (2020) on the profiles of
initial emotional education in primary teacher education programs,
adopting the idea that emotions are common to all teacher education
processes, from a holistic, non-purposive point of view, together with
the notion of teachers’ emotional work (Cornejo et al., 2021).
Developing a pedagogical approach to SEL that is situated and
consistent with teacher training is essential, since, as shown by some
meta-analyses, SEL programs and initiatives implemented by teachers
are more effective for school functioning than those taught by external
personnel (Durlak et al., 2011; Domitrovich et al., 2015; Cipriano
et al., 2023). Thus, bringing together commitment and training in a
way that nurtures teachers’ professional narratives is crucial.
On the other hand, according to the evidence, the application of
universal school-based (USB) programs and policies, oriented to the
entire community, positively favors school and classroom climate, and
the latter has a circular relationship with academic achievement
(Cipriano et al., 2023). In addition, the school climate factor has a
great impact on the educational experience of minorities (Cipriano
et al., 2023); a good classroom climate results in an environment
conducive to inclusion. Taking this aspect seriously, the concern of
advancing in SEL policies, but also in aspects that manage to
intertwine commitment and training from a pedagogical approach,
which is not individualizing or psychologizing, is urgent to address
current issues related to inclusion and the formation of a culturally
responsive pedagogy (Barnes and McCallops, 2019).
As for school climate coordinators and educational psychologists,
it is necessary to pay attention to the continuities and discontinuities
connected to the values ascribed to SEL in schools. In line with the
observations of Forman et al. (2008), the values and efforts shared and
coordinated in connection with SEL are relevant factors for the
successful implementation of specific programs that target this
dimension of learning. The present study revealed that, under a
market-driven approach, regardless of the amount of resources
allocated to this issue, the outcome will not be positive if there
continue to exist discontinuities between personal and administrative/
institutional efforts and commitments. In addition, it is worth taking
into account the illuminating study by Ascorra et al. (2019) on the
institutional enactment of school climate policies, which shows how,
in contexts of high-stakes accountability, two contradictory but
juxtaposed approaches to school climate ultimately coexist: a punitive
and a formative one.
With respect to the educational psychologists interviewed, it is
necessary to recognize the role of the pandemic in the urgent
investments that schools made in the mental health domain, where
EPs tend to be highly valued by their communities. Yet, despite the
importance of the recognition of the role of these actors in the
educational field, it is necessary to note that discourses about emotions
in education are grounded in mental health discourses (Toledo and
Bonhomme, 2019), leading some authors to warn of the risks posed
by the growth of therapeutic education or therapization of the
education (Ecclestone, 2012; Bonhomme and Schöngut-Grollmus,
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2023). Likewise, it is necessary to examine in more detail the
complexity that psy discourses introduce into the educational field,
under an ethos of vulnerability (Ecclestone and Brunila, 2015), and
the types of subjectivation that these disciplines bring into educational
practices (Apablaza, 2017). In addition, work should continue to
be done to understand how languages derived from psychological and
therapeutic logics color the professional efforts of educational agents,
as well as the emergent association between different sets of discourses
and practices. To do so, researchers must examine the narrative output
of professionals’ practices surrounding the emotional dimension of
learning, as well as the shared educational horizons of two disciplines
such as teaching and psychology, in order to determine the disciplinary
and political implications of key factors such as training and
commitment for the professionalization of educational agents in
this area.
This research provides evidence about the contents that express
the narrative discontinuities in the study of the implementation and
enactment of SEL policies in Chile. The results manage to deepen and
investigate the characteristics of an aspect that have been a crucial
factor for studies on the implementation of SEL policies: the way in
which the commitments and discursive values are aligned among
different educational actors concerning the development of social–
emotional learning in schools (Forman et al., 2008; Langley et al.,
2010; Collie et al., 2011, 2015; Sun, 2015; Anyon et al., 2016; Barnes
and McCallops, 2019; Exner-Cortens et al., 2019).
this evaluation because she belongs to the same faculty as the principal
investigator. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local
legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided
their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written
informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the
publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in
this article.
Data availability statement
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Author contributions
AB: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing –
original draft. MR: Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The research
was funded by the Agencia Nacional de Investivación y Desarrollo
(ANID), Chile, through the National Doctoral Scholarship No.
21190581, awarded to the lead author AB, to pursue his
doctoral studies.
Conflict of interest
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Publisher’s note
Ethics statement
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim
that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed
by the publisher.
The studies involving humans were approved by Universidad
Alberto Hurtado Ethics Committee: Verónica Anguita, Daniella
Carrazola, Diego García, René Cortínez, José Gaete, Natalia
Hernández, Marcela Perticara, Alejandra Morales, Daniela (external
member). Paula Dagnino has excused herself from participating in
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TYPE
Original Research
23 January 2024
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1296346
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Enrique Hernán Riquelme,
Temuco Catholic University, Chile
REVIEWED BY
Jorge Valenzuela,
Catholic University of the Maule, Chile
Dení Stincer Gómez,
Universidad Autónoma del Estado
de Morelos, Mexico
*CORRESPONDENCE
Roxana Leonte
roxana.leonte@uaic.ro
RECEIVED 18
September 2023
December 2023
PUBLISHED 23 January 2024
ACCEPTED 28
The relationship between
university students’ goal
orientation and academic
achievement. The mediating role
of motivational components and
the moderating role of
achievement emotions
Florin-Vasile Frumos, Roxana Leonte*, Octav Sorin Candel,
Laura Ciochină-Carasevici, Roxana Ghiaţău and Camelia Onu
CITATION
Frumos F-V, Leonte R, Candel OS,
Ciochină-Carasevici L, Ghiaţău R and Onu C
(2024) The relationship between university
students’ goal orientation and academic
achievement. The mediating role
of motivational components
and the moderating role of achievement
emotions.
Front. Psychol. 14:1296346.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1296346
COPYRIGHT
© 2024 Frumos, Leonte, Candel,
Ciochină-Carasevici, Ghiaţău and Onu. This is
an open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
reproduction in other forums is permitted,
provided the original author(s) and the
copyright owner(s) are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic
practice. No use, distribution or reproduction
is permitted which does not comply with
these terms.
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania
The present study aims to expand the understanding of the role played by
achievement emotions in the learning process and academic achievement
of university students. We investigated how achievement emotions moderate
the direct and indirect associations between mastery and performance
goal orientation and academic achievement. Also, we used as mediators
the motivational components from Pintrich and De Groot’s theoretical
framework of motivation and learning strategies. 274 Romanian university
students (Mage = 20.23, 84.7% women) participated in the study. Moderated
mediation analyses indicated that self-efficacy was the only significant mediator,
and this relationship was moderated by hope, pride and hopelessness. In
addition, the links between mastery and performance approach goals and
motivational components are stronger when the positive emotions are higher
and the negative ones are lower. Mastery avoidance goals were linked with
high scores of motivational components at higher levels of negative and
lower levels of positive achievement emotions, whereas the association of
avoidance goals with motivational components was moderated by two positive
emotions (pride and enjoyment). The patterns derived from the moderating
role of achievement emotions in the relationships between goal orientation,
motivational components and academic achievement, alongside several
inconsistent results and implications in theory and education, are discussed.
KEYWORDS
achievement emotions, goal orientation, motivational components, academic
achievement, moderated mediation analysis, university students
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1 Introduction
(Pekrun, 2006), problem-solving ability (Lee and Chei, 2020),
learning persistence (Tang et al., 2021), and can provide the
motivational and physiological energy for engaging in future
actions (Pekrun et al., 2002). Hence, the interaction between
learning goal orientation and expectancies or value motivational
variables happen into a broader learning context, where specific
discrete emotion as enjoyment, boredom or hope modulate the
intensity and the nature of relationships and their impact on
academic achievement.
However, despite a great number of studies exploring the single
and combined effect of learning goals orientation, motivational
components as expectation for success and subjective task value,
and achievement emotion on academic outputs, the specific
mechanisms of interactions between these variables are far from
being clearly understood. It is a gap in understanding the
specific roles that achievement emotions play in interactions
between goal orientation and others motivational variables, further
influencing academic achievement; as achievement emotions
represents background elements of the broader learning context,
it is reasonable to consider these emotions modulate relationships
between goal orientations and motivational components, rather
than directly influence academic achievement. Also, the specific
moderating effect of different achievement emotions in these
relationships worth to be known.
In sum, this study proposes to further shed light on the
relationships between learning goal orientation, motivational
components and achievement emotions and how they related with
academic achievement in university students. More specifically,
our study first aims to evaluate the mediating role of motivational
components between goal orientation and academic achievement.
Second, we wanted to explore the ways in which achievement
emotions felt when studying moderate the direct and indirect
associations between specific goals orientations and academic
achievement through motivational components. This approach
may contribute to a better understanding of the underlying
mechanisms and dynamics of motivational and affective factors
contributing to the academic achievement of university students.
The present study adds to the existing literature with a
comprehensive analysis of the role played by achievement emotions
(Pekrun, 2011) as moderators of the relationships between goal
orientation (Elliot and McGregor, 2001), expectancy, value and
affective motivational components (Pintrich et al., 1991), and
academic achievement. Pekrun et al. (2002) emphasize that the
results of the studies on the motivational components, goal
orientation and achievement emotions should be more useful
to counseling and educational intervention aiming to improve
students’ learning process. Clarifying this role may further
substantiate interventions for improving learning and teaching
in university settings (Pekrun et al., 2006; Daniels et al., 2009;
Fritea and Fritea, 2013).
Students’ academic achievement depends on a diversity of
interacting psychological variables. Among these, some of the most
important are learning goals orientation (Elliot and McGregor,
2001; Keys et al., 2012; Dinger and Dickhäuser, 2013; Cerasoli
and Ford, 2014), motivational components (Pintrich and De
Groot, 1990; Stegers-Jager et al., 2012; Muwonge et al., 2019;
Bai and Wang, 2023), and the emotions experienced while
studying (Pekrun, 2011). Considering goal orientation theory of
achievement motivation (Elliot and McGregor, 2001), mastery
approach and performance approach goal orientations positively
influence the academic results of students (Eum and Rice, 2011;
Darnon et al., 2018), whereas mastery avoidance and performance
avoidance goal orientation negatively predict this academic output
(Elliot and Church, 1997; Baranik et al., 2010). However, learning
goal orientations does not always directly predict academic
achievement, their effect being mediated by others motivational
factors (Honicke et al., 2019); components pertaining from the
students’ learning motivation such as academic self-efficacy and
effort regulation show medium-size correlations with academic
achievement (Richardson et al., 2012). Therefore, components as
expectancies for success and subjective value of the learning tasks
(Eccles, 1983) interact with goal orientation and influence academic
results. In this regard, the model of self-regulated learning of
Pintrich (2000a) indicate that goal orientation and self-efficacy
represent essential motivational variables that influence academic
achievement.
The importance of emotions in human life is widely
recognized and investigated from psychological, but also from a
broader philosophical perspective (de Sousa, 1979). Emotions are
important because they made salient for us various dimensions
of things (Elgin, 2008), for instance, emotions facilitate evaluative
understanding (Brady, 2013), relate with the theories and beliefs
they hold about knowing (Hofer and Pintrich, 1997) and
represent epistemic forces toward the truth (Candiotto, 2020). Also,
emotional cognition is useful for understanding thinking in law,
religion and science (Thagard, 2006).
As complex fenomena, emotions involve affective, cognitive,
physiological, motivational and behavioral components (Scherer,
2009). We encounter a large spectrum of emotions associated with
learning: moods, that represent diffuse affective states as feeling
joyful, angry or fearful (Pekrun, 2011); feeling of certainty or
doubt (de Sousa, 2009) and other epistemic emotions, related to
knowledge and knowing (curiosity or confusion; Pekrun, 2011),
achievement emotions, linked with learning activities, as enjoyment
of learning, but also boredom related with learning tasks; and
content-related or topic emotions, as worrying about a protagonist
wen reading a novel; social emotions, as admiration, envy or shame
(Pekrun, 2011).
Research on emotions in academic settings significantly
evolved in the last decades, and literature on achievement emotions
clearly indicate they are related with academic achievement and
motivational variables. The control-value theory of achievement
emotions, (Pekrun et al., 2006) claim that students’ emotions
while study impacts their self-regulated learning, motivation
and academic achievement. Further, achievement emotions
affect psychological well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction
Frontiers in Psychology
1.1 Goal orientation and academic
achievement
Achievement motivation literature developed from two
meanings of competence: as absolute, intrapersonal (mastery), and
normative, interpersonal (performance), further involving two
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types of achievement goals (Elliot, 1997): mastery goal orientation
and performance goal orientation respectively (Dweck, 1986).
A mastery goal-oriented subject is motivated to develop his or her
own competence, through mastering the learning task, whereas a
performance goal-oriented learner is focused on demonstrating
competence to others (Elliot and McGregor, 2001).
Elliot and Church (1997) proposed that mastery-performance
dichotomy of achievement goals should be revised to include
the distinction between approach and avoidance motivation, by
addition of valence dimension to the performance goal orientation.
The trichotomous goal framework keep unchanged the mastery
goal orientation, but split the performance goal orientation in two
subcategories: performance approach and performance avoidance
goal orientation, according with valence (positive or negative)
dimension. The performance approach goal orientation reflects
the positive, desirable possibility of success, whereas performance
avoidance goal orientation reflects the undesirable possibility of
failure.
Further extension of the trichotomous framework of
achievement goal orientation (Elliot and McGregor, 2001)
additionally bifurcated mastery approach goal orientation taking
into account the same valence dimension. This conceptual
framework is known as the 2 × 2 model of goal orientation:
mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach and
performance-avoidance goals. A mastery avoidance goal-oriented
subjects’ focus is on striving on avoid misunderstanding, not losing
skills or nor performing worse than before (Elliot and McGregor,
2001). In our study, we used this 2 × 2 model, which received
support as being the most effective in explaining learning outcomes
(Huang, 2012).
The relationship between goal orientation and academic
achievement was tested in various studies. Directing the goals
toward a good mastery of the content (mastery-approach goal)
positively influences the academic achievement of students
(Darnon et al., 2018; Suprayogi et al., 2019; Alhadabi and Karpinski,
2020), due to their focus on the development of knowledge,
competences, skills and abilities (Diaconu-Gherasim and Mãirean,
2016). At the same time, performance-approach goals, manifested
by demonstrating competences and overcoming others in order to
receive appreciation for their results (Pintrich, 2000b; DiaconuGherasim and Mãirean, 2016), also have positive effects on
academic achievement (Goraya and Hasan, 2012; Darnon et al.,
2018; Suprayogi et al., 2019). However, mastery avoidance and
performance avoidance goal orientations negatively influence the
academic achievement of students (Baranik et al., 2010; Luo et al.,
2013). The lack of confidence in one’s own abilities and the concern
to avoid situations that could prevent the full understanding of
the content is reflected by the mastery-avoidance goal orientation
(Elliot and Church, 1997; Baranik et al., 2010; Hulleman et al., 2010;
Alhadabi and Karpinski, 2020), whereas the prevention of negative
judgments by avoiding tasks that could reveal the lack of skills
or competences (Pintrich, 2000b; McCollum, 2004) is reflected
by performance-avoidance goal orientation. In order to achieve
academic success, students can adopt and pursue a combination of
learning goal orientations (Cho et al., 2011; Dull et al., 2015).
Nevertheless, the results of previous studies suggest that the
link between goal orientations and academic achievement is not
straightforward, some studies indicating that these relationships
could be mediated by different factors (Bipp and van Dam, 2014;
Frontiers in Psychology
King and McInerney, 2014; Zhou and Wang, 2019). For instance,
the relationship between mastery goals and academic achievement
may be mediated by deep-processing strategies (Greene and Miller’s
1996) or effort expenditure (Dupeyrat and Mariné, 2005). For this
study, we tested motivational components (Pintrich et al., 1991) as
mediators between goal orientation and academic achievement.
1.2 The mediating role of motivational
components
Regulation of learning involves, on the one hand, managing
one’s own motivational beliefs, such as self-efficacy and taskvalue belief (Wolters, 1998, 2003; Pintrich, 2000a), and on the
other hand, controlling one’s learning strategies, thoughts and
actions that influence choices, effort and persistence in academic
tasks, in order to achieve good academic results (Wolters, 2003;
Zimmerman and Schunk, 2011). Among learning motivation
theories, one of the most influential is expectancy-value theory
of Eccles (1983), Eccles and Wigfield (2002). This theory states
students’ choice and engagement in learning task is determined by
two subjective, task-specific motivational orientations and beliefs
(Gaspard et al., 2018): the expectancy that they can succeed in
that task (“Can I do it?”) and (b) the value of task (“Do I
want to do it?”). The expectancy dimension about success depicts
individual’ s beliefs about how well will accomplish tasks and is
conceptually related with academic self-concept (Marsh, 2006). The
learners’ orientations and beliefs about value dimension involve
four subjective task value dimensions: attainment value or the
personal importance to doing well a task; intrinsic value as interest
or enjoyment of subject doing the task; utility value related
with current or future subject’s learning goals, and cost value,
representing negative aspects as anxiety of failure, effort required or
lost opportunities when one choose a specific learning task (Eccles
and Wigfield, 2002; Tang et al., 2022). Recent theoretical synthesis
reveals the Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT, Wigfield
and Eccles, 2020), which represents the original expectancy-value
theory completed with the socio-cultural dimension, has been
utilized more than any of the other theories in motivation studies
with longitudinal design (Anderman, 2020).
As Pintrich and De Groot (1990) states, the theoretical
framework that conceptualize students’ motivation is the general,
original expectancy-value model of motivation (Eccles, 1983).
The six motivational components detailed by Pintrich and De
Groot (1990) encompass three subcategories, each with specific
dimensions as follow: (1) three value components: intrinsic goal
orientation (engagement in a task constitutes itself a goal and
appears due to interest, curiosity and desire for knowledge);
extrinsic goal orientation (the motivation for engaging in academic
tasks is external in nature, based on, among others, grades, rewards,
positive evaluation or competition); task value (assumes the
importance, usefulness and interest given to the learning material);
(2) two expectancy components, representing motivational beliefs:
control of learning beliefs (refers to the belief that good results
are consequences of one’s own effort in learning), and self-efficacy
(involves self-assessment of one’s own capabilities and confidence
in one’s own skills); (3) one affective component, namely test
anxiety, with its cognitive (negative thoughts or concerns that could
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(Pekrun et al., 2009; Muis et al., 2015). Achievement emotions are
defined as emotions experienced by students in learning settings,
their intensity may vary according to gender, age, and culture
(Camacho-Morles et al., 2021). These emotions were grouped
based on different attributes. The first and most evident attribute
of achievement emotions is their valence: positive vs. negative,
pleasant vs. unpleasant. Enjoyment, pride and hope are felt as
pleasant emotions, whereas anger, anxiety, hopelessness, shame
and boredom are unpleasant, negative emotions (Pekrun et al.,
2002). Secondly, achievement emotions can be classified as being
activity-related, focused on the processes of learning in schoolrelated settings, or output-related, focused on the result of these
learning activities (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2009). For example,
the anger felt when struggling with a difficult task is an activityrelated emotion, whereas the hope for success is an outputrelated emotion. Thirdly, output-related emotions differ based
on their temporal dimension: hope for success is an outputrelated, prospective emotion, whereas pride experienced after
an academic success is an output-related, retrospective emotion
(Pekrun, 2006). Fourthly, both the activity-related and outcomerelated emotions can be further grouped as activating emotions
(enjoyment, hope, pride, anxiety, shame and anger) or deactivating
emotions (hopelessness and boredom; Pekrun, 2011). These
taxonomies can be further combined (e.g., an emotion’s valence
combines with its activating-deactivating dimension) resulting in
positive activating emotions (hope, enjoyment and pride), positive
deactivating emotion (relief), negative activating emotions (anger,
anxiety, shame) and negative deactivating emotions (boredom and
hopelessness; Pekrun, 2006, 2011).
The control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun
et al., 2006) claims that students’ emotions affect the cognitive,
motivational, and regulatory processes influencing learning and
achievement. However, the link between achievement emotions
and academic achievement is not always intuitive. It should be
noted that positive (e.g., pleasant) achievement emotions do not
always have positive effects on learning outputs, and the negative
links to academic achievement do not always appear in the presence
of unpleasant achievement emotions. Thus, pleasant emotions are
not by default adaptive, and symmetrically, unpleasant emotions
are not always maladaptive for learning purposes (Pekrun,
2011). Although the positive valence of achievement emotions
usually counts for positive effects on learning activities and
outputs, the interaction of others characteristics such as the
activating-deactivating dimension or the appraisal of subjective
control and subjective value of learning activities may be more
relevant for the link between achievement emotions and learning
(Pekrun, 2006).
It is also likely that achievement emotions facilitate the
use of different learning strategies and promote different
styles of regulation of learning, such as the students’ intrinsic
motivation to learn (Mega et al., 2014). Moreover, hope and
enjoyment are positively, whereas anger, anxiety and boredom
are negatively related with study interest, self-regulation and
effort as components of self-regulated learning motivational
strategies (Pekrun et al., 2002). Considering the valence
and activation dimensions of emotions, positive activating
emotions such as enjoyment can promote intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation and self-regulation, while positively affecting academic
achievement. On the contrary, negative deactivating emotions,
affect performance), and affective (increased anxiety and worry)
aspects (Pintrich et al., 1991).
Motivational components presented above were linked to
both academic achievement and goal orientation. Previous studies
identified positive correlations between self-efficacy, intrinsic goals
orientation and academic achievement (Kosnin, 2007; Kitsantas
et al., 2008; Al Khatib, 2010; Trautner and Schwinger, 2020).
The link between goal orientation and different motivational
components also received strong support. Mastery-approach goals
were related to intrinsic motivation, due to the students’ positive
attitude and higher level of engagement in academic tasks
(Elliot, 2005; Kaplan and Maehr, 2007), while performanceavoidance goals were associated to lower intrinsic motivational
orientation (Shi, 2021). Other studies indicate that mastery
and performance-approach goals are positively related to the
task value (Church et al., 2001; Harackiewicz et al., 2002) and
both mastery and performance-avoidance goals were positively
related to test anxiety (Palos et al., 2019). In a meta-analysis,
Payne et al. (2007) found that mastery-approach goals were
associated with high self-efficacy, compared to performanceavoidance goals and that mastery-approach goals were related
to lower test anxiety compared to performance-approach and
avoidance goals. Shi (2021) also found that self-efficacy was
positively correlated with mastery-approach goal orientation and
negatively with performance-avoidance goals, but no significant
relationship was found between self-efficacy and performanceapproach goal orientation.
Since motivational components are associated with both
learning goals and academic achievement, they may also function
as mediators of the relationship between them. In the study
by Honicke et al. (2019), academic self-efficacy mediated the
relationships between both mastery and performance-approach
goal orientation and academic achievement. Magni et al. (2021)
found stronger evidence for the mediating role of self-efficacy
in the relationship between an approach goal orientation and
students’ performance, compared to the one between an avoidance
goal orientation and performance. Bandalos et al. (2003) argue
that both mastery and performance goal orientations were
associated indirectly with achievement through two motivational
components: self-efficacy and test anxiety. Other studies also
support the mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship
between mastery goal orientation and academic achievement
(Coutinho and Neuman, 2008; Olaogun et al., 2022).
However, the studies specifically investigating the mediation
effect of Pintrich and De Groot’s (1990) motivational components
on the relationship between learning goals and academic
achievement are still scarce (Honicke et al., 2019). As previously
discussed, self-efficacy and test anxiety received significantly more
attention. Thus, several gaps remain in the understanding how the
other motivational components mediate the relationship between
goal orientation and academic achievement.
1.3 The moderating role of achievement
emotions
Emotions in academic settings have an important influence on
students’ academic achievement, motivation and learning process
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such as hopelessness and boredom, can reduce motivation and
have negative effects on academic results (Pekrun et al., 2011;
Tze et al., 2016).
Achievement emotions are related with students’ performance
through motivational mechanisms. Students’ achievement
emotions influence their self-regulated learning and their
motivation, and these, in turn, affect academic achievement
(Mega et al., 2014). Positive activating emotions can positively
influence performance, by increasing motivation and stimulating
flexible learning, while negative deactivating emotions can affect
performance by diminishing motivation, distracting attention
and superficial solving of tasks (Pekrun et al., 2002; Pekrun
et al., 2009; Muis et al., 2015). A recent systematic review suggest
positive achievement emotions in online learning contexts may
be much more effective than negative ones in improving learners’
motivation, performance and achievement, but in the same time
negative activating emotions, such as anxiety and frustration,
also positively influence performance of subjects (Wu and Yu,
2022).
Previous results show that there is sufficient evidence for the
role of achievement emotion in shaping motivational components
and academic achievement. Moreover, as variables involved in
broader learning contexts, emotions felt when studying may
modulate the associations of different types of learning goals
with specific motivational components. Previous studies, although
using different outcomes, show that achievement emotions
can interact with learning goals, significantly moderating their
relationship with teachers’ identity construct (Çetin and Eren,
2022). In this study, we want to go further exploring the
moderating role of achievement emotions in the relationships
between goal orientation, motivational components and academic
achievement.
To conclude, we hypothesized the followings:
1. There is a positive association between both masteryapproach and performance-approach goal orientation and
academic achievement.
2. There is a negative association between both masteryavoidance and performance-avoidance goal orientation and
academic achievement.
3. Motivational components mediate the relationship between
goal orientation and academic achievement.
4. Achievement emotions moderate the relationship between
goal orientation, motivational components and academic
achievement.
Specifically, we expected that:
4.1. Positive emotions increase the positive associations
between goal orientation, motivational components
and academic achievement.
4.2. Positive emotions decrease the negative associations
between goal orientation, motivational components
and academic achievement.
4.3. Negative emotions decrease the positive associations
between goal orientation, motivational components
and academic achievement.
4.4. Negative emotions increase the negative associations
between goal orientation, motivational components
and academic achievement.
2 Materials and methods
2.1 Participants and procedure
1.4 The present study
The participants in the study were 372 students enrolled in two
bachelor programs at a large north-eastern Romanian Institution.
However, due to missing data, only 274 participants were retained
for the current study. From these, 139 (50.7%) were enrolled in
a Psychology program and 135 (49.3%) were enrolled in a Social
Sciences program. The students had a mean age of 20.23 years, with
a SD of 3.62. 42 participants (15.3%) identified themselves as men
and 232 (84.7%) as women. 141 participants (51.5%) lived in urban
areas, while 133 participants (48.5%) lived in rural areas. All the
students were recruited in a Pedagogy course. Their involvement
in the study was voluntary and rewarded with course credit. The
participation was anonymous.
The study was approved by The Ethics Committee of the
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, at the “Alexandru
Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi. The participants who agreed to the
take part in the study completed the questionnaires in a pen-andpaper format, in the classroom.
Previous studies showed that the academic achievement is
determined by learning goal orientation (Darnon et al., 2018),
motivational components (Kosnin, 2007; Kitsantas et al., 2008;
Trautner and Schwinger, 2020) and achievement emotions (Pekrun
et al., 2009; Muis et al., 2015). Several researchers have examined
the combined role of these factors on academic achievement, such
as learning goal orientation and motivational components (Church
et al., 2001; Palos et al., 2019) and learning goal orientation and
achievement emotions (Pekrun et al., 2006, 2009).
However, there are still important gaps in the literature.
The studies that analyzed the mediating role of motivational
variables in the relationship between learning goal orientation
and academic achievement focused on academic self-efficacy in
particular (Coutinho and Neuman, 2008; Magni et al., 2021).
However, the other motivational components received little or no
interest at all. In addition, to our knowledge, no study has verified
the moderating role of achievement emotions on the relationships
between goal orientation, motivation of learning and academic
achievement.
Thus, the main objective of our study is to explore whether
achievement emotions while study moderate the direct and indirect
associations between specific goals orientations and academic
achievement through motivational components in learning.
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2.2 Measures
2.2.1 Goal orientation
The Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ; Elliot and
McGregor, 2001) was used to measure the four types of learning
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TABLE 1 Means, standard deviation, minimum, maximum and Cronbach’s alpha for the variables included in the study.
M
SD
Min
Max
Cronbach’s alpha
Academic achievement
8.64
0.73
5.00
10.00
–
MAP
16.55
3.77
3.00
21.00
0.86
MAV
14.92
4.02
3.00
21.00
0.72
PAP
14.05
5.23
3.00
21.00
0.94
PAV
13.93
5.28
3.00
21.00
0.92
IGO
19.90
5.24
4.00
28.00
0.78
EGO
18.76
6.32
4.00
28.00
0.86
Task value
32.85
6.65
6.00
42.00
0.89
CLB
23.43
3.89
10.00
28.00
0.75
Self-efficacy
38.99
9.54
8.00
56.00
0.92
Test anxiety
20.11
7.86
5.00
35.00
0.85
Enjoyment during course studying
15.47
3.18
4.00
20.00
0.85
Hope during course studying
15.47
3.23
4.00
20.00
0.88
Pride during course studying
16.49
3.15
5.00
20.00
0.85
Anger during course studying
7.33
3.23
4.00
20.00
0.85
Anxiety during course studying
10.37
3.77
4.00
20.00
0.76
Shame during course studying
7.58
3.86
4.00
19.00
0.85
Hopelessness during course studying
6.87
3.74
4.00
20.00
0.89
Boredom during course studying
7.91
3.82
4.00
20.00
0.90
MAP, Mastery-Approach goals orientation; MAV, Mastery-Avoidance goals orientation; PAP, Performance-Approach goals orientation; PAV, Performance-Avoidance goals orientation; IGO,
Intrinsic Goals Orientation; EGO, Extrinsic Goals Orientation; CLB, Control of Learning Beliefs.
goal orientation: mastery-approach goals (3 items; e.g., “My goal is
to learn as much as possible”), mastery-avoidance goals (3 items;
e.g., “My aim is to avoid learning less than I possibly could”),
performance-approach goals (3 items; e.g., “My aim is to perform
well relative to other students”) and performance-avoidance goals
(3 items; e.g., “My aim is to avoid doing worse than other students”).
Participants responded to the items on a seven-point scale (1 = not
at all true of me – 7 = very true of me). Reliability coefficients for
each scale were good and are included in Table 1.
Reliability coefficients, means and standard deviations are included
in Table 1.
2.2.3 Achievement emotions
The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ, Pekrun et al.,
2011) is a well-established instrument for measuring achievement
emotions in educational research (Bieleke et al., 2021). The original
AEQ scale was large and unsuitable for use in conditions of
brief administration time, thus a shorten version AEQ-S was
developed and validated, showing satisfactory reliability and good
correlation with the original AEQ scale (Bieleke et al., 2021).
AEQ-S comprises items for the four components of each emotion
considered in the AEQ (i.e., affective, cognitive, motivational, and
physiological – see Table 2), in three learning settings (class,
learning and test-related settings), resulting 96 items in eight
scales.
In our study, we used AEQ-S in learning-related setting, for
eight emotions: enjoyment, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, shame,
hopelessness, and boredom. Therefore, we used 32 items grouped in
eight scales, measured on 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree
to 5 = strongly agree). Reliability coefficients, means and standard
deviations are included in Table 1.
2.2.2 Motivational components
The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ –
Pintrich et al., 1991) has been widely used to investigate students’
motivational components, its validity being shown by numerous
studies (Kosnin, 2007; Roth et al., 2016; Tabatabaei et al.,
2017). MSLQ was used in the present study to measure the six
motivational components: intrinsic goal orientation (4 items; e.g.,
“The most satisfying thing for me is trying to understand the
content as thoroughly as possible”); extrinsic goal orientation (4
items; e.g., “Getting a good grade is the most satisfying thing for
me right now”); task value (6 items; e.g., “I am very interested
in the content area of the courses”), control of learning belief (4
items; e.g., “If I try hard enough, then I will understand the course
material”), self-efficacy (8 items; e.g., “I’m certain I can understand
the most difficult material presented at courses”) and test anxiety
(5 items; e.g., “When I take a test I think about how poorly I am
doing compared with other students”). The items were measured
on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = not at all true; 7 = very true).
Frontiers in Psychology
2.2.4 Academic achievement
Student’s academic achievement was measured based
on their self-reported grade point average attained in the
previous academic year.
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TABLE 2 Item examples for achievement emotions measured with AEQ-S
in learning-related settings.
Components
Pride
Items
Affective
I’m proud of myself.
Cognitive
I think I can be proud of my
accomplishments at studying.
Motivational
Because I want to be proud of my
accomplishments, I am very motivated.
Physiological
When I excel at my work, I swell with pride.
Anxiety
orientation and self-efficacy. However, the effect sizes for the all
the significant correlations were small. Academic achievement was
also positively and significantly related to feeling enjoyment, hope
and pride during course studying, and negatively related to feeling
anger, anxiety, shame and hopelessness. Again, the effect sizes
were small.
We found significant and positive associations between
mastery approach and mastery avoidance goals and all motivational
components, except for test anxiety. On the contrary, performance
approach and avoidance goals correlated significantly and
positively with all motivational components, with the exception of
intrinsic goal orientation.
Affective
I get tense and nervous while studying.
Cognitive
I worry whether I’m able to cope with all my
work.
Motivational
While studying I feel like distracting myself
in order to reduce my anxiety.
3.3 Moderated mediation analyses
Physiological
Worry about not completing the material
makes me sweat.
3.3.1 Mastery approach goals as the predictor
For the first set of mediated moderation analyses, academic
achievement was the outcome, MAP was the predictor and the
motivational components were introduced as mediators. Each
emotion felt during course studying was used as a moderator of the
relationships between the predictor and the mediators and between
the predictor and the outcome.
We found that MAP was significantly and positively related to
IGO. Boredom during course studying significantly moderated this
association (b = −0.06, p = 0.001). The relationship was weaker, but
still significant at medium (b = 0.60, p < 0.001) and high levels of
boredom (b = 0.30, p = 0.002), compared with the one at low levels
of boredom (b = 0.78, p < 0.001) (see Figure 1A).
Mastery-Approach goals orientation was also significantly
related to EGO, but the relationship was not moderated by any
of the emotions.
The positive and significant link between MAP and task value
was significantly moderated by the anxiety (b = −0.04, p = 0.01, see
Figure 1B) and hopelessness (b = −0.05, p = 0.02, see Figure 1C)
felt when studying. The relationship is strong at low levels of anxiety
(b = 1.41, p < 0.001) and hopelessness (b = 1.35, p < 0.001, but gets
weaker at medium (for anxiety, b = 1.22, p < 0.001; for hopelessness
b = 1.30, p < 0.001) and low levels of the emotions (for anxiety,
b = 1.01, p < 0.001; for hopelessness b = 1, p < 0.001).
The relationship between MAP and the CLB was positive
and significant. However, it was moderated by the enjoyment
(b = 0.05, p < 0.001, see Figure 2A), hope (b = 0.04, p = 0.006, see
Figure 2B), pride (b = 0.03, p = 0.04, see Figure 2C), hopelessness
(b = −0.02, p = 0.04, see Figure 2D) and boredom (b = −0.04,
p < 0.001, see Figure 2E) felt while studying. Thus, when the
positive emotions were involved, the link was positive, significant
and stronger at medium (for enjoyment b = 0.52, p < 0.001; for
hope b = 0.50, p < 0.001; for pride b = 0.44, p < 0.001) and
high (for enjoyment b = 0.67, p < 0.001; for hope b = 0.64,
p < 0.001; for pride b = 0.54, p < 0.001) levels of the emotions,
compared to their low levels (for enjoyment b = 0.31, p < 0.001;
for hope b = 0.31, p < 0.001; for pride b = 0.31, p < 0.001). When
the negative emotions were involved, the link was still positive
and significant, but became weaker at medium (for hopelessness
b = 45, p < 0.001; for boredom b = 0.47, p < 0.001) and
high levels (for hopelessness b = 0.28, p < 0.001; for boredom
b = 0.26, p < 0.001) of the emotions, compared to their low levels
2.3 Statistical analyses
The preliminary and the correlation analyses were conducted
using the IBM SPSS 20 statistical software. To test the normality
of the distributions we computed the Skewness and Kurtosis
measures. Normal distributions were presented for all variables. To
test the proposed moderated mediation models, we used Model 8
from Process, an SPSS macro (Hayes, 2013). For the mediation,
bootstrapping with 5,000 re-samples was used to obtain parameter
estimates of the specific indirect effects. The 95% confidence
intervals (CIs) were used to determine whether these effects were
statistically significant: if the 95% CI did not contain zero, then the
indirect effect was considered statistically significant and mediation
was demonstrated. For the moderation, we computed simple
slope analyses to test the conditional effects of the predictor at
low (16th percentile), medium (50th percentile), and high (84th
percentile) levels of the moderator. All the variables included in the
interactions were centered before the analyses. Because the Process
macro does not compute standardized coefficients for the models
that include moderation, unstandardized coefficients were reported
for the analyses.
3 Results
3.1 Preliminary analyses
The means, standard deviations, minimum and maximum and
the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for all the variables considered in
the study are included in Table 1.
3.2 Correlation analyses
Given than the data were normally distributed, we used
Pearson-product correlations. The analyses showed that academic
achievement was significantly and positively associated with
all the four types of academic goals (see Table 3). Also, it
was significantly and positively associated with extrinsic goal
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TABLE 3 Correlational analysis for the variables included in the study.
1
1. Academic achievement
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
–
2. MAP
0.21**
3. MAV
0.22**
0.54**
4. PAP
0.23**
0.44**
0.37**
5. PAV
0.18**
0.41**
0.42**
0.89**
6. IGO
0.01
0.36**
0.18**
0.02
0.02
7. EGO
0.18**
0.41**
0.32**
0.80**
0.76**
0.02
8. Task value
0.09
0.62**
0.35**
0.25**
0.24**
0.40**
0.27**
9. CLB
0.04
0.37**
0.18**
0.11*
0.12*
0.17**
0.12*
0.32**
10. Self-efficacy
0.28**
0.55**
0.36**
0.32**
0.25**
0.28**
0.29**
0.52**
11. Test anxiety
0.01
0.10
0.09
0.24**
0.31**
12. Enjoyment
0.18**
0.39**
0.25**
0.24**
0.20**
0.26**
0.15*
13. Hope
0.19**
0.37**
0.26**
0.29**
0.28**
0.20**
14. Pride
0.18**
0.34**
0.19**
0.29**
0.29**
0.12*
15. Anger
−0.16**
−0.20**
−0.11
−0.05
−0.03
16. Anxiety
−0.12*
−0.09
−0.02
−0.01
0.03
−0.10
17. Shame
−0.20**
−0.11
−0.03
−0.03
−0.04
18. Hopelessness
−0.22**
−0.19**
−0.14*
−0.13*
−0.11
19. Boredom
−0.11
−0.23**
−0.13*
−0.11
−0.07
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
0.23**
–
−0.04
−0.23**
0.33**
0.06
0.39**
−0.15*
0.20**
0.40**
0.07
0.44**
−0.20**
0.67**
0.28**
0.26**
0.07
0.38**
−0.10
0.55**
0.68**
−0.03
−0.17**
−0.09
−0.22**
0.24**
−0.42**
−0.42**
−0.35**
0.02
−0.17**
−0.10
−0.23**
0.46**
−0.31**
−0.40**
−0.39**
0.60**
−0.05
0.01
−0.14*
−0.01
−0.23**
0.33**
−0.35**
−0.41**
−0.47**
0.45**
0.56**
−0.09
−0.06
−0.19**
−0.07
−0.30**
0.31**
−0.42**
−0.55**
−0.58**
0.57**
0.62**
0.72**
−0.13*
−0.04
−0.17**
−0.06
−0.20**
0.16**
−0.56**
−0.43**
−0.39**
0.66**
0.51**
0.42**
−0.04
−0.14*
0.30**
–
−0.08
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
0.55**
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*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; MAP, Mastery-Approach goals orientation; MAV, Mastery-Avoidance goals orientation; PAP, Performance-Approach goals orientation; PAV, Performance-Avoidance goals orientation; IGO, Intrinsic Goals Orientation; EGO, Extrinsic Goals
Orientation; CLB, Control of Learning Beliefs.
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FIGURE 1
The relationship between MAV and: IGO, moderated boredom (A); task value, moderated by anxiety (B); task value, moderated by hopelessness (C).
and positive (b = 0.02, CI [01;04]). It was not moderated by any
of the emotions.1
(for hopelessness, b = 0.48, p < 0.001; for boredom b = 0.60,
p < 0.001).
The relationship between MAP and self-efficacy goals was
significant and positive. It was not moderated by any of the
emotions felt when studying.
Enjoyment felt when studying significantly moderated the
relationship between MAP and test anxiety (b = −0.10, p = 0.001).
The link was significant and positive at low levels of enjoyment
(b = 0.62, p < 0.001), but became non-significant at medium
(b = 0.21, p = 0.14) and high levels of enjoyment (b = −0.09,
p = 0.63) (see Figure 2F). Otherwise, the association was significant
and positive regardless of the levels of the other variables used as
moderators.
Only task value (b = −0.01, p = 0.01) and self-efficacy (b = 0.01,
p = 0.001) were significantly related to academic achievement.
The direct effect of MAP on academic achievement was not
significant (b = 0.02, p = 0.09). It also remained non-significant
when testing it at any of the three levels of each moderator.
However, the indirect effect through self-efficacy was significant
Frontiers in Psychology
3.3.2 Mastery avoidance goals as the predictor
For the second set of mediated moderation analyses, academic
achievement was the outcome, mastery avoidance goals were
the predictor and the motivational components were introduced
as mediators. Each emotion felt while studying was used as a
moderator of the relationships between the predictor and the
mediators and between the predictor and the outcome.
The positive relationship between MAV and IGO was
significantly moderated by pride (b = −0.05, p = 0.006). The
relationship was significant at low (b = 0.44, p < 0.001) and medium
1 The direct and indirect effects were extracted from an additional model
in which we computed only the mediation analysis. A similar method was
deployed for the direct effect of performance approach goals on academic
achievement as well as for the direct effect of performance avoidance goals
on academic achievement.
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FIGURE 2
The relationship between MAP and: CLB, moderated by enjoyment (A); CLB, moderated by hope (B): CLB, moderated by pride (C); CLB, moderated
by hopelessness (D): CLB, moderated by boredom (E); test anxiety, moderated by enjoyment (F).
(b = 0.18, p = 0.02) levels of pride, but became non-significant at
high levels of the emotion (b = −0.01, p = 0.88) (see Figure 3A).
Anger also moderated the association (b = 0.06, p = 0.02), which was
not significant at low levels of the emotion (b = 0.04, p = 0.64), but
became significant and positive at its medium (b = 0.17, p = 0.03)
and high levels (b = 0.41, p < 0.001) (see Figure 3B).
Frontiers in Psychology
Enjoyment (b = −0.07, p = 0.01, see Figure 4A), hope
(b = −0.07, p = 0.02, see Figure 4B) and boredom (b = 0.07,
p = 0.004, see Figure 4C) felt when studying moderated the
positive link between mastery avoidance goals and task value.
This association was significant at low (for enjoyment b = 0.76,
p < 0.001; for hope b = 0.69, p < 0.001) and medium (for enjoyment
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FIGURE 3
The relationship between MAV and IGO, moderated by pride (A); IGO, moderated by anger (B). The relationship between mastery avoidance goals
and EGO was significant and positive, but it was not moderated by any of the emotions.
The only significant indirect effect was the one through selfefficacy. However, it was moderated by hope. It was significant
at low (b = 0.01, CI [0.004;0.02]) and medium (b = 0.01,
CI [0.002;0.02]) levels of hope, but became non-significant at
high levels of the emotion (b = 0.007, CI [−0.006;0.005]). The
effect remained significant when the other moderators were
introduced in the models.
b = 0.47, p < 0.001; for hope b = 0.42, p < 0.001) levels of
positive emotions, but became non-significant at their high levels
(for enjoyment b = 0.26, p = 0.07; for hope b = 0.25, p = 0.14).
As for boredom, the relationship between mastery avoidance goals
and task value was significant at low (b = 0.31, p = 0.02), medium
(b = 0.55, p < 0.001) and high (b = 0.92, p < 0.001) levels of
the emotion. However, it became stronger the more highly the
boredom was felt.
The relationship between MAV and CLB and between MAV
and self-efficacy was positive and significant throughout the
models, and it was not moderated by any of the emotions.
The positive link between mastery avoidance goals and test
anxiety was moderated by enjoyment (b = −0.06, p = 0.05). There
was a significant relationship between the variables at low (b = 0.52,
p < 0.001) and medium (b = 0.26, p = 0.03) levels of enjoyment, but
it became non-significant at high levels of the emotion (b = 0.06,
p = 0.69) (see Figure 4D).
The direct effect of mastery avoidance goals on academic
achievement varied based on the moderator that was used. Thus,
for enjoyment, the relationship was significant at low (b = 0.04,
p = 0.01) and medium (b = 0.02, p = 0.02) levels of the emotion,
but not at its high levels (b = 0.01, p = 0.33). Similar results were
found for hope (at low levels b = 0.04, p = 0.004; at medium levels
b = 0.02, p = 0.04; at high levels b = 0.01, p = 0.58) and pride (at
low levels b = 0.03, p = 0.02; at medium levels b = 0.028, p = 0.01; at
high levels b = 0.021, p = 0.17). On the contrary, when the negative
emotions were involved, the relationship was non-significant at
their low levels and became significant at their medium and high
levels. Such results were found for anger (at low levels b = 0.01,
p = 0.38; at medium levels b = 0.02, p = 0.03; at high levels b = 0.04,
p = 0.004), anxiety (at low levels b = 0.02, p = 0.06; at medium levels
b = 0.03, p = 0.01; at high levels b = 0.03, p = 0.04), for shame (at low
levels b = 0.01, p = 0.18; at medium levels b = 0.02, p = 0.02; at high
levels b = 0.05, p = 0.006) and for boredom (at low levels b = 0.01,
p = 0.33; at medium levels b = 0.02, p = 0.02; at high levels b = 0.04,
p = 0.005).
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3.3.3 Performance approach goals as the
predictor
For the third set of mediated moderation analyses, academic
achievement was the outcome, PAP were the predictor and the
motivational components were introduced as mediators. Each
emotion felt when studying was used as a moderator of the
relationships between the predictor and the mediators and between
the predictor and the outcome.
Throughout most models, the link between PAP and IGO was
not significant. It was, however, moderated by shame (b = −0.03,
p = 0.01, see Figure 5A). The relationship became significant at low
levels of shame (b = 0.16, p = 0.04), but not at medium (b = 0.08,
p = 0.18) or high levels of the emotion (b = −0.13, p = 0.15).
PAP had significant and positive associations with EGO, task
value, self-efficacy and test anxiety.
The relationship between PAP and the CLB was not significant
throughout most models. It was, however, moderated by the
enjoyment felt when studying (b = 0.02, p = 0.05, see Figure 5B).
The link was non-significant at low levels of enjoyment (b = −0.01,
p = 0.86), but became significant at medium (b = 0.09, p = 0.04)
and high levels of enjoyment (b = 0.17, p = 0.01). It was also
moderated by hopelessness (b = −0.02, p = 0.05, see Figure 5C).
The association was significant at low (b = 0.14, p = 0.01) and
medium (b = 0.12, p = 0.01) levels of hopelessness, but not at its
high levels (b = −0.02, p = 0.74).
The direct effect on academic achievement was not significant
(b = 0.02, p = 0.07). The significant indirect effect through selfefficacy was moderated only by pride. It became non-significant
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FIGURE 4
The relationship between mastery avoidance goals and: task value, moderated by enjoyment (A); task value, moderated by hope (B); task value,
moderated by boredom (C); test anxiety, moderated by enjoyment (D).
at low levels of pride (b = 0.006, CI [−0.006;0.01]), but remained
significant at medium (b = 0.01, CI [0.003;0.01]) and high levels of
the emotion (b = 0.01, CI [0.003;0.02]).
p = 0.008) levels of enjoyment, but lost its significance at high levels
of the emotion (b = 0.08, p = 0.48) (See Figure 6A).
Pride moderated the link between PAV and the control of
learning beliefs (b = 0.02, p = 0.04). The variables were significantly
related at medium (b = 0.09, p = 0.03) and higher levels (b = 0.18,
p = 0.006) of pride, but not at its low levels (b = −0.01, p = 0.82).
The same relationship was not significant in the other models (see
Figure 6B).
The direct effect on academic achievement was not significant
(b = 0.01, p = 0.36). Hope, pride and hopelessness moderated
the indirect effect through self-efficacy, which was significant
only at medium levels of hope (b = 0.006, CI [0.001;0.01]), at
medium (b = 0.006, CI [0.001;0.01]) and high levels of pride
(b = 0.008, CI [0.001;0.01]), and at low (b = 0.01, CI [0.002;0.02])
and medium levels of hopelessness (b = 0.01, CI [0.002;0.01]). No
other emotion moderated the effect, which remained significant
regardless of their levels.
3.3.4 Performance avoidance goals as the
predictor
For the fourth set of mediated moderation analyses, academic
achievement was the outcome, PAV were the predictor and the
motivational components were introduced as mediators. Each
emotion felt while studying was used as a moderator of the
relationships between the predictor and the mediators and between
the predictor and the outcome.
In all models, the relationships between PAV and IGO, was not
significant. However, the links between PAV and EGO, self-efficacy
and test anxiety were positive and significant.
Enjoyment significantly moderated the positive link between
PAV and task value (b = −0.04, p = 0.05). The relationship was
significant at low (b = 0.39, p < 0.001) and medium (b = 0.21,
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FIGURE 5
The relationship between PAP and: IGO, moderated by shame (A); CLB, moderated by enjoyment (B); CLB, moderated by hopelessness (C).
FIGURE 6
The relationship between PAV and: task value, moderated by enjoyment (A); control of learning beliefs, moderated by pride (B).
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4 Discussion
both approach and avoidance learning goals orientations in those
particular countries. In a previous study conducted on Chinese
and Filipino students, King et al. (2014), show that individuals
accommodate both achievement (mastery and performance) and
social (extrinsic) goals such as affiliation, approval, concern, and
status – all attributes of collectivistic cultures.
The results of the mediation analysis showed that the effect of all
four goal orientation on academic achievement were mediated by
academic self-efficacy (ASE). Since ASE involves one’s judgments
about the capacity to project and manage desired learning goals
(Bandura, 1997), it is likely that positive judgments about one’s
own academic competence will enhance the goal orientation
previously adopted by the individual and, in turn, their academic
achievement. The mediator role played by ASE between goal
orientation and academic achievement was confirmed in several
similar studies (Bandalos et al., 2003; Honicke et al., 2019; Magni
et al., 2021). Magni et al. (2021) found that the ASE mediated
the relationships between the goal orientations and academic
achievement, except for the mastery-avoidance goal orientation;
however, in their longitudinal study, the role of self-efficacy as
mediator was stronger for the approach orientations than for the
avoidance orientations, which is in line with the original theory
of Bandura (1977). Coutinho and Neuman (2008) found similar
effects of ASE as mediator, except for the performance avoidance
goal orientation. Honicke et al. (2019) argues that individuals with
mastery-approach goals are more likely to persist in the face of
adversity and to see intrinsic value in learning, compared with those
with performance-approach goals. Nevertheless, in our study, the
association of mastery-avoidance goals with performance was also
mediated by ASE. Arguably, a possible explanation for this result is
that avoiding negative learning outputs can be self-enhancing and
may function as motivation for action in collectivistic cultures.
The importance of self-efficacy in learning is supported by
our results. Having a higher self-efficacy also means having better
self-regulation skills, which leads to learning more efficiently, with
less effort, and reporting a high level of academic satisfaction
(Boekaerts, 1999; Pintrich, 2000a). However, as students attempt
to regulate their own learning, obstacles may arise, and thus they
will have to revise their initial goals, reassess their motivation,
and identify new ways to progress (Butler and Winne, 1995). In
these cases, motivational regulation strategies will help students
with higher self-efficacy to modify their thoughts, behaviors and
emotions caused by a task, in order to stimulate the desire to
complete it and overcome learning obstacles, by increasing the level
of effort and engagement in academic activities and finally, their
grades (Wolters, 2003; Schunk and Zimmerman, 2008; Wolters and
Mueller, 2010; Trautner and Schwinger, 2020).
The moderated mediation analysis conducted using
achievement emotions for testing the fourth hypothesis showed
a more nuanced picture of the mediation relationships. Whereas
mastery-approach indirect effect on academic achievement was
not moderated by any emotion, the three mediation relationships
were moderated by one or more achievement emotions.
Thus, The MAV indirect effect on academic achievement was
moderated by hope. A positive and activating emotion, hope may
diminish the worrying and unpleasant feelings and compensate
for the avoidance dimension of MAV, and further increase beliefs
in one’s own personal academic abilities. The indirect relationship
of MAV with academic achievement ceased to be significant at
This study evaluated how achievement emotions felt while
studying moderate the direct and indirect associations between
specific goal orientations and academic achievement through
motivational components of students. Our approach aimed to
contribute to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms
and interplay of goal orientations, motivational components and
emotions in academic settings that affect the performance of
university students.
According to our first hypothesis, the correlational analyses
indicate that both mastery-approach and performance-approach
goals positively and significantly correlated with academic
achievement, although the effect size was small. This result is
in line with previous studies showing that students’ focus on
skills, competences and knowledge development influences their
academic achievement (Darnon et al., 2018; Suprayogi et al.,
2019). The performance-approach goals imply overcoming others’
academic results and are associated with positive outcomes such
as the use of cognitive strategies of learning (Pintrich, 2000a)
and academic achievement in some studies (Goraya and Hasan,
2012; Darnon et al., 2018). However, a somewhat unexpected result
is the absence of any corelation between academic achievement
and intrinsic goal orientation (IGO), despite Cerasoli et al. (2014)
findings that indicate in their metanalysis that exists a moderate to
strong associations between intrinsic motivation and performance.
As IGO represents a value component of MSLQ (Pintrich et al.,
1991), it seems the subjects of our study evaluate risky, challenging
and curiosity arousing learning tasks as unappropriated for
obtaining good grades. The collectivistic culture (Hofstede Insights,
2020) and conformity with teachers’ expectations are both possible
explanation for the irrelevance of intrinsic motivation for academic
achievement, as academic results (grades).
With regard to the second hypothesis, contrary to our
expectations, both mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance
goals were positively and significantly related to academic
achievement. These findings contradict numerous studies that
have found a negative association between both masteryavoidance (Elliot and McGregor, 2001; Luo et al., 2013) and
performance-avoidance goal orientations (Elliot and Church,
1997; Dinger and Dickhäuser, 2013; Luo et al., 2013) and
academic achievement. Moreover, in our study, the positive
association between performance-approach and performanceavoidance was very high (0.89), suggesting that students with
performance approach goals also tend to adopt performance
avoidance goals. A possible explanation of this results could be that
students want to keep a good image for others and demonstrate
that they can achieve good performance, avoiding to appear
more incompetent than their peers. Also, mastery-approach and
mastery-avoidance goals were moderately correlated, suggesting
that students focus on development skills, while simultaneously
avoiding misunderstanding of the content relevant for these skills.
These unexpected results could be explained by Hofstede’ theory
on individualistic and collectivistic cultures. As Romania has a low
score on individualism (Hofstede Insights, 2020), this could explain
why performance-avoidance orientation goals may be adaptative
for Romanian university students. Actually, King (2016) found that
cultural factors such as collectivism may explain the coexistence of
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CLB was moderated by enjoyment, hope and pride. Similarly, the
relationship between PAP and CLB was moderated by enjoyment.
Therefore, the orientation toward complete, meaningful learning
and adequate academic performance, combined with beliefs in one’s
own responsibility and control over learning, are proportionally
enforced by ongoing tasks increasing excitement - enjoyment, boast
about past success – pride, and the expectance of positive leaning
outputs – hope, respectively. These results confirm previous studies
(Pekrun et al., 2006; Daniels et al., 2009), and also support Pekrun’s
(2006) model, according to which students focused on competences
and knowledge development are likely to feel in control of their
learning and give personal value to the task; these experiences are
likely to be improved by a background of positive and activating
emotions.
Negative emotions such as boredom, anxiety, hopelessness and
shame also moderated the relationships, which became weaker or
non-significant at higher levels of the emotions. Boredom acted as a
significant buffer for the link between MAP and CLB, and MAP and
IGO, showing that intense boredom can overcome the students’
desire to master the information and knowledge and thus weaken
the use of motivational beliefs about learning control and intrinsic
motivational orientation. Anxiety moderated the association
between MAP and TV, the relationship becoming weaker as
anxiety increased. Both negative valence and focus of anxiety on
learning outputs may explain why intense concerns and worry
about learning results undermine the relationship. Hopelessness
acts in similar manner: the intensity of the relationships MAPCLB and PAP-CLB gradually decreases as hopelessness increases.
This effect may be produced by the deactivating properties of
hopelessness, so that individuals become gradually less confident in
their control over the learning process. This negative deactivating
emotion act also as a suppressor of the relationship between MAP
and TV. When students experience increased hopelessness, they
tend to be less engaged, considering that is difficult to maintain
too ambitious MAP goals and thus become less interested in their
task. Finally, shame, a negative, output emotion, associated with
a sense of worthlessness and powerlessness, moderates the link
between PAP and IGO. High levels of shame are likely to motivate
the performance-oriented students to hide or escape the shameinducing situation, thus decreasing the intrinsic desire to achieve
the goal (Cavalera and Pepe, 2014).
The relationship between the MAP goal orientation and
motivational components was moderated by three achievement
emotions: enjoyment, pride and hope. The link with various
motivational components (such as TV and IGO) became weaker
or even non-significant at high levels of the positive emotions.
Similarly, enjoyment mediated the link between PAP and TV. These
results can be explained by the emotional incongruity between
the anxiety of falling behind in knowledge or performance and
the intense, positive emotions felt when study. Thus, high levels
of positive emotions lead to good academic achievement, rather
than having MAP or PAP goals. Not surprisingly, enjoyment
had an inverse effect on the association between MAP and
test anxiety, which became non-significant at high levels of the
emotion. However, we had one rather surprising finding. Our
results showed that pride, an output-oriented emotion, amplified
the association of PAP goal orientation with CLB. Perhaps
the concern about underperforming characteristic of PAV is
high levels of hope, perhaps because experiencing intense, overoptimistic hope signifies that the individuals expect that positive
outcomes will occur, regardless of their own actions and selfefficacy (Feldman and Kubota, 2015).
Pride is the only achievement emotion that enhances the
indirect effect of PAP goal orientation on academic achievement.
As a positive, retrospective, self-enhancing and output-oriented
emotion, pride intensifies the association between one’s goal
to outperform others and their self-worth judgments. In
academic settings, pride is a positive predictor of grades and
moderate the relationship between self-regulation and grades
(Villavicencio and Bernardo, 2013).
PAV’s indirect effect on academic achievement was more
complex. First, it was moderated by two positive emotions – hope
and pride, the effect being significant only at their medium or high
levels. The moderating effect of hope is consistent with the results
of Feldman and Kubota (2015), where academic hope and ASE
predict the students’ grade point average. A positive and activating
emotion, hope can act as a buffer for the avoidance dimension from
the PAV goal orientation. Hope is also an output and anticipative
emotion, and can strengthen one’s self-efficacy, even when the
individual is motivated by PAV goals. As for pride, being proud
of past performances can help students to overcome the concerns
implied by a performance avoidance goal orientation. Second,
hopelessness also moderated the indirect relationship between
PAV and academic achievement. Hopelessness implies negative
expectations toward the future and the feeling that things are not
under control. Low and medium levels of hopelessness seem to
be benign for the PAV-academic achievement relationship, but
when the hopelessness is too intense, the individual may withdraw
from any activity, thus making the effect of PAV on achievement a
non-significant one (Pekrun and Stephens, 2009).
The direct relationship between goal orientation and academic
achievement was also moderated by achievement emotions.
However, this was true only for mastery-avoidance goals.
First, the pattern of moderation was similar for three
positive activating emotions (enjoyment, hope and pride). The
relationship between the MAV goal orientation and academic
achievement was stronger for the participants with low and
medium levels of these emotions. In these cases, students’ have good
academic performance because they want to avoid the negative
consequences of not mastering the information. However, when
the positive emotions felt when studying are strong, students
achieve higher performance because they find enjoyment, hope
and pride in learning, not because they fear the negative effects of
not knowing enough.
Second, negative emotions (boredom, anxiety and anger)
strengthened the relationship between the MAV goal orientation
and academic achievement. Although these are emotions that are
usually avoided (Rödel, 2021), they seem to reinforce learning for
those with strong MAV goal orientations (Pekrun, 2018). More
intense negative emotions boost the concerns already embedded in
a MAV orientation, thus leading to better academic performances
for students with such orientations.
One final aspect that is worth pointing out is how the
achievement emotions moderated the relationships between the
goal orientations and the motivational components. Relatively
similar patterns were found for both mastery approach and
performance approach orientations. The association of MAP with
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slightly surpassed by remembering past successes, boosting selfconfidence and strengthening the beliefs in the control of the
learning process.
Negative achievement emotions also moderated the
associations of the MAV goal orientation with motivational
components. Interestingly, boredom gradually increased the
intensity of the relationship between MAV and task value.
Therefore, boredom is not always a negative emotion and
could have positive benefits, such as an increase in creativity
(Vodanovich, 2003). Mugon et al. (2019) point out that because
boredom is unpleasant, students may be motivated to engage in
an activity or material in order to reduce it. Thus, our somewhat
unexpected result could be at least partially explained if we look
closer to boredom as an achievement emotion. A bored student
feels she is lethargic, but also restless; her mind wanders, asking
herself “what if? I don’t learn as much as I can?” (an item from
the MAV goal orientation scale). The student may also recall
reasons to engage in the task at hand, highlighting its importance
and relevance. In brief, bored students are more susceptible
of reflecting on their own learning goals and to re-assess their
learning priorities and values. Anger is a negative, but activating
emotion and moderated the link between MAV goal orientation
and IGO. This result can be explained by the fact that anger
is typically associated with fight tendencies, whereas anxiety is
associated with flight tendencies (Carver and Harmon-Jones,
2009; Frenzel et al., 2016). Therefore, at medium and high levels
of intensity, anger replaces the worry felt by a person with MAV
goals and directs him/her toward an intrinsic desire to achieve the
goals.
From a theoretical standpoint, this study shows the complex
role that achievement emotions play in the interplay between goal
orientations, motivational components and academic achievement.
However, it is still to determine the effects of negative achievement
emotions (Wu and Yu, 2022). We found that self-efficacy is
the only mediator that explained the relationship between goal
orientation and achievement. Also, because the direct relationship
between the mastery-avoidance goal orientation and academic
achievement was moderated by six of the eight achievement
emotions, our results suggest that this link is the most sensitive
one to the influence of different achievement emotions. Moreover,
this shows that the 2 × 2 goal orientation model (Elliot
and McGregor, 2001) seems to be more comprehensive, at
least regarding the emotional permeability of mastery-avoidance
dimension in relationship to various motivational components and
achievement.
Although surprisingly, both approach goals and avoidance
goals had a positive relationship with academic achievement.
Still, an important distinction was found, since achievement
emotions moderated in different ways this association, as well
as that between goal orientation and motivational components.
In general, feeling positive, activating emotions when studying
strengthened the relationships between the approach orientations,
motivational components and academic achievement. On the
contrary, feeling negative or deactivating emotions weakened
the same relationships. As far as the avoidance orientations are
concerned, positive and activating emotions weakened, while
negative and deactivating emotions strengthened their links
with motivational components and academic achievement. Some
exceptions were found, such as those regarding the role of pride,
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which were discussed above. Alternative explanation for some
inconsistent results may consists in epistemic learning-related
emotions and affects as feeling of certainty or rightness, doubt,
wonder or curiosity, as subject are involved in learning activities
(de Sousa, 2009). These emotions, although was not directly
investigated in our study, could offer valuable insights on complex
relationships between avoidance orientation and motivational
components.
Finally, this study shows that the cultural values can play an
important part in shaping academic achievement. Unlike most
previous findings, our results point toward a positive relationship
between both approach and avoidance goals and achievement.
Higher levels of collectivistic values might explain these results.
Still, the context of these relationships is different, as shown by the
moderating effects of achievement emotions.
From a practical standpoint, a global view of the moderation
analyses highlights the importance of the awareness for the
emotional setting of the learning process. We found more
empirical support for the moderating role of achievement
emotions in the relationships between mastery-goal orientations
and motivational components compared to the similar role
in the relationship between performance-goal orientations and
motivational components. Since mastery goal orientations are
more strongly associated with positive emotions (Seifert, 1995),
a higher level of self-perceptions, and intrinsic motivation (Shi,
2021) and facilitate self-regulated learning (Pintrich et al., 2001), it
becomes essential to create learning contexts that support positive
emotions. Nevertheless, since our results show that negative
emotions can strengthen the relationships between avoidance goals,
motivational components and performance, practitioners should
pay attention to their dynamics. While negative emotions seem
to have their role in the educational process, eliciting positive
emotions and directing students toward approach goals would
be more appropriate. In this regard, Fritea and Fritea (2013)
claim the importance of developing motivational regulation skills,
since they can ameliorate or even eliminate the effects that
negative emotions (e.g., boredom) have on students’ academic
achievement. Finally, further exploring these relationships may
suggest specific interventions in order to improve the teachinglearning process.
4.1 Limits
This study has several limits. The most important resides in its
cross-sectional design which does not allow us to infer stronger
(e.g., causal) relationships between the variables. Future studies
could use a longitudinal design, thus verifying the consistency of
the findings over time. Second, the convenience sample composed
of social sciences university students from a single institution
may be improved in future studies by randomly selecting students
from various higher education institutions and faculties. Also,
using a national or international sample of students would be
useful and allow for inter-cultural comparison. A more expanded
sample could further confirm the hypothesis that a collectivistic
cultural orientation impacts the link between an avoidance goal
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orientation and academic achievement. Thirdly, the use of selfreport instruments, despite their good psychometric proprieties,
leads to other problems, such as acquiescent (tendency to strongly
agree with most sentences) or reactant (e.g., disagreeing with most
items of the scale) responses. Fourthly, academic achievement was
measured by a single item, the self-reported, recalled value of the
point average. This may be improved by considering multiple and
more objective indicators of academic achievement such as class
rank in class, combined with the performance in core subjects from
previous years gathered from faculty records or from evaluations
conducted by teachers.
institutional requirements. The participants provided their written
informed consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
F-VF: Supervision, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing –
original draft, Writing – review and editing. RL: Conceptualization,
Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and
editing. OC: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis,
Writing – review and editing. LC-C: Conceptualization, Writing –
review and editing. RG: Conceptualization, Writing – original
draft, Data curation. CO: Conceptualization, Writing – original
draft, Data curation.
5 Conclusion
Our results complete the existing research literature with
a comprehensive analysis of the role played by each specific
achievement emotion (Pekrun, 2011) as a moderator of the
relationships between goal orientation, motivational components
and academic achievement. In our sample of university students,
we surprisingly found that both approach and avoidance goal
orientations had positive relationships with academic achievement.
This might be explained by the higher levels of collectivism specific
to Romania. Also, self-efficacy had a significant mediation role in all
the relationships. The moderation analyses showed a more complex
picture. Positive and negative achievement emotions led to different
patterns of associations between the other variables. This shows
that higher education teachers should pay attention to the goals,
emotions and learning strategies used by students, as well as to
the relationship between these variables when trying to improve
academic achievement.
The author(s) declare financial support was received for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The
article publications fee was supported by authors’ publication
grants of the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences,
University ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iaşi, Romania. We are thankful
to Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitization,
within Program 1 – Development of the national RD system,
Subprogram 1.2 – Institutional Performance – RDI excellence
funding projects, Contract no. 11PFE/30.12.2021, for the financial
support.
Data availability statement
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Funding
Conflict of interest
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be
made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Publisher’s note
Ethics statement
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
endorsed by the publisher.
The studies involving humans were approved by the Research
Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Education
Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania. The
studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and
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TYPE
Original Research
29 January 2024
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1332800
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra,
University of Zaragoza, Spain
REVIEWED BY
Jinping Zhong,
South China Normal University, China
Jon Zabala Arando,
University of the Basque Country, Spain
Carolina Beatriz Alzugaray,
Santo Tomás University, Chile
*CORRESPONDENCE
Qiaobing Wu
qiaobing.wu@polyu.edu.hk
November 2023
January 2024
PUBLISHED 29 January 2024
Online learning during the
COVID-19 pandemic: the
wellbeing of Chinese migrant
children—a case study in
Shanghai
Qifan Ding , Qiaobing Wu * and Qi Zhou
Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon,
Hong Kong SAR, China
RECEIVED 03
ACCEPTED 15
CITATION
Ding Q, Wu Q and Zhou Q (2024) Online
learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: the
wellbeing of Chinese migrant children—a
case study in Shanghai.
Front. Psychol. 15:1332800.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1332800
COPYRIGHT
© 2024 Ding, Wu and Zhou. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication
in this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted
which does not comply with these terms.
Introduction: This study uses Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model as its
theoretical framework to consider the findings of an investigation of the
emotional, social, and physical wellbeing of Chinese migrant children and
lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in urban areas. This study expands
our perspective by combining the views of students, parents, and teachers to
explore the emotional, social and physical wellbeing of migrant children in
Shanghai who were participating in online learning during the COVID-19.
Methods: Observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out to
collect data for this case study. Thirty-one migrant children, nine parents, 10
teachers and a school principal from a Shanghai junior high school participated
in this research. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results and Discussion: The findings indicated that although video-recorded
lessons were high quality, it put pressure on migrant children due to the lessons
containing only new material with no reviews and reduced opportunities for them
to interact with their own teachers. In addition, the differences in study progress
between the migrant children and the local children that showed up during the
online learning, and neglect from teachers and policymakers, made the migrant
children anxious, angry and confused about their future. Besides, parents install
monitors at home to support their children’s online learning, but it had the
opposite effect and simply provoked increased conflicts between children and
their parents. Finally, although the online lessons have affected the optical health
of students, the subsequent additional cooking lessons have mitigated the optical
health problem and strengthened the connections between home and school.
Conclusion: The inequalities of education encountered by migrant children
during the COVID-19 period have made them realize the disparities they have
suffered in Shanghai. The exposure of this problem raises the prospect of a
reform of educational policies for migrant children in the future.
KEYWORDS
migrant children, COVID-19, online learning, emotional wellbeing, social wellbeing,
physical wellbeing
Frontiers in Psychology
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10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1332800
1 Introduction
classmates and teachers, attention deficits, stress, and depression (Xie
et al., 2020).
The Chinese central government also implemented strict
quarantine regulations: “School is suspended, but learning continues.”
The Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China passed a
regulation that all schools should stop face-to-face teaching, but all
teaching activities should be moved online (Ministry of Education of
the People’s Republic of China, 2020a). In China, more than 220
million children and adolescents, including 180 million primary and
secondary school students, were confined to their homes (Wang et al.,
2020). During this challenging time, the family became a learning
space in which parents and caregivers acted as guides to support their
children’s study at home. A growing amount of literature has argued
that migration has immediate consequences for a child’s wellbeing
(Liang, 2016; Li and Jiang, 2018; Xu et al., 2018). For example, studies
have shown that migrant children are facing educational inequality in
urban China (Ma and Wu, 2019). In China, the term “migrant
workers” refers to rural household (hukou) residents who have lived
in cities for at least 6 months without holding a local household
registration. Children of migrants such as those who move to cities
with their migrant parents receive compulsory education (Grade 1 to
Grade 9) in the city while maintaining their rural household
registration (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China,
2016). In 2021, the migrant population exceeded 375 million (National
Bureau of Statistics, 2021). As of the year 2020, around 14.26 million
migrant children were eligible for compulsory education when they
reached school age (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of
China, 2020b). Although they live and study in urban cities with their
parents, their rural hukou cannot ensure they can get equal access to
senior high school education, as local children do. As migrant children
grow up, their education needs become increasing intense after they
finish compulsory education (Grade 1–Grade 9). In China, students
who finished compulsory education should take the Senior High
School Entrance Examination. This examination is a national highly
competitive examination held in different provinces to grade students
who have finished their compulsory education and see if they are
qualified to receive senior high school education. In the current
Chinese education system, secondary vocational schools and senior
high schools are mainly oriented toward the job market and higher
education, respectively. Having a university degree is favorable for an
individuals’ upward mobility. Migrant children and parents must
satisfy the conditions required by the cities they moved to in order for
the children to attend the senior high school entrance examination
and study in senior high schools, otherwise they have to study in
vocational schools. However, vocational education in cities serves to
train and produce workers (Shi, 2017). A policy for migrant children’s
senior high school entrance examinations was determined by 27
provincial governments in 2014 (Guangming Daily, 2014).
Nevertheless, there are huge regional differences in the requirements
for allowing migrant children’s participation in the senior high school
entrance examination. Those policies only clarify the entrance
threshold and screening mechanism rather than increasing the
migrant children’s opportunities to get access to educational resources.
The entry threshold for senior high schools in some metropolises,
such as Shanghai is still high for migrant children.
Although there are many studies on the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on children’s wellbeing, the wellbeing of migrant children,
a vulnerable group in China, was even more neglected in the context
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an international public
emergency since 2020, and the public health response to the
lockdowns, social distancing, school closures and economic
shutdowns have serious impacts on all aspects of children and
adolescents’ development in the world, including physical,
psychosocial, and mental health (Tso et al., 2020). Previous studies
have found an increased probability of psychological problems in
children and adolescents after the COVID-19 pandemic. Children
and adolescents experience changes in lifestyle and learning styles,
such as school absence due to pandemic preparedness measures,
home quarantine, and online learning; these can affect their wellbeing
(Fore, 2020; Miao et al., 2023). Concerns were also raised about the
availability of sufficient support for vulnerable groups, such as
children with learning difficulties and mental health needs. Social
distancing regulations across the world have resulted in millions of
children being suddenly disconnected from face-to-face education
(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,
2020). Schools and universities have moved their teaching activities
online in response to the situation. The United Nations estimated that
approximately 463 million children were cut off from their education
because they could not access online learning (United Nations
Children’s Fund, 2020). It has been discovered that homeschooling
was difficult for children from low-income families. A study in the
UK revealed that parents experience increased stress as they have to
balance childcare, homeschooling and working during the
COVID-19 period. The economic impact of the COVID-19
pandemic has also added financial burdens to many families and
increased stress on parents. School closures can have an even greater
impact on children and young people with mental health needs
because they lack the resources that schools would normally provide
(Tso et al., 2020).
In 2020, school shutdowns in 188 countries, affecting more than
1.5 billion students in 2020 (Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development, 2021). Traditional face-to-face schools were forced
to transform into virtual schools for students with continuing
education. Therefore, students were forced to adapt to online learning.
At the same time, video conferences and social media become the
main venues for knowledge delivery and communication. However,
K-12 students lack online learning experience. Even in countries
where online learning is developing significantly, such as the
United States and Canada, less than 10 per cent of K-12 students have
had experience in online learning. Current studies discovered several
major concerns about children’s online learning during the COVID-19
pandemic, including internet connection issues, IT facilities issues,
reduced learning motivation, students’ adaptability to online learning,
eyestrain caused by long staring at screens, insufficient communication
with teachers (Bączek et al., 2021; Yan et al., 2021). In addition, online
learning increased the socioeconomic inequalities in accessing
technological resources. It has been found that children from
low-income families have less access to learning materials (computers
and textbooks) and effective learning environments (overcrowded
households and no access to electricity and the internet) than highincome families. These situations are much more common among
children in rural and remote areas. Moreover, several impacts of
online learning on children’s wellbeing have also been identified,
including overuse of electronic devices, less interaction with
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of COVID-19-influenced online classes (Fore, 2020; Tso et al., 2020;
Abdo Ahmad et al., 2023; Dvorsky et al., 2023; Miao et al., 2023;
Pampati et al., 2023). Furthermore, under the COVID-19 context, the
successful transition from the traditional education environment to
an online teaching-learning one was not an overnight event, as it faced
various obstacles and challenges during this period (Crawford et al.,
2020). Migrant children in China live in a different social and cultural
context compared to general children. In particular, the educational
and social systems for migrant populations are different from those in
other countries (Shi, 2017; Xu et al., 2018; Han et al., 2020). Chinese
migrant children are involved in household registration and the
allocation of educational resources, which are closely related to local
policies. Findings from previous studies in other countries may not
be simply transferred to Chinese migrant children (Exenberger et al.,
2019; Abdo Ahmad et al., 2023). In particular, problems migrant
children faced in online learning were influenced by local policies,
online schooling environments, parents, peers, and teachers compared
to the general students. Therefore, this study utilizes Bronfenbrenner’s
bioecological model to provide a holistic perspective where all levels
from microsystem to macrosystem can be considered. The aim of this
paper is to explore how the online learning experience influenced
migrant children’s wellbeing in Shanghai, which offers significant
insights applicable to post-pandemic education.
platforms is a crucial factor in the development of online learning, as
inadequate tools can hinder children’s learning progress. For instance,
certain platforms may lack essential features, such as online chat,
material sharing, and screen sharing, which can negatively impact
learning outcomes. Additionally, online communication is often
limited to classmates, offering no opportunity for real-time knowledge
and information sharing with teachers. Lastly, online learning may
also have negative effects on physical health, as prolonged screen time
without any outdoor activity can lead to increased levels of stress and
vision problems for both teachers and students (Coman et al., 2020).
Apart from these general impacts of online learning, a systematic
review discovered online learning during the COVID-19 period had
a negative impact on children’s academic performance in mathematics,
reading, language and spelling, and biology. Several factors contribute
to this negative impact, such as socio-economic status (family type
and family income), access to technology, the learning environment,
the quality of online class resources, and feedback from teachers
(Cortés-Albornoz et al., 2023). Dvorsky et al. (2023) summarized
challenges faced by children and adolescents with special educational
needs and dis/abilities during the COVID-19 period. Regarding
school supports and services, individualized interventions for
academics and behavioral supports, school-based health and mental
health services have been discontinued. Regarding school and
community environment, it is difficult for those youth to access to
digital course materials when using different platforms. They also have
limited access to health and mental health services out of school.
These pandemic-driven disparities reinforce existing inequalities
among students with special educational needs. Guo and Wan (2022)
argued this could be described as the digital divide which means the
distribution of information and communication technology resources
replicates the inequalities inherent in the social structure. Although
online learning ensured learning continuity, it added inequality to
education inequality to children from different social backgrounds.
Disadvantaged groups may not have access to online learning tools
and materials. In addition, without face-to-face instruction and
parental guidance, they may be unprepared for online learning
(Sahlberg, 2020; Guo and Wan, 2022).
2 Literature review
To provide a solid foundation for the study, the following
literature review was undertaken from several aspects covering
the strengths and weaknesses in online learning, roles of parents
and schools in online learning and children’s wellbeing during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
2.1 Strengths and weakness in online
learning during the COVID-19
A substantial amount of literature has been written about the
benefits and challenges of online learning. The rise of online learning
can be attributed to its convenience in terms of location and time.
Additionally, online learning offers a cost-effective means of accessing
a wider range of information (Yılmaz, 2019; Kim, 2020). As an
alternative to traditional learning, it provides students and teachers
with both asynchronous and synchronous tools, such as email, chat
platforms, and video conferences (Dhawan, 2020). This mode of
learning eliminates the need for in-person meetings. Particularly
during the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning became a crucial
method for maintaining teaching and learning activities in
educational institutions.
However, online learning also has some disadvantages that must
be considered. Firstly, children typically have low levels of self-control
and are prone to being easily distracted or losing concentration, which
can negatively impact their ability to learn (Coman et al., 2020).
Therefore, adult participation and supervision is necessary for
successful online learning (Youn et al., 2012). Second, online learning
may not provide enough time and opportunities for children who
need more interaction and activities to help them concentrate on
learning (Crawford et al., 2020). Thirdly, the quality of online learning
Frontiers in Psychology
2.2 The role of parents and schools in
online learning
Many studies have found that in online learning environments,
the parents of the children take on the following roles: regulators of
their child’s online activities, learning coaches or co-educators, and
providers of caring relationships (Rice and Dawley, 2009; Waters and
Leong, 2014; Nouwen and Zaman, 2018; Borup et al., 2020). These
roles reflect research on parental roles prior to the occurrence of the
pandemic. Preliminary research also indicates that during COVID-19,
parents have taken on these same types of roles during this crisis:
regulators, co-educators and emotional supporters.
As regulators, parents play a mediating role to prevent harm and
regulate the children’s online activities, doing such things as setting
technology use rules for their children and monitoring the use of the
equipment (Nouwen and Zaman, 2018). For co-educators, learning
activities have moved from school to home during the lockdown
period. Physical distancing denied access to sufficient schooling and
community support. Children naturally sought help from their
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parents during such a stressful and turbulent period. Therefore,
parents needed to engage in some activities that are normally
supposed to be the responsibility of the teachers. They managed to
promote the students’ learning by applying instruction, questioning,
and listening to feedback (Bhamani et al., 2020). However, parents and
caregivers cannot replace the role and function of the teacher in
school. Some parents have to spend a lot of time managing their
children’s behavior at home. This is especially difficult for parents with
a low educational level. COVID-19 forced family education to
be incorporated in school education, which has had a huge impact on
family and children’s wellbeing. It also discovered that providing time
and space to promote teacher-student and parent–child relationships
can strengthen the connections between schools, families, and
students during the at home online learning period in China (Zhou
et al., 2020). In this situation, parents act as a co-educator to cooperate
with schools to understand their children’s difficulties. With regard to
providing emotional support, parent–child cooperation was
stimulated by learning activities during the COVID-19 period. It has
been argued that the more time parents spend with their child/
children, the better their relationship becomes (Bhamani et al., 2020).
In this circumstance, parents should interact with their child/children
in order to reduce anxiety and worries.
Besides, when schoolteachers act as educators and provide mental
health support, they not only fulfill the role of helping students’
acquire knowledge, but also promote students’ wellbeing (Catalano
et al., 2003; Zins et al., 2007). In terms of education, teaching activities
did not stop during COVID-19, and many countries were continuing
teaching activities based on their own circumstances. It has been
found that academic staff, technicians and students in China worked
together to continue teaching and learning activities at universities
during the lockdown period (Zhang et al., 2020). Australian schools
used text messages, phone calls or skype to contact students and
parents to identify the needs of the students and to keep track of their
learning (Brown et al., 2020). Regarding mental health support, the
UNESCO Chair on Health Education and Sustainable Development
emphasized that education is a crucial component of health. Schools
also play an active role in promoting health-conscious behavior
among students. Within the school environment, the promotion of
wellbeing through meaningful and transformative learning can serve
as a catalyst for the development of a knowledge-based health culture,
having far-reaching effects not only on the behaviors of students, but
also on those of their families and communities (Colao et al., 2020).
argued that the wellbeing of caregivers directly affects children’s
wellbeing (Newland, 2015; Pampati et al., 2023). High levels of
parental stress were associated with increased mental health symptoms
in children, emphasizing the impact on family dynamics, caregiver
burden and parent–child relationships. Existing studies discovered
that parents worried about their child/children’s daily social, physical
and emotional health (Dong et al., 2020; Doll et al., 2022). Therefore,
it has been suggested that it is important to investigate the social,
physical and emotional wellbeing of children during the COVID-19
pandemic period (Goldschmidt, 2020).
Social wellbeing refers to individuals being able to build and
maintain healthy relationships and interactions with other individuals
in their immediate environment. Play is an essential part of children’s
social and physical development. During the COVID-19 lockdown,
people were confined to their homes and children had fewer
opportunities to play outside or see their friends (Goldschmidt, 2020).
Peer interaction decreased and parents expressed the concern that
their child/children’s social development would be affected.
Unfortunately, some parents have noticed changes in their children’s
behavior, such as symptoms of sadness, depression and loneliness (Lee
et al., 2021). Although students working online have limited contact
with peers and no opportunity to have face to face contact with them,
the positive interactions that do occur between caregivers and children
are healthy. It is good when families can spend more time together.
When time is available, caregivers are encouraged to socialize with
children by playing games, doing arts and crafts, and listening to
music, etc. Caregivers can also spend time with children by watching
TV programs together or using educational apps.
Physical wellbeing encompasses the capacity to engage in physical
activities and fulfill social roles without being impeded by physical
limitations or experiences of bodily pain, as well as the presence of
positive biological health indicators (Capio et al., 2014). A systematic
review of intervention studies has shown that exercise and physical
activity have a positive impact on physical wellbeing (Penedo and
Dahn, 2005). In children, physical wellbeing is defined as the ability
to participate fully in developmentally appropriate activities in a
normal manner. Factors that are crucial to children’s physical
wellbeing include nutrition, a clean and safe environment, health care,
mental stimulation and access to nurturing relationships (Curtis et al.,
2004). During the COVID-19, some parents mentioned that their
child/children spent 3 to 4 h per day using a computer in online
learning and spend less time doing outdoor activities, thus raising
worries among parents about this having a negative impact on child/
children’s eyesight (Christensen and Alexander, 2020; Zhao
et al., 2020).
Emotional wellbeing is an important dimension in mental health.
It comprises happiness and overall life satisfaction. Accordingly,
supporting emotional wellbeing is an important responsibility in
different areas such as schools and among different groups such as
children, adolescents and women (Ross et al., 2020). The strengths
coming from emotional wellbeing serve as a buffer against misfortune
and mental health issues, and they may be the key to building
resilience. During the COVID-19 lockdown period, regarding child/
children’s emotions, parents reported that their child/children had
increased levels of worry, irritability and anxiety due to social
isolation, lack of interaction, and delays in receiving substantive
feedback from teachers about their schoolwork. Parents also felt that
without formal learning structures and routines being present in
2.3 Children’s wellbeing during the
COVID-19 pandemic
Children are physiologically undeveloped and may experience
negative psychological symptoms when exposed to the unexpected
COVID-19 pandemic. Less interaction with peers in school, extended
screen time, straining relationships due to extended parental
supervision, adversely affecting their wellbeing such as depressive
symptoms and anxiety (Miao et al., 2023). A recent study from Canada
also revealed that parents with university degrees and who work from
home have lower levels of concern about their children’s wellbeing.
Parents who have children with disabilities, children of ethnic
minorities, children of immigrants can make parents worried about
their children’s wellbeing (Abdo Ahmad et al., 2023). It has also been
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FIGURE 1
Analytical framework.
directly involve the child. The first one is the one in which individuals
have an immediate role. The other is one where the person does not
play an active role. Examples would be a father with his boss, peers
with their parents, teachers with their principal, and the mass media.
These are environments that the child is not involved in but
nonetheless affect the child. For instance, parents may return home
and be short tempered with their children because they are angry
about things that happened in the workplace, which may have a
negative impact on their children’s development. The macrosystem
concentrates on how the cultural and social context influences all the
others. The macrosystem is different from the previous three systems
as it refers to the established society and culture in which the child is
developing. The chronosystem consists of all environmental changes
that occur in an individual’s life and their sociohistorical context.
We suggest that the ecological systems theory provides a theoretical
framework for exploring how reciprocal interactions between migrant
children’s experiences and their environment during the COVID-19
have influenced their wellbeing. Among these the family and school
setting is the most important. Figure 1 shows the analysis framework.
online learning environments, their child/children would not develop
appropriate self-regulation skills and study habits (Bhamani et al.,
2020; Dong et al., 2020).
2.4 The ecological systems theory
The present study uses Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model as
the theoretical framework for considering the findings regarding the
wellbeing of migrant children, and lessons learned from the
COVID-19 pandemic pertaining to secondary school education,
especially in the case of migrant children in the cities. Fernandes et al.
(2012) emphasized that children’s wellbeing needs to incorporate the
multiple dimensions that affect children’s lives. Bronfenbrenner’s
ecosystem theory suggests that child development is a complex system
of relationships influenced by multiple dimensions of the immediate
environment, from the immediate home and school environment to
a wide range of cultural values, laws and customs (Bronfenbrenner
and Ceci, 1994; Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 1998). This theory
argued that a child is influenced by five ecological forces: the
microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and
the chronosystem. The microsystem is the most important level in
ecological systems theory and contains the most immediate
environment for developing children, such as peers, family, and
school, who they live with or interact with, and the relationships they
have with those people. The mesosystem is the interactions occurring
in the child’s microsystem, such as the relationship between teachers
and parents. The exosystem is a link between two settings that do not
Frontiers in Psychology
2.5 Present study: migrant children
contextualization in Shanghai
In recent years, as the rural population continues to decline, more
and more migrant workers and migrant children are moving to the
cities. According to the seventh national population census in 2021,
Shanghai had migrant population of 10.47 million, accounting for
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Their struggles with structural inequalities were reinforced by online
schooling during the pandemic. The forced online classes in China
were a unique sample of online learning. This research expands upon
the limited literature regarding the wellbeing of migrant children
involved in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides,
what kind of impacts did the online learning have on the wellbeing of
migrant children deserves to be analyzed by using Bronfenbrenner’s
bioecological model. The bioecological model categorizes the
environment into different levels and emphasizes the interrelationship
between individuals and their surrounding environment. This may
improve future online and blended education for students, families,
and schools. It also provides unique insights into the means that
schools can use to support students, parents and teachers as they
deliver and engage with online schooling. Through this framework,
we can also provide specific recommendations to improve their
wellbeing. Previous research has only explored how online learning
during COVID-19 influenced children’s wellbeing from a single
respondent’s perspective. This study expands the perspective by
including and combining the views of students, parents and teachers
to explore the wellbeing of migrant children in online learning during
COVID-19.
Accordingly, we have generated two research questions:
42.1% of the total population. In the same year, there were around 1.17
million migrant children in Shanghai. As a city characterized by an
aging population, 23.38% of which was composed of residents aged
over 60 and 16.28% of residents aged over 65, and facing a decline in
the birth rate, Shanghai is confronted by an urgent need to introduce
migrant workers from other provinces in response to the negative
effects of the aging population on its economic development (Shanghai
Statistics Bureau, 2021).
In terms of migrant children’s education, migrant parents are
required to obtain a Shanghai Residence Permit with at least 6 months
social insurance in order for children to receive compulsory education.
The residence permit system aims to manage and control people who
do not have local hukou in urban areas. People can work and live
legally in cities by applying for residence permits. Holders of residence
permits enjoy the same rights as local residents such as education,
health services and other social welfares. As migrant children grow up,
they will reach a critical juncture of decision-making about their
continuous studies in urban cities after compulsory education.
Shanghai senior high school entrance examination policy is a selective
examination aims in each city to sort out the students who have
finished compulsory education and are qualified to receive senior
secondary school education. Migrant children without a Shanghai
household registration (hukou) or with less than 120 residence permit
points cannot enroll in senior high school but to study in vocational
schools after they finish junior high school (Shanghai Education
Commission, 2019a,b, 2020). Those who have 120 points can study in
general senior high school (Grade 10–Grade 12). Residence permit
points are mainly composed of the applicant’s age, educational
background, years of employment and social insurance contributions
as well as professional and technical level, which makes it extremely
difficult for most migrant workers. It is obvious that this system is
talent-biased and wealth-biased. Some scholars have evaluated the
extent of the friendliness of 16 cities in China and found that the
senior high school entrance examination policy in Shanghai is the
strictest one in the point-based admission system (Han et al., 2020).
It reflected the unfriendliness of education toward migrant children
in Shanghai, which can further impair the attractiveness of the city to
migrant workers.
This study used Shanghai as a case study for the following reasons.
Firstly, as an educated and economically developed city, Shanghai
attracts a large number of migrant workers and their children to work
and live compared to other cities. Secondly, compared to other cities,
the combination of strict household registration policies (points for
residence permits) and senior high school entrance examination
policy in Shanghai create immense difficulties for migrant children’s
future learning. These policies would give us a unique context that
would help us gain insight into the wellbeing of migrant children
during online classes under such policies.
Exenberger et al. (2019) found that children’s wellbeing deeply
rooted in their culture of origin. Therefore, when discussing wellbeing
and its indicators, the different cultural traditions of the East and the
West should be considered. Numerous studies have been conducted
on the experiences and wellbeing of students in different age groups
in online leaning during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, migrant
children in China are living in a different social and cultural
environment compared to the general children. They suffered the
most from the restrictions of household registration system (hukou),
educational polices for migrant children and forced online schooling.
Frontiers in Psychology
1. How has the online learning experience affected the wellbeing
of migrant children in secondary school during the
COVID-19 pandemic?
2. What can the experiences of migrant children help us learn
about the role of adults in supporting migrant children’s
wellbeing?
3 Materials and methods
3.1 Study design and setting
An intrinsic case study was adopted in this research to gather
qualitative data, thereby helping the authors devote all their time and
resources to a single case and develop an in-depth understanding of
the research questions, focusing on the complexity and specificity of
elements of that case, such as a community, school, family or
organization, and telling a story about a bounded system, allowing the
exploration of some complicated issues in that system (Denzin and
Lincoln, 2005; Bryman, 2012; Johnson and Christensen, 2017). As
almost all systems cover several components or parts, the exploration
of how those parts or components work together is crucial to the
understanding of the whole system.
The migrant population tends to be concentrated in the suburbs of
Shanghai with low-cost housing and industrial areas where massive
employment opportunities are provided (Bach, 2010; Han et al., 2020).
Y district is an outer suburb of Shanghai and has attracted many migrant
workers as it focuses on manufacturing, having a large number of
factories. According to the 2020 national census, the population
migrating to Y district increased to 108,453, an increase of 53.9%
compared to the number in the 2010 national census. In Y district, the
number of residents aged from 0 to 14 accounted for 9.2% of the district’s
total population, a decrease of 0.3% compared with the number in the
2010 national census. The fieldwork was conducted from February to
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October 2020 in Shanghai S Public Junior High School (simply referred
to as S School in the following section). The S school used to be a key
public junior high school in its local district 12 years ago. Back then, it
had few migrant children and no migrant children’s classes. However,
many local students have transferred to urban schools since 2012, when
a considerable number of migrant children began to enter S Public
Junior High School, coupled with the demolition of local houses. Thus,
the number of migrant children quickly exceeded the number of local
students in this school. Despite the small number of local students
remaining at S school, migrant children are still taught in separate
classes from local children. Compared with the migrant children’s
classes, the local students’ classes have a more intensive class schedule,
especially for Grade 9 students who are going to take the senior high
school entrance examination. Moreover, the teachers who have a wealth
of teaching experience are arranged to teach the local children’s classes.
In early 2020, China adopted a series of nationwide prevention
and control measures to address the spread of COVID-19. These
measures include the implementation of community isolation,
reinforced wearing of masks, the promotion of remote working and
learning, and public gathering limits. In early February, Shanghai
officially announced that schools would not open after the winter
holidays. In order to ensure the safety of teachers and students,
universities and schools in Shanghai started online education.
Shanghai educators built a “classroom in the air” that made
“suspension of classes without ceasing to teach, without ceasing to
learn” a reality so that primary and secondary school students
benefited a lot. The “classroom in the air” refers to the use of the
internet and modern communication technology, broadcasting the
teacher’s lectures in real time with video and audio etc., or recording
the content of the teachers’ lectures and broadcasting it later, to
transform the teaching process into a virtual one on the internet. There
were no special requirements for the students, and as long as they had
access to TV or internet. Students of each grade in Shanghai all follow
the same timetable in their academic studies. The recorded video
lessons could be played on television and various online platforms in
accordance with the class schedule. There were 8 lessons each day, and
each lesson lasted 40 min. The students could watch the recorded
lessons together for the first 20 min, then the teachers and students in
S school logged in the Tencent Meeting App, which allowed teachers
to explain the content and answer questions raised by the students for
the remaining 20 min. Online learning was suspended in April 2020
due to the temporary stability of the pandemic.
Since the COVID-19 restrictions had posed difficulties in
speaking with the children, the fieldwork was conducted in two
phases. The first phase consisted of online observations conducted
from February to March 2020. The second phase consisted of semistructured interviews held from April to October 2020 at S Junior
High School. In the first phase, we looked at online learning from
Grade 6 to Grade 9 to observe the activities of the teachers and
students in the classes and how the students performed. The second
phase provided an insight into how online education affected their
wellbeing through interviews with the students, parents and teachers.
S school in Shanghai accounted for 80% of the total number of
that school’s students. The participants included 31 migrant
children (from Grade 6 to Grade 9), nine parents, 10 teachers and
one school principal, all of whom were selected according to
purposive sampling and maximum variation sampling. The
participating students were between the ages of 12 and 15. As the
first author worked in the Moral Education Department of S
School and had the same educational experience as the migrant
children, a good interpersonal relationship was established
between the author and the students. The first author also relied
on teachers as the intermediaries to connect her with the parents.
When recruiting parents for the study, the author did not consider
their occupations. The majority of them were factory workers,
employed in the service sector, or small business or small factory
owners, and a few of them worked as middle-level managers.
Furthermore, some mothers of the migrant children were
housewives. The highest education level of these parents was
junior secondary school, and most of them had been living in
Shanghai for over a decade. Most parents did not have 120 points
for their residence permits.
Some of the interview questions used in the second phase were
based on the observations of the online classes in the first phase.
During the first phase of observations, it was seen that due to the
limited time and tight schedules of the secondary school courses, the
online class time was the same length as the class time would have
been at school, requiring long hours on a computer or cell phone. The
authors were not able to interact with everyone during the first phase
of the online classes though, because they could not disturb the
normal classroom order. However, through the online classes, some
students and teachers came to have a certain understanding of the first
author through the introduction provided by the school principal,
which laid the foundation for entering the school in April 2020 during
the second phase.
The first author gave participants information sheets and informed
consents before they involved in this research. The informed consent
forms were given to parents to decide whether their children attend
this study. Migrant children themselves also agree to participate in the
study after they have been informed all things that could their
willingness to participate in research. The first author asked migrant
children some questions during the interviews to construct and
evaluate wellbeing. The interview questions include their learning
difficulties, peer connections, how the pandemic affects their lives,
interactions with teachers and peers, technical problems with
equipment, and whether the home setting helped them to stay focused
and engaged in online learning, and so forth. The two data collection
techniques, observation and semi-structured interviews captured
factors at each level of the ecological model. Observation can help us
to observe the policy environment as a macrosystem, the online
schooling as an exosystem, and some of the interactions between
migrant children and other people in the microsystem. Through
talking with children, parents, and teachers, the semi-structured
interviews can help us gain insights into the connections among
individuals within mesosystems and microsystems. In this research,
we achieved reliability through discussion and consensus in order to
understand the coded themes. Pseudonyms are used to protect the
anonymity and confidentiality of participants. All ethical
considerations, such as confidentiality, anonymity and informed
consent were adhered to.
3.2 Participants and data collection
According to the qualitative data collected through
observation and semi-structured interviews, migrant children at
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3.3 Data analysis
Teachers in the downtown area record these courses, and they did
a really good job—After all, they are experts at polishing their
lessons in Shanghai, right? If they go and listen carefully, I think
it will help the students a lot. However, the classroom in the air
does not stop or wait for students to ask questions arising from the
learning differences between students. The children in our
suburbs still have a bit of a learning gap between them and those
in the downtown area, so some of the migrant children were
having difficulties listening to the class. Although the video can
be played back, they may not be able to understand the lesson
even if they watch it twice. Moreover, students have to do their
homework at night and then upload it that day, so they do not
have time to watch it again (Xin, Female, Grade 9 Math teacher
and Head teacher from Migrant children’s class).
The interviews were conducted in Mandarin, audio-recorded and
transcribed verbatim, each lasting from 1.5 to 2 h. Upon the
completion of the two phases, Braun and Clarke (2006)’s six phases of
thematic analysis were used to process the collected data. First, the
first author read the transcripts in order to familiarize themselves with
the data. NVivo 12 Plus was used to assist with coding. Second, all
related codes were categorized into initial themes. After that, the first
author grouped like codes together and thought about the features of
these codes to find themes. Once themes were identified, the first
author reviewed them and merged some themes when they had
similar meanings. Next, themes were given names, and each theme
was identified based on their meaning in the context of the data. All
themes were refined and reviewed to ensure consistency by the second
and third authors. As this research obtained data from different
groups, data triangulation was employed to ensure the credibility of
research results. Table 1 summarized main themes and sub-themes.
Although the online observations presented a limitation to the study,
the two phases did allow us to gather rich data regarding the views of
the children, parents, and teachers. We report on our findings in the
following section.
The high-quality video-recorded classes made migrant children
feel distressed and helpless instead. The comments of two migrant
children were typical:
I think it does not matter if he’s a special or an ordinary teacher,
as long as he’s suitable for us, that’s the best, right? (Chai, Female,
Grade 8 from Migrant children’s class).
We have been used to our own teacher’s teaching style. However,
the teacher of the recorded class taught the English class in English
the whole time. We did not understand it at all. I think the
teachers on the television give me the personal feeling that they
are condescending (Wen, Female, Grade 8 from Migrant
children’s class).
4 Results
Below we outline the main themes developed from our analysis,
illustrated through brief extracts taken from the data.
4.1 Distress and helplessness of migrant
children about online classes
One English teacher echoed students’ opinions:
The online lessons were helpful for our teachers. I am still using
grammar lessons from video-recorded lessons for my students.
However, we received feedback from our migrant children that
they were unable to understand the full English online lesson.
I felt sad that I had to spend 3 lessons to make the online lesson
clear to my students (Mei, Female, Grade 8 English teacher from
Migrant children’s class).
The migrant children and teacher participants highlighted the
benefits and drawbacks they perceived during the lockdown period
schooling. Recorded video lessons in Shanghai for each subject were
designed by outstanding teachers who had won national and
municipal teaching competitions. Teachers believed that high quality
video-recorded lessons could greatly help migrant children because
the recorded lessons provide a valuable opportunity for them to learn
from outstanding teachers. However, these high-quality videorecorded lessons had a limited impact and affect migrant children’s
emotion because of time constraints.
Before formal classes resumed, some parents believed that their
children were not studying when watching computers or phones for
long periods of time, which led to quarrels and eventually led to tragic
TABLE 1 Main themes from interviews.
Main themes
Sub-themes
Distress and helplessness of migrant children about online learning
Unable to adapt teaching method from high quality video-recorded lessons
Poor academic performance after online class
Changes in emotion due to policies and online Learning
Different study progress when taking class with local students
Lack of attention from school and policymakers
Less interaction between individuals and surroundings
Less interaction between migrant children and teachers
Conflicts between parents and migrant children because of monitors
Less interaction with peers
Cooperation between home and school to mitigate the negative effects on physical wellbeing
Eyestrain among migrant children
Cooking lessons to alleviate the eyestrain
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suicides. Therefore, all schools in Shanghai postponed the school
exams for 2 weeks to help students adjust to regular classes again in an
attempt to ease the parents’ anxiety over the declining academic
performance of students participating in online learning. In this case,
after they came back to normal schooling, both migrant children and
teachers found that most of the migrant students’ academic
performance had dramatically declined during the period of
online learning.
it, and the progress may not be the same. The main reason is that
local students have too many class hours. They finished new
classes before the winter holidays started. For the local class, the
whole of the online learning period was spent on revision. For us,
the entire period of the online classes was spent on new lessons,
which means that we, the migrant children, have almost 4 months
less time to revise for the Senior High School Entrance
Examination. I went into an online meeting class for Chemistry
one time. I found local students had all finished their secondround revision, but we have only just finished the new lessons
(Tang, Male, Grade 9 from migrant children’s class).
We were so miserable, with the sudden COVID-19 in our final
year. The quality of online learning was bad, which caused a lot of
students’ results to go down, which was quite annoying (Yu, Male,
Grade 9 from Migrant children’s class).
… especially chemistry lessons, I cannot catch up and understand
the recorded video lesson…my classmates are constantly absent
from these courses. I think my Chemistry score has dropped
drastically after attending the online course. I gave up completely.
Teachers added extra lessons for local children in the evenings and
weekends… the local students have more class hours than us (Suo,
Male, Grade 9 from migrant children’s class).
There were some students in the local class whose grades went up
by leaps and bounds. After listening to the solutions given by the
teacher through the online classroom and combining them with
their own teacher’s methods, they feel like they understood and
had a good grasp of math, but some students in our migrant
children’s class are like “bystanders,” their grades have dropped
after more than 2 months, and they no longer know the basics
(Xin, Female, Grade 9 Math teacher and Head teacher from
Migrant children’s class).
Teachers of important subjects, such as Chinese, Mathematics and
English, are also aware of this issue. With their time being limited,
they cannot arrange more lessons for migrant children. Priority can
only be given to local children, as they will take the senior high school
entrance examination and then receive a high school education in
order to be eligible for university entrance exams. Physics teachers and
Chemistry teachers were also helpless in this situation.
4.2 Changes in emotion due to policies and
online learning
We still have to favor the local students, who have to take the
senior high school entrance exams. If the lesson is too easy, the
local class will complain. But if I make it harder, the migrant
children’s class will not be able to keep up, and it’s impossible to
take care of all of that (Xin, Female, Grade 9 Math teacher and
Head teacher from Migrant children’s class).
It can be seen that the emotions of migrant children depend on
factors within their specific context. It was found that the migrant
children’s studies have been severely affected by the online learning
context. The Grade-9 students who are going to take the high school
entrance exam are the most affected ones.
Migrant children had been separated from local children in
different classes at S School before online learning began. Since the
beginning of the online learning, classes for migrant children and
classes for local children have been combined. However, the progress
and content of the lessons had varied greatly between the migrant
children’s classes and the local students’ classes before the combined
online classes began. Although the scores for the Physics, Chemistry,
and PE exams are not counted in the senior high school entrance
examinations in the case of migrant children, but they are required to
take Physics and Chemistry final exams organized by S School.
Although the above subjects are not counted in the total score for the
examination, they are very important for future studies, and if migrant
children have not been able to acquire enough knowledge related to
the above subjects, further study will be difficult for them. Unlike the
migrant children, the Grade-9 local students had learned all the new
lessons about Physics and Chemistry before the outbreak of COVID19, so they had more class time for other subjects. Tang and Suo are
overachieving migrant children who were interested in Physics and
Chemistry, but when their class was taught together with local
students during the online learning period, they felt anxious
and disturbed.
Their study progress is different from local students… “The people
at the top (policymaker)” do not pay attention to it, so we certainly
do not hold these two courses in high regard (Lu, Female, Grade
9 Chemistry Teacher).
4.3 Less interaction between individuals
and surroundings
Online learning had caused a disruption in social interactions and
developmental opportunities for migrant children. As mentioned
before, the classes of local students and the classes of migrant children
were merged, and classroom interactions between teachers and
students were significantly reduced during online learning.
The teacher would often select students from the local class to
answer questions and we would be at the back of the queue, and
sometimes we would not get our turn (Yu, Female, Grade 9 from
Migrant children’s class).
I’ve heard a lot of complaints from parents regarding chemistry
classes, complaints that teachers do not pay enough attention to
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One teacher teaches two classes at the same time. It’s impossible
to ask everyone to answer. It’s possible that not even one migrant
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camera to another place and said: “You are so annoying” (Lin’s
mother, Female, Grade 9 from Migrant children’s class).
child has been questioned during the whole week because there is
only 20 min left for us after the video-recorded lesson (Xin,
Female, Grade 9 Math teacher and Head teacher from Migrant
children’s class).
Migrant children felt very nervous and uncomfortable with the
surveillance. One migrant child recall:
Teachers did not grade our homework. Because they only graded
local classes that they led. I did not know if I was right or wrong
after I did my homework. I will not correct my homework if I do
not hear it during the online class (Shu, Female, Grade 9 from
Migrant children’s class).
Someone is monitoring me…it’s a camera. Our home has 4
cameras. Previously, my room was not monitored, and I motived
myself to study, but they still set up one during the online learning
period. I felt nervous and uncomfortable (Liang, Male, Grade 7
from Migrant children’s class).
In this circumstance, the migrant children have poor self-control
ability and find it difficult to concentrate on a computer screen for a
long time. In addition, children who use computers and mobile
phones can easily be distracted by games or online social networking
applications. Two migrant children and a teacher recall:
Many parents of migrant children also believe that peer interaction
stimulated by schools is also important for social development and
well-being:
The efficiency of the online classes was very low. It felt refreshing
to take an online course for the first time, but as time went by, my
mind had already “flown away” (Yu, Female, Grade 9 from
Migrant children’s class).
The online learning forced students to spend prolonged time at
home, which restricted my daughter’s opportunities to develop
her confidence when she is not with her family. In normal
schooling, she can build connections with her peers. I’m worried
about her happiness (Lin’s mother, Female, Grade 9 from Migrant
children’s class).
Many of us used our accounts to log onto a Tencent Meeting and
pretended that we were in class. I split my screen so that I could
play the game King of Glory, or chat with my friends on QQ (a
Chinese instant messaging platform). When the teacher asked me
to answer a question, I would pretend that the internet connection
was having a problem, and I did not answer (Chai, Female, Grade
7 from Migrant children’s class).
I missed my classmates, but we were not allowed to meet up with
each other because of the COVID-19. My friends were busy when
I wanted to discuss math questions with them online. But if I’m in
school, then I can discuss the problem directly with my peers in
person (Jia, Female, Grade 9 from Migrant children’s class).
Either students need parents who have to keep an eye on students
the whole day, or you need students who are really self-motivated.
But parents have to work and there are also few self-motivated
students. The only student who made great progress during online
schooling was because his mother, father and grandmother took
turns sitting next to him to supervise his online schooling (Lu,
Female, Grade 9 Chemistry Teacher).
4.4 Cooperation between home and
school to mitigate the negative effects on
physical wellbeing
Children are often tired, especially after having stared at a screen
all day long. Some migrant children were struggling to stare at the tiny
screen of a phone from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Almost all migrant children
and teachers mentioned their eyes were sore.
The teachers and parents gradually became aware of this problem
of low efficiency. In order to guide students and help them concentrate
on learning, the teacher mentioned this matter to the parents in a
WeChat group, asking parents to cooperate with the teacher to
supervise the children’s study at home. Hence, some parents of
migrant children have installed cameras in their children’s study
rooms to monitor their behavior. This made many children feel
uncomfortable and they resisted the action of their parents. One
parent shared her story:
The online lessons are too long, my eyes are tired, and I want to
close my eyes, and then I cannot listen anymore (Jing, Female,
Grade 9 from Migrant children’s class).
Both teachers and student’s eyes are overwhelmed, especially
those of some migrant children using mobile phones for the whole
online learning period (Hong, Female, Grade 8 Head teacher from
Migrant children’s class).
I saw other parents sharing pictures of their children’s learning
taken by a camera (monitor) in WeChat Moments. I discussed this
with my child: “We are not at home during the day, and no one will
watch you. How about I install a monitor?” My daughter strongly
disagreed with my idea. I said the camera just monitors her desk.
She still disagreed. In spite of her disagreement, I installed the
camera in her room. When I was not busy at work, I watched her
through the camera. Sometimes when I saw her playing games on
her mobile phone, I called her name. She was startled and
immediately put the phone aside. A few days later, she moved the
Frontiers in Psychology
In order to alleviate the stress and improve the physical wellbeing
of students, online learning introduced cooking classes at a later stage.
That way, students could not only move their eyes move from the
screen but could also learn new skills and achieve family-school
interaction. The children of migrant families felt that this activity
brought them closer to the teacher. One teacher shares his experience:
The teacher taught children how to cook in a video-recorded
lesson. Our students showed their new skills to their parents at
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environment surrounding COVID-19, using the high-quality videorecorded lessons instead of the traditional in-classroom lessons has
changed the traditional teaching method. The emotional wellbeing of
the Chinese migrant children is more seriously affected by decreased
access to immediate help from schoolteachers, increased stress from
studies, and the lower academic performance becoming apparent after
they went back to normal schooling. This also provides valuable
lessons for the future of online learning.
Secondly, before the local class and the classes of migrant children
were merged, the migrant children did not feel angry because of the
great inequality in their school treatment and the handling of their
studies, but the online learning made the Grade 9 students realized
that they were being treated differently. In addition, the forced neglect
from teachers, and the lack of attention given to the education of
migrant children by policymakers have led the migrant children to
become aware of the difficulties they are encountering, and they have
become anxious, angry and confused about their future, especially as
they would have to take the senior high school entrance examination
soon. The link between policymakers and schoolteachers is regarded
as a mesosystem. Schoolteachers regarded the migrant children’s
future education as being less important than that of local students.
Therefore, they paid more attention to local students’ during online
learning. During this process, the relationships between teachers and
local students also formed a mesosystem, local students and migrant
children formed a microsystem, and the situation made the migrant
children directly and indirectly aware of an enormous inequality.
These inequalities cause direct emotional problems (such as anxiety,
helplessness and anger) for migrant children in online learning period
and continued in normal schooling. Migrant children have no way to
make any changes to the current situation, and they can only be forced
to accept it. This finding is different from results from previous studies.
Previous studies stressed that a teacher acts as an educator and mental
health provider, not only needing to teach students knowledge, but
also needing to promote the students’ wellbeing (Zins et al., 2007). The
current research has found that policy makers and teachers have
focused overwhelmingly on the local students’ academic achievements,
thereby neglecting the mental health of the migrant students.
Regarding less interaction between individuals and surroundings,
the data showed that teachers could not balance their teaching and
interaction between local classes and migrant children’s classes. From
the perspective of the microsystem, teachers paid less attention to
migrant children, and migrant children also were affected by games
or other mobile apps. In order to solve this problem, some parents
installed monitors, which led to conflicts between the students and
their parents. The continuity of the relationship with the teacher was
seen as the key to their child’s engagement with school and overall
wellbeing, highlighting the importance of the teacher–child
relationship. In this study, it was found that migrant children have
strong attachments to their class teacher. However, they have fewer
interaction opportunities with their teacher compared to local
students because most of the migrant children cannot take the senior
high school entrance examination, which has resulted in an increased
lack of attention being given to migrant children in online learning
context. It is therefore difficult for these migrant students to get
enough support from their schools and the community. A study found
parents can support their children in learning (Zhang et al., 2020).
Nevertheless, in this research, it was found that parents of migrant
children as co-educators and regulators at home have to handle the
weekends. Some parents took photos and shared it in our class’s
WeChat Group. Children were happy to share the cooking
experience and their dishes with their parents and teachers.
You know…children are always busy with study, and parents
usually do not let them participate in housework. Some parents
told me that they are happy to see their children learning to cook
(Zhou, Female, Director of Teaching and Learning).
We were able to learn how to make cakes and tarts during the
online learning period. I think baking has really helped alleviate
some eyesight stress in my online class life. Although I did not
bake well, I’m interested in it. Moreover, one of my friends lives
next to my home. She went to vocational school after junior high
school and studied baking. I was inspired by her and considered
to study baking too (Su, Female, Grade 6 from Migrant
children’s class).
5 Discussion
The COVID-19 pandemic-related interruption to education has
had a profound effect on the educational system. Despite the fact that
the findings of this research only apply to a small sample of migrant
children, the data’s shared patterns point to important considerations
regarding both how the online learning experience has affected the
wellbeing of migrant children and what can be learned about
rethinking secondary education in the wake of it. Bronfenbrenner’s
bioecological perspective highlights how the migrant children’s
wellbeing was affected by multiple external and internal factors,
especially those stemming from the children’s school and
family situation.
Firstly, during the COVID-19 lockdown period, all normal classes
were suspended throughout Shanghai. The high quality of the videorecorded classes and online learning, which could be considered as
exosystem according to Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, had a
significant impact on the everyday learning of migrant children.
While the video-recorded classes were of good quality, they put a
heavier burden on migrant children than on the local children. The
tight schedule of the daily online learning, teachers have no time to
pay attention to students, students are not adapted to the way the
teacher taught in the video recorded class, cannot get timely feedback
from teachers, which ultimately led to the migrant children’s regressive
performance after they returned to normal schooling. The classroom
in the air takes away from the time students would normally spend
with their own schoolteachers so that the teacher-student relationship
between migrant children and their teachers is diminished, resulting
in lower self-confidence, increased distress, helplessness and a lower
sense of emotional wellbeing. This finding echoes the results of the
studies by Bhamani et al. (2020) and Dong et al. (2020) who have
found that children felt worried, irritable and anxious due to the lack
of interaction, and delays in receiving substantive feedback from
teachers about their schoolwork during the lockdown period. The
emotional wellbeing of both Chinese migrant children and children
from other countries was influenced by the exosystem, the mesosystem
and the microsystem. Chinese migrant children, as a vulnerable
group, deserve to be given even more attention regarding such
experiences. Additionally, under the influence of the general
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Comparing other factors between local and migrant parents that could
give greater significance to this research, including parental
involvement and supervision. Thirdly, this research discovered that
migrant students perceived this discrimination or unequal treatment
by teachers compared to local students during the online learning
period and they felt this affect their social, emotional and physical
wellbeing. Branscombe et al. (1999) and Zabala et al. (2020) found
that the positive social identification of discriminated minorities can
be a protective factor of wellbeing when facing discrimination. The
rejection-identification model suggests that perceived racial prejudice
has negative impact on individuals. However, a strong social
identification with the own stigmatized group itself also alleviate
negative impacts and promote wellbeing. As a vulnerable group,
Chinese migrant children clearly understand that they cannot receive
the same educational resources as locals. In future studies, it would
be advisable to implement rejection-identification model and explore
whether the social identification of Chinese migrant children can
mitigate the negative effects of discrimination and promote
their wellbeing.
Regarding its theoretical implications, this study advances the
Bronfenbrenner bioecological model by testing its validity with a
disadvantaged group in a non-western socio-cultural context.
Regarding its long-term implications, firstly, the inequalities of
education encountered by migrant children during the COVID-19
period have made them realize the disparities they have suffered in
Shanghai. Findings of this study provide an empirical evidence base
for future educational policy improvements, especially in supporting
migrant children’s learning in urban areas. It is also important for
future education reforms, including support for online learning, equal
distribution of educational resources, and targeted teacher training.
This reform can fundamentally improve the educational experience of
underprivileged children. Regarding the broader impact, on the one
hand, the results of the study may provide valuable insights and
lessons for educators and policymakers facing similar challenges in
other countries and regions. The case in Shanghai provides useful
insights into how they might be better equipped to deal with similar
situations. On the other hand, by exploring the roles of parents and
schools during the online learning period, our research emphasized
the importance of collaboration between families and schools. This
may have positive impact in developing a more comprehensive familyschool model. For example, the parents of migrant children often have
problems with educating their children in the online learning period,
i.e., long-term monitoring. Consequently, schools can establish a
parents’ school to train the parents and establish incentive mechanisms
to encourage parents to treat mental health issues seriously and
correctly. Migrant children should not be forcibly monitored by their
parents through the use of cameras during the online learning period,
as such action tends to escalate the tension between parents and
children and foster a rebellious psychology.
pressures of work while home-schooling. Parents of migrant children
are poorly educated, so they used monitoring cameras to replace their
presence at home and take on the function of monitoring their
children’s studies. Parents cannot teach their children to study, but the
only thing they can do is to check the completion of homework and
learning progress with the hope that children can achieve good results
by themselves. Monitoring cameras were forcibly placed in the
students’ rooms, so that the students had no privacy and felt
uncomfortable. This result partially echoes the result of Brown et al.
(2020) who have found it is difficult for parents with a low education
level to replace the function of schoolteachers. But the difference is
that although parents of migrant children are unable to contribute to
mentoring, their high expectations of their children’s performance
have led them to explore new ways (i.e., installing monitors to watch
their children in real time) to make them believe that this assistance
is beneficial to their children. Nevertheless, instead of keeping children
in a healthy emotional condition during the pandemic, this action
intensified the conflict between students and their parents. In addition,
the long periods of online learning have diminished the opportunities
for students to interact with each other. The extent of peer interactions
was also regarded as an important factor in children’s wellbeing.
Despite the existence of some negative impacts, for some children,
established friendships and keeping in touch with friends online
mitigated these negative impacts to a certain extent.
Regarding their physical wellbeing, 8 h of online classes a day
made the migrant children tired, especially as some migrant children
can only use their mobile phones to attend classes. Having to
constantly look at things and read things on the small size mobile
phone screen also made the students’ eyes tired. Previous studies also
discovered that parents worried about their children’s eyesight because
of 3–4 h of online learning (Christensen and Alexander, 2020; Zhao
et al., 2020). Previous studies have only expressed parents’ concerns
about their children’s eyesight wellbeing, but the present study
provided a solution to this issue. For example, online cooking classes
were introduced to the online learning schedule after several weeks of
online learning in order to teaches students how to collaborate with
their parents to cook together and display the results in the class
WeChat group. This prompted the migrant children to take their eyes
off their screens, relieving them to some extent of visual strain. Parents
and teachers worked together as co-educators and educators to solve
the children’s difficulties. Things like the cooking not only allowed
students to relax from a stressful online class, but also provided time
and space for parent–child relationships and strengthened the bond
between school, home and student (Zhou et al., 2020).
6 Limitations and future research
This study has several limitations in this study that can
be considered in future research. Firstly, it is worth noting that the one
school investigated in this study cannot represent the whole of migrant
children in China. Braun and Clarke (2012) argued that an important
aspect of the qualitative paradigm is understanding the multiple
meanings of small samples in the existing world, thereby generating
contextual knowledge shaped by mainstream structures and processes.
Thus, the experience gained from a small group of migrant children
enables us to generate findings that may be able to be transferred to
other contexts. Secondly, this study lack data from local parents.
Frontiers in Psychology
7 Conclusion
This study implemented Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model
to investigate emotional wellbeing, social wellbeing and the
physical wellbeing of migrant children subject to the online
learning experience during the COVID-19 period (Bronfenbrenner
and Ceci, 1994; Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 1998). At the same
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Data availability statement
time, this paper enables us to understand the roles that adults have
played in the pandemic to support the wellbeing of migrant
children. Our findings also provide lessons for parents, teachers
and policymakers because of the discovery that the inequitable
treatment of migrant children was exacerbated in the face of a
public health emergency.
Firstly, the high-quality recorded video lessons put pressure on the
migrant children due to the lessons containing only new material with
no reviews. This makes it difficult for them to adapt to new learning
methods, and test scores after they return to school showed that
migrant children performed poorly in online learning. These problems
caused distress and helplessness thereby affecting the emotional
wellbeing of migrant children. Secondly, the differences in study
progress between the migrant children and the local children that
showed up during the online learning, and neglect from teachers and
policymakers, made the migrant children anxious, angry and confused
about their future. Similarly, this affected the emotional wellbeing of
migrant children. Thirdly, the unequal treatment between local
students and migrant children resulted in less interaction between
migrant children and their surroundings, thereby affecting their social
wellbeing. For example, the online learning reduced opportunities for
migrant children to interact with their own teachers. Parents of
migrant children are less educated and cannot assist their children
with their homework. They want to use surveillance methods to
support their children’s learning, but it had the opposite effect and
simply provoked increased conflicts between children and their
parents. In addition, the long period of online schooling decreases
opportunities for migrant children to interact with their peers. When
teachers focused on tutoring local students, migrant children had a
greater need to interact with their peers in their studies. Finally,
although the long hours of online lessons have affected the optical
health of students, the subsequent additional cooking lessons have
mitigated the optical health problem and strengthened the connections
between home and school.
In this context, parents of migrant children as regulators and
co-educators were not able to guide their children’s learning in the
same way as other groups of parents did, but instead affected their
children’s emotional wellbeing through the overwhelming use of
monitors. In the initial phase of online schooling, teachers as educators
and mental health supporters are not only unable to fulfill the students’
need to acquire knowledge, but also cannot promote the migrant
children’s emotional wellbeing. However, in the later phase of the
online learning, teachers acted as mental health providers, utilizing
cooking classes to enhance the relationship between students and
parents and provide opportunities for families to relax after a long
period of intense academic pressure.
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, Departmental Research Committee (on behalf
of Human Subjects Ethics Sub-Committee), Reference Number:
HSEARS20200203003. The studies were conducted in accordance
with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written
informed consent for participation in this study was provided by the
participants’ legal guardians/next of kin.
Author contributions
QD: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis,
Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Writing
– original draft, Writing – review & editing. QW: Project
administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing.
QZ: Conceptualization, Validation, Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations,
or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product
that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its
manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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TYPE
Brief Research Report
14 February 2024
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1355526
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra,
University of Zaragoza, Spain
REVIEWED BY
Rubia Cobo-Rendon,
University for Development, Chile
Mario Lado,
University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Nora Gray-Gariazzo,
Universidad Viña del Mar, Chile
*CORRESPONDENCE
Smaranda Ioana Lawrie
SLawrie@Providence.edu
Heejung S. Kim
h_kim@ucsb.edu
RECEIVED 14
December 2023
January 2024
PUBLISHED 14 February 2024
ACCEPTED 23
CITATION
Lawrie SI and Kim HS (2024) The role of
emotional similarity and emotional accuracy
in belonging and stress among firstgeneration and continuing-generation
students.
Front. Psychol. 15:1355526.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1355526
COPYRIGHT
© 2024 Lawrie and Kim. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication
in this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted
which does not comply with these terms.
The role of emotional similarity
and emotional accuracy in
belonging and stress among
first-generation and
continuing-generation students
Smaranda Ioana Lawrie 1* and Heejung S. Kim 2,3*
1
Department of Psychology, Providence College, Providence, RI, United States, 2 Department of
Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United
States, 3 Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Extensive research has documented the psychological, social, and academic
predicament of first-generation college students. However, basic psychological
mechanisms underlying the challenges experienced by these students have
been understudied. Taking a cultural psychology perspective, the present
research considers the role of emotional (mis)match as a key mechanism for
explaining first-generation students’ lowered well-being. A sample of 344
American undergraduate students completed a survey designed to measure
two aspects of emotional processing: (1) Emotional Accuracy – how accurately
students perceive emotional reactions of majority-culture students (continuinggeneration junior and senior students who have been socialized into college
culture), and (2) Emotional Similarity –how similar students’ emotions
are to the emotions experienced by majority-culture students. Emotional
Accuracy predicted positive outcomes, in general, but was lower among firstgeneration students. Unexpectedly, Emotional Similarity predicted negative
student outcomes. As one of the first studies addressing basic psychological
mechanisms in college adjustment, these findings underscore the importance
of understanding the roles that specific emotional processes play in social
adjustment.
KEYWORDS
emotion, culture, education, belonging, stress, well-being, first-generation students
Introduction
For generations, America prided itself on being the land of opportunity, a place
where anyone could live out the American dream and rise from rags to riches (Duncan
and Murnane, 2011). Today, however, the United States is middle of the pack among
other high-income countries in terms of both social inequality and mobility (The World
Bank, 2023), which has negative implications for everyone, at both the bottom and top
of the social hierarchy. In higher education, a main gateway for upward social mobility,
there is a marked gap in academic, social, and psychological well-being and adjustment
among college students from minority-culture socioeconomic backgrounds (Wilbur and
Roscigno, 2016; Rubin et al., 2019). This study focuses on first-generation students, the
first in their families to attend college, who currently make up one-third of the student
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Emotions and social belonging
population at 4-year institutions, and are the quickest growing
student demographic (Duncan and Murnane, 2011; Reardon,
2011). Though growing in numbers, first-generation students tend
to struggle in college, and the gap in academic outcomes between
first- and continuing-generation students (who have at least one
parent with a degree from a 4-year institution) is notable. Firstgeneration students typically take fewer credits; receive lower
grades; form fewer relationships on campus; suffer from more
psychological and physical health problems; and overall, are more
likely to drop out and forego their college ambitions entirely
(Choy, 2001; Pascarella et al., 2004; Sirin, 2005; Pryor et al., 2007;
Kim and Sax, 2009; Rubin, 2012).
Despite extensive research documenting the psychological,
social, and academic predicament of first-generation students,
basic psychological mechanisms underlying the challenges
experienced by these students have been relatively understudied.
Filling this gap in the literature, the current research takes a
cultural psychology perspective to gain a deeper understanding of
psychological reasons for such outcomes. Building on the cultural
mismatch theory (CMT; Stephens et al., 2012a), the present
research considers the role of emotional (mis-)match as a key
mechanism for a sense of belonging and students’ stress levels.
Individuals may have different emotional responses to
seemingly similar situations or stimuli, and this can have important
implications for their sense of social belonging. Emotions reflect an
individual’s opinions, view of the world, and intentions to act
(Frijda et al., 1989; Solomon, 2004). If people experience emotions
that are different from those experienced by others around them,
they can feel out of place and begin to question their belonging (De
Leersnyder et al., 2014).
Research in cultural psychology has found that culture has
profound implications on emotional experiences (Mesquita and
Janxin, 2007; Tsai and Clobert, 2019). Research has found, for
example, that people from different national cultures vary in the
intensity and transparency with which they express their emotions
(Ekman, 1972; Matsumoto et al., 2008), in the number of emotions
that they experience (Mesquita and Karasawa, 2002; Wang, 2004;
Kitayama et al., 2006), in the type of emotions that are typically
experienced on a daily basis (Mesquita, 2001; Savani et al., 2013), and
in the type of emotions that feel particularly good (or bad) (Kitayama
et al., 2006; Uchida and Kitayama, 2009).
At the same time, a recent surge of research on social class and
college generational status (i.e., first- vs. continuing-generation)
suggests that social class cultures have profound implications on
psychological functioning in much the same way that national cultures
do. Growing up in different social-class contexts fosters and requires
different types of behavior; for instance, limited incomes in lowerworking-class communities necessitate that people rely on each other
more than they would in wealthier communities. Over time, repeated
behavioral patterns shape different aspects of the self and patterns of
relating to others leading to a more interdependent way of being
among lower SES groups and a more independent way of being among
higher SES groups (Kraus and Stephens, 2012). Building on and
uniting these two distinct lines of research, we reasoned that
socialization in different social class environments would also have
implications on individuals’ emotional lives. To our knowledge, the
link between social class and emotional experiences has not been
previously investigated.
First-generation students and well-being in
college
There are many explanations for the poor outcomes of firstgeneration students. For instance, many of these students need to
balance work and school obligations, live off campus and deal
with commutes, come from underperforming high schools, and
deal with family guilt from family members who feel left behind
(Pascarella et al., 2004; Engle et al., 2006; Covarrubias and
Fryberg, 2015; Vasquez-Salgado et al., 2015). Even when these
diverse characteristics are taken into account, however, firstgeneration status remains a negative predictor for college success,
suggesting that additional psychological processes may also be at
play (Horn and Nuñez, 2000; Choy, 2001, 2002).
CMT proposes that first-generation students experience
additional difficulty as they transition to college because they
have been socialized in a socioeconomic culture that is different
and sometimes at odds with university culture (Stephens et al.,
2012a). Typically, having grown up in a more working-class
environment, first-generation students bring a more
interdependent self to a university environment that heavily
emphasizes and values independence. This mismatch causes
them to feel out of place in their new environment, somewhat
akin to an immigrant in a new country. Chronic concerns about
belonging, in turn, have been shown to create increased
psychological strain for students, including increased levels of
stress (Stephens et al., 2012a,b).
The current research builds on this theory to advance
understanding of psychological mechanisms that explain how firstgeneration students experience this mismatch with their college
environment. We propose that part of the answer lies in psychological
differences between how first-generation vs. continuing-generation
students understand and respond to different emotionallyladen experiences.
Frontiers in Psychology
Emotional similarity and emotional
accuracy
Research on emotions in social and interpersonal contexts points
to several different aspects of emotional processing that could shape
psychological outcomes. In the present research, we focus on two
aspects of emotional processing: Emotional Similarity and Emotional
Accuracy. These are related but conceptually distinct and could lead to
different behavioral and psychological outcomes (Verhofstadt
et al., 2008).
Emotional Similarity refers to experiencing the same emotions as
others in one’s vicinity when in the same situation. Similarity in
emotional responses is associated with more rewarding interactions
(Locke and Horowitz, 1990), greater empathy (Preston and de Waal,
2002), greater interpersonal coordination (Hatfield et al., 1994;
Preston and de Waal, 2002), greater cooperation (Barsade, 2002),
increased relationship satisfaction (Anderson et al., 2003; Gonzaga
et al., 2007), and decreased stress responses (Townsend et al., 2014).
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Extending these findings to intercultural contexts, emotional
similarity is indicative of how individuals from one culture feel
toward and identify with another culture. Among Korean
immigrants, for example, those who have more positive attitudes
toward the host culture (i.e., the United States) show greater
emotional concordance (i.e., emotional similarity) compared to
those who have less positive attitudes (De Leersnyder et al., 2011).
Moreover, emotional similarity between an immigrant’s emotional
patterns and the emotional patterns typical of the host country’s
majority population has been shown to have positive implications
for other acculturative processes. Indeed, immigrants who
experience more emotional similarity show heightened
psychological well-being (De Leersnyder et al., 2015).
The second aspect of emotional processing that we considered
in the present research is Emotional Accuracy,1 which refers to
accurate reading and understanding of others’ emotions. A large
database of research on emotional intelligence has shown the
benefits of being able to read and understand other people’s
emotions (Mayer and Salovey, 1997; Mayer et al., 2002). In the
school domain, for example, students who score higher in emotional
intelligence have numerous positive downstream academic and
emotional outcomes (Abdullah et al., 2004). Likewise, research on
empathic inferences has found that although there are exceptions,
people who are better at mind-reading others’ emotions and
thoughts tend to have more positive relationship outcomes (Ickes
and Hodges, 2013). Regarding close relationships, research found
that individuals who score higher on empathic accuracy are better
able to predict and provide the type of support relational partners
require (Verhofstadt et al., 2008), and prevent small conflicts from
turning into blowouts (Simpson et al., 2001) as well as better align
their goals with those of their partner (Berscheid, 1985). Even in
short-lived acquaintanceships, individuals higher in emotional
accuracy are generally better liked by others (Ahnert et al., 2001).
Aiming to explore the independent roles of emotional accuracy
and emotional similarity in explaining the culture clash experienced
by first-generation students on a college campus, we conducted a
study which measured the two concepts to see how they predict
college adjustment.
Secondly, we sought to establish that college generational status
influences how well students understand and “read” the emotions of
fellow classmates. We hypothesized that compared to first-generation
lower-division students, continuing-generation lower-division
students would be better at predicting the emotional responses of
majority continuing-generation upper-division students.
Lastly, we sought to examine how emotional similarity and
emotional accuracy would predict college adjustment outcomes:
belonging and stress. We predicted that both a lack of emotional
similarity and a lack of emotional accuracy would independently
have negative implications for a sense of belonging and stress
levels, an important college variable that is related to both
psychological well-being and academic outcomes such as GPA
(Murff, 2005).
Methods
Participants
Participants were 344 undergraduate students at a large and
diverse public university in the United States. They were recruited
through the Psychology Department’s participant pool and received
course credit. The study was evaluated and approved by an IRB
committee at the sponsoring university.
Two hundred and fifty-two lower-division students completed the
study. Of these, 60.7% were first-year students (N = 153), and 39.3%
were second-year students (N = 99) (Age M = 18.47, SD = 0.66; 71%
female). Parental education was used to distinguish between first- and
continuing-generation students. Students who had at least one parent
with a bachelor’s degree or more were coded as “continuinggeneration.” All other students were considered “first-generation”
following criteria used in the past (Stephens et al., 2014). Our sample
consisted of n = 111 first-generation (48.6% Latino/a-Americans,
28.8% Asian Americans, 9% European Americans, 2.7% African
Americans & 10.8% other; 73.9% females) and n = 141 continuinggeneration lower-division students (10.6% Latino/a-Americans, 39%
Asian Americans, 39% European Americans, 2.8% African Americans
& 8.6% other; 68.8% females).
An additional 92 continuing-generation upper-division (i.e.,
juniors and seniors) respondents completed the study to be used in
emotional similarity and emotional accuracy calculations for
computing “host” or “majority” culture averages because they have
had sufficient time to acculturate to college culture. Of these, 79.3%
were juniors (N = 73), and 20.7% were seniors (N = 19) (Age M = 21.16,
SD = 2.24; 59.8% European Americans, 16.3% Asian Americans, 6.5%
Latino/a-Americans, 4.3% African Americans, and 13.1% other;
65.2% females).
The present study
The current research was designed to serve several goals. First,
we sought to establish that college generational status influences and
shapes emotional responses in similar situations. We hypothesized
that first-generation and continuing-generation students would show
different patterns of emotions in similar situations and that
continuing-generation lower-division students (first- and second-year
students) would have emotion profiles more similar to those of
continuing-generation upper-division students (juniors and seniors
whom we take to represent the “majority” or “host” college culture)
compared to first-generation lower-division students.
1
Procedure
Participants came to a lab and individually completed an
anonymous online survey in Qualtrics. This study was part of a larger
study looking at college adjustment among first- vs. continuing
generation students. After completing the survey, participants were
fully debriefed. Materials are posted online at: https://osf.io/
jvqpw/?view_only=fc759f8e2e274416ae70afefef61220d.
The term empathic accuracy is typically used, but we used “emotional
accuracy” to highlight the present focus on accuracy in anticipating specifically
others’ emotions.
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Measures
majority culture’s emotional pattern, yielding two scores–one for the
Negative Disengaged prompt and the other for the Negative Engaged
prompt. These correlations represent participants’ emotional similarity
score - that is, the similarity between a participants’ unique emotional
pattern and the mean pattern of the larger college culture (continuinggeneration culture). All scores were converted to Fisher’s Z-scores to
ensure a normal distribution, ranging between −3 and + 3 (see De
Leersnyder et al., 2011 for additional information on
score calculations).
After rating their own emotions in each scenario, students were
subsequently asked to rate how they thought the “typical [university
name] student” would respond in the same situation. In other words,
they were asked to infer the emotional responses of majority-culture
students. These responses were then correlated to the actual averages
of the continuing-generation upper-level students in the same way
that Emotional Similarity scores were computed. Scores were, again,
converted to Fisher’s Z-scores.
Social belonging
Social belonging was measured with an eight-item subset of the
Sense of Social and Academic Fit Scale (Walton and Cohen, 2007).
Previous research (Lawrie et al., 2023) has found that academic and
social belonging are two distinct constructs with distinct implications
for student outcomes. In line with the CMT, we wanted to focus on
social belonging, so we used only items related to social belonging.
Participants were asked to indicate on a 7-point Likert scale whether
they agree with certain statements (1 = Strongly disagree to 7 = Strongly
agree, e.g., “People at [university name] accept me;” “I feel like an
outsider at [university name].” Reliability was good (ɷ = 0.93, ⍺ = 0.92).
Two items were reverse coded.
Stress
Stress was measured using the ten-item Perceived Stress Scale
(Cohen et al., 1994). Participants were asked how often they felt or
thought a certain way in the past month on a seven-point Likert Scale
(1 = Never to 7 = Very often, e.g., “In the last month, how often have
you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life,”
“In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something
that happened unexpectedly?”). Reliability was good (ɷ = 0.86,
⍺ = 0.86). Four items were reverse coded.
Analytic approach
As a first step, we ran T-tests to establish differences between firstand continuing- generation students on all study variables. Zero-order
correlations were then analyzed to get a better understanding of the
relationships between study variables. To test the role of emotional
accuracy/similarity in predicting college adjustment outcomes, a
multi-group Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used. Finally,
we tested whether our model was invariant across generational status.
Emotional similarity and emotional accuracy
Emotional similarity and emotional accuracy between first- and
second-year students and the majority culture students was measured
using the Emotional Patterns Questionnaire (EPQ) (De Leersnyder
et al., 2011). Although the EPQ was initially developed as a measure
of immigrants’ emotional similarity to their host group (e.g., Korean
immigrants in the USA), the questions are general and applicable to
any populations. Thus, instructions and emotion words used in the
current study were identical to previous research. However, given our
sample consisted solely of university students, we focused exclusively
on the school context and did not include prompts related to work or
family life. Also, for brevity, only two negative prompts were used as
past research has found greater emotional variability when participants
were promoted to think about negative compared to positive situations
(De Leersnyder et al., 2011, 2020). In the Negative Engaged prompt,
students were asked to write about “an occasion at school in which they
felt bad about their relationship with others,” and in the Negative
Disengaged prompt, students were asked to write about “an occasion
at school in which they felt bad about things that happened to them
personally.” After writing about each prompt, participants rated
themselves on 30 emotions elicited by the prompt (e.g., proud, angry,
guilty, friendly) using a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = not at all to
7 = extremely). Items were chosen to represent emotions that vary in
valence, arousal, and social engagement dimensions (i.e., engaged
emotions which have to do with a relationship or disengaged emotions
that have to do with the independent self) (Barrett and Russell, 1998;
Kitayama et al., 2006).
To calculate emotional similarity, we computed the average scores
of continuing-generation upper-level students for each of the 30
emotions measured in each of 2 prompts and correlated these scores
to lower-division students’ individual responses on these same items.
Thus, each lower-division participant’s individual emotional pattern
(based on their ratings of emotions) was correlated to the average
Frontiers in Psychology
Results
To first determine any differences between first- and continuinggeneration students on key study variables, T-tests were employed (see
Table 1). Contrary to our first hypothesis, there were no significant
differences in Negative Engaged Emotional Similarity (NES)
(t(209.77) = −1.43, p = 0.15) or Negative Disengaged Emotional
Similarity (NDS) (t(250) = 0.36, p = 0.72) between first-generation and
continuing-generation students.
Contrary to our second hypothesis, there was no significant
difference in Negative Disengaged Emotional Accuracy (NDA)
(t(250) = 0.16, p = 0.88) between first-generation and continuinggeneration students. However, there was a significant difference in
Negative Engaged Emotional Accuracy (NEA) (t(250) = −2.60,
p = 0.01); continuing-generations students showed higher Accuracy.
In terms of outcome variables, there were no observable
differences on Stress (t(250) = 0.42, p = 0.68), but Belonging was
significantly lower (t(250) = −3.61, p < 0.01) for first-generation
students. See Table 2 for descriptive statistics for emotion ratings.
Next, zero-order correlations were analyzed to get a better
understanding of relationships between study variables before moving
onto the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) framework. Emotional
Similarity and Emotional Accuracy scores were significantly
correlated, but correlations were not high enough to suggest
multicollinearity. See Table 3.
Finally, we used a SEM framework to test whether Social
Belonging mediates the relationship between Emotional Similarity
and Emotional Accuracy and Stress. IBM’s SPSS (Version 24) and
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TABLE 1 Descriptive statistics of key variables, split by college generational status.
First-generation students
M
SD
Range
(Min; Max)
Continuing-generation
students
M
SD
t-value
df
p
Range
(Min; Max)
NES
0.45
0.49
−0.79; 1.46
0.53
0.40
−0.85; 1.29
−1.43
209.77
0.15
NDS
0.72
0.42
−0.61; 1.47
0.70
0.45
−0.87; 1.54
0.36
250
0.72
NEA
0.45
0.45
−0.83; 1.32
0.60
0.42
−0.76; 1.31
−2.60
250
. 01
NDA
0.74
0.47
−1.07; 1.62
0.74
0.39
−0.63; 1.54
0.16
250
0.88
Belonging
5.07
1.09
2.75; 7.00
5.57
1.08
1.25; 7.00
−3.61
250
0.000
Stress
4.12
0.98
1.20; 7.00
4.06
1.03
1.70; 7.00
0.42
250
0.68
NES, Negative Engaged Emotional Similarity; NDS, Negative Disengaged Emotional Similarity; NEA, Negative Engaged Emotional Accuracy; NDA, Negative Disengaged Emotional Accuracy.
Possible scores range from −3 to +3 for first four items and 1 to 7 for last two items.
Amos (Version 20), with maximum likelihood estimation
(Arbuckle, 2011), were used. A constellation of model fit indices
were analyzed to ascertain model fit. These included the chi-square
test, the room mean square of approximation (RMSEA), the
comparative fit index (CFI), the standardized root-mean square
residual (SRMR), and the Bentler and Bonett (1980) Normed Fit
Index (NFI). For NFI, a value of over 0.9 indicates good model fit,
while RMSEA (Steiger, 1990) should show values of under 0.08 to
indicate good model fit (Cangur and Ercan, 2015). SRMR indicates
an acceptable fit when it produces a value smaller than 0.10 (Cangur
and Ercan, 2015), while CFI shows acceptable fit when its value is
over 0.90 (Kline, 2005).
We also tested for the moderating effect of student generational
status - that is whether the same pattern of relationships is present
among first- and continuing- generation students. The overall model
structure for the amended model is almost identical for first- and
continuing-generation students (See Supplementary materials).
After removing the direct paths that were non-significant, the
modified overall model showed great fit (χ2 = 3.93, df = 3, p = 0.27;
CFI = 0.99; NFI = 0.99 SRMR = 0.01; RMSEA = 0.03 CI 10% [0.00,
0.11]) (see Figure 1). Belonging mediates the relationship between
Negative Engaged Emotional Similarity and Stress, as well as between
Negative Engaged Emotional Accuracy and Stress. However,
Belonging does not mediate the relationship between Negative
Disengaged Emotional Similarity and Stress or Negative Disengaged
Emotional Accuracy and Stress. This is not entirely surprising given
that the engaged prompt had students write about a situation involving
others and belonging is a relational measure, whereas the disengaged
prompt had students write about a situation that did not involve others.
What stands out is that, overall, Accuracy is associated with better
outcomes than Similarity. Negative Engaged Emotional Accuracy
positively predicted Belonging (B = 0.51 (0.22), 95% CI [0.02, 0.96],
p < 0.01, β = 0.20 (0.09), 95% CI [−0.01, 0.35], p < 0.05) whereas
unexpectedly, Negative Engaged Emotional Similarity negatively
predicted Belonging (B = −0.53 (0.23), 95% CI [−0.97, 0.00], p < 0.01,
β = −0.21 (0.09), 95% CI [−0.37, 0.01], p < 0.05). Likewise, Negative
Disengaged Emotional Similarity significantly positively predicted
Stress (B = 0.95 (0.17), 95% CI [0.55, 1.26], p < 0.001, β = 0.42 (0.08),
95% CI [0.26, 0.56], p < 0.05), whereas Negative Disengaged Emotional
Accuracy negatively predicted Stress (B = −0.45 (0.17), 95% CI [−0.78,
−0.10], p < 0.05, β = −0.19 (0.07), 95% CI [−0.33, −0.04], p < 0.05).
Negative Engaged Emotional Similarity also positively predicted Stress
Frontiers in Psychology
(B = 0.41 (0.15), 95% CI [0.11, 0.73], p < 0.05, β = 0.42 (0.08), 95% CI
[−0.01, 0.33], p < 0.05).
We also tested the direct-only (non-mediation) effects of
Emotional Similarity and Emotional Accuracy on Stress followed by
the indirect-only mediation effects of Emotional Similarity and
Emotional Accuracy through Belonging in the SEM context.
Mirroring results above, there was a significant positive direct effect
of Negative Engaged Emotional Similarity on Stress (B = 0.41 (0.15),
95% CI [0.11, 0.73], p < 0.05, β = 0.18 (0.07), 95% CI [0.04, 0.38],
p < 0.05). This was also true for the direct effect of Negative Disengaged
Emotional Similarity on Stress (B = 0.95 (0.17), 95% CI [0.55, 1.26],
p < 0.05, β = 0.42 (0.07), 95% CI [0.26, 0.56], p < 0.05). However, there
was a significant negative direct effect of Negative Disengaged
Emotional Accuracy on Stress (B = −0.45 (0.18), 95% CI [−0.78,
−0.10], p < 0.05, β = −0.19 (0.07), 95% CI [−0.33, −0.04], p < 0.05).
Significant indirect effects of Negative Engaged Emotional
Similarity on Stress through Belonging were observed (B = 0.11 (0.05),
95% CI [0.02, 0.24], p < 0.05, β = 0.05 (0.02), 95% CI [0.01, 0.11],
p < 0.05). Belonging fully mediates the relationship between Negative
Engaged Emotional Similarity and Stress, such that higher Emotional
Similarity predicts less Belonging which in turn predicts higher Stress.
Significant indirect effects of Negative Engaged Emotional Accuracy
on Stress through Belonging were also found (B = −0.11 (0.05), 95%
CI [−0.22, −0.01], p < 0.05, β = −0.05 (0.02), 95% CI [−0.11, −0.01],
p < 0.05) such that higher Accuracy predicts higher Belonging which
in turn predicts lower Stress.
To summarize, Emotional Similarity had negative implications on
Stress both directly and through the mediating role of Belonging.
Conversely, Emotional Accuracy had positive implications on Stress
directly and through the mediating role of Belonging. With the
exception of Belonging (where Belonging predicted Stress only for
continuing generation students), no differences were observed across
generational status.
Discussion
The current research was designed to test three main hypotheses.
First, we hypothesized that first-generation students would show less
similar patterns of emotions to the “majority culture” students
(continuing-generation upper-division students) compared to continuinggeneration students. Secondly, we hypothesized that compared to
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first-generation students, continuing-generation students would be better
at predicting the emotional responses of majority continuing-generation
upper-division students. Lastly, we hypothesized that a lack of emotional
similarity and a lack of emotional accuracy would independently have
negative implications for a sense of belonging and stress.
Our hypotheses were partially supported. Contrary to the first
hypothesis, we found no significant differences between firstgeneration and continuing-generation students in emotional
similarity. That is, although there were some mean-level differences in
specific emotional experiences between the two groups (e.g., firstgeneration students’ overall experience and perceive more positive
engaged emotions than continuing-generation students), their
emotional profiles did not differ. Our second hypothesis was partially
supported; we found a significant difference between the two groups
in emotional accuracy in the negative engaged prompt. As expected,
continuing-generation lower-division students scored higher in
emotional accuracy compared to first-generation students. At least for
the engaged prompt, continuing-generation lower-division students
were better able to infer the emotional responses of majority-culture
students whereas first-generation students seemed to have a more
difficult time inferring the emotions of majority-culture students. This
finding makes sense given that the two groups of students were most
likely socialized in quite different socioeconomic (SES) cultures.
The surprising finding was that emotional similarity, independent
of accuracy, predicted negative student outcomes. This result counters
existing findings in the literature on the psychological benefits of
emotional similarity, especially when we looked at its role independent
from that of emotional accuracy. This unexpected result may
be explained by the fact that the prompts focused solely on negative
situations, whereas past studies using the EPQ included both positive
and negative prompts. Given that the typical emotional profiles are
characterized by relatively high negative emotions and low positive
emotions, those who are emotionally dissimilar should show
emotional profiles with relatively high positive emotions and/or
relatively low negative emotions. Thus, it is possible that students who
experience not only negative emotions, but also some positive
emotions that offset negative consequences of experiencing
predominantly negative emotions. Given that emotional similarity,
predicting worse outcomes, including more stress, makes sense.
In contrast, emotional accuracy predicted positive outcomes,
supporting the hypothesis. Broadly speaking, increased emotional
accuracy was both directly and indirectly associated with decreased
stress for first- and continuing-generation students. Emotional
accuracy is essentially cognitive empathy/perspective taking, resulting
in accuracy without necessarily experiencing the emotions of others
(Verhofstadt et al., 2008). This distinction may help explain the
divergent patterns of results in the current study. Most previous
research in cultural psychology has focused exclusively on emotional
similarity, but the current study suggests that an important future
direction for the field is to further investigate the role of emotional
accuracy, including with samples from different national cultures.
When both factors are considered simultaneously, emotional
accuracy provides stronger psychological benefits for students than
emotional similarity; however, similarity and accuracy are related
factors, and similarity would increase accuracy, as experiencing the
same emotions as another individual negates the need for perspective
taking. Alternatively, accuracy could increase similarity, as emotional
accuracy reflects a form of perspective taking. It is therefore not
Means of emotional experiences on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (a great deal). Bold emotion scales match the prompt. Superscripts signal significant differences between first- and continuing-generation. NE, Negative Engaged Self-Reported; NE-P, Negative Engaged
Majority Perceived; ND, Negative Disengaged Self-Reported; ND-P, Negative Disengaged Majority Perceived. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
–
–
1.30
3.66
1.41
4.02*
–
–
1.15
3.05
1.42
3.29
–
–
0.74
1.64
1.00
1.83
–
2.01*
ND-P
1.29
1.65
0.87
–
1.35
–
–
3.99
1.30
1.31
3.41
3.74
1.37
1.26
3.27
4.10*
1.34
–
–
3.70
1.19
1.17
3.21
3.13
1.38
1.23
3.18
3.28
0.95
–
–
1.86
0.83
0.91
1.94
1.76
0.94
1.10
2.22*
1.83
1.10
–
–
2.06
0.91
1.13
2.06
1.77
2.11*
1.40
2.62**
NE-P
1.29
1.33
3.68
1.20
3.36
1.28
3.35
1.26
3.38
1.08
3.22
1.30
3.29
1.01
2.09
0.96
2.05
1.11
2.25
1.25
2.29
1.04
2.22
ND
SD
1.51
2.70**
NE
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
M
M
Frontiers in Psychology
SD
Cont gen
Upperlevel
students
First gen
Cont gen
Upperlevel
students
First gen
Cont gen
Upperlevel
students
First gen
Cont gen
Upperlevel
students
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1355526
First gen
Positive engaged
TABLE 2 Mean emotions across different types of emotional situations.
Positive disengaged
Emotion scale
Negative engaged
Negative disengaged
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TABLE 3 Correlations, split by college generational status.
NES
NEA
NDS
NDA
Social belonging
Stress
NES
1
0.70**
0.35**
0.26**
−0.14
0.35**
NEA
0.45**
1
0.30**
0.40**
0.04
0.20*
NDS
0.22*
0.15
1
0.75**
−0.16
0.40**
NDA
0.01
0.21*
0.73**
1
−0.05
0.26**
Social belonging
−0.10
0.06
−0.06
0.03
1
−0.38**
Stress
0.25**
−0.02
0.28**
0.01
−0.18
1
NES, Negative Engaged Emotional Similarity; NDS, Negative Disengaged Emotional Similarity, NEA – Negative Engaged Emotional Accuracy, NDA – Negative Disengaged Emotional
Accuracy.
Numbers below diagonal are first-gen. students, above diagonal are continuing-gen. students. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
FIGURE 1
Results of the structural equation model (SEM) used to test the mediation of belonging on stress for both types of students. *p < 0.01, **p < 0.001.
groups, and thus, unlikely to be a confound. More importantly, the
ethnic breakdown of each group differed a great deal, reflecting the
societal reality in which underrepresented ethnic minorities have lower
SES status. It is possible that some of the generation differences found
are due to ethnic cultural difference, in addition to SES difference. At
the same time, it is important to note that the role of emotional
similarity/accuracy in predicting college adjustment outcomes did not
differ between first- and continuing generation students.
surprising that those two factors are fairly strongly correlated with
each other, although there are meaningful differences between them,
one being that experiencing similar emotions as others may or may
not involve perspective taking, whereas accurately assessing others’
emotions requires accurately inferring others’ feelings (Ickes, 1993).
Given this distinction, it is possible that emotional similarity, in our
analysis, may be capturing emotional similarity without perspective
taking, and this may be yet another reason for the lack of positive
outcomes related to similarity.
Like all research, the current study is not without limitations. First,
the study is cross-sectional, so a causal link between emotional
similarity/accuracy and college adjustment outcomes cannot
be established. As the present study provided the initial evidence of the
relationships, future research should use different methodology, such as
a longitudinal study or an experiment (e.g., increasing emotional
accuracy by providing factual information on emotions of others) to
understand causality of the association. Second, reflecting the gender
imbalance present in the psychology major, our sample is made up of a
larger proportion of females compared to males. While this issue points
to the need to test the generalizability of the findings, at least, the gender
breakdown was comparable across first- and continuing-generation
Frontiers in Psychology
Conclusion
There are several possible conclusions that can be drawn from this
research. A possible significant conclusion is that accuracy is lower for
first-generation students, and this may have implications for outcomes
in college. The upside is that students can be taught a better
understanding of majority-culture emotions, thereby increasing their
accuracy (Ashkanasy and Dasborough, 2003; Pool and Qualter, 2012),
thus providing space for the development of a potentially useful
intervention that could supplement other interventions designed to
help first-generation students and other minority student groups to
07
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Lawrie and Kim
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1355526
succeed in college. This research makes an important contribution to
the field, because, as far as we know, it is one of the first studies to show
that socioeconomic cultures, like national cultures, shape individuals’
emotional lives, thereby contributing to the newer frontiers of cultural
psychology which tackles other forms of culture in addition to
national cultures. More generally, the findings underscore the value in
considering emotion processes in advancing the understanding of
why and how individuals form social relationships and identities.
Funding
Data availability statement
The datasets presented in this study can be found in online
repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession
number(s) can be found at: https://osf.io/jvqpw/?view_only=fc759f8
e2e274416ae70afefef61220d.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member
of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer
review process and the final decision.
Ethics statement
Publisher’s note
The studies involving humans were approved by UCSB
Institutional Review Board. The studies were conducted in accordance
with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The
participants provided their written informed consent to participate in
this study.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim
that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed
by the publisher.
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research
was funded by UCSB Faculty Senate Research Grant and ERC Grant
(GAP-834587).
Conflict of interest
Author contributions
Supplementary material
SL: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft,
Writing – review & editing, Data curation, Formal analysis, Project
administration. HK: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing –
review & editing, Funding acquisition, Supervision.
The Supplementary material for this article can be found online
at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1355526/
full#supplementary-material
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TYPE
Original Research
15 April 2024
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1305569
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Silvia Cristina da Costa Dutra,
University of Zaragoza, Spain
REVIEWED BY
Xavier Oriol,
University of Girona, Spain
Noelia Sáez-Sanz,
University of Granada, Spain
Emilio Edmundo Moyano-Díaz,
University of Talca, Chile
Impact of a culturally adapted
digital literacy intervention on
older people and its relationship
with health literacy, quality of life,
and well-being
Claudia Marisol Carrasco-Dajer
claudiamarisolcarrascodajer@gmail.com
Claudia Marisol Carrasco-Dajer 1,2*,
Aldo Renato Vera-Calzaretta 3, Silvia Ubillos-Landa 4,
Juan Carlos Oyanedel 1 and Virginia Díaz-Gorriti 5
RECEIVED 30
1
*CORRESPONDENCE
November 2023
February 2024
PUBLISHED 15 April 2024
ACCEPTED 16
CITATION
Carrasco-Dajer CM, Vera-Calzaretta AR,
Ubillos-Landa S, Oyanedel JC and
Díaz-Gorriti V (2024) Impact of a culturally
adapted digital literacy intervention on older
people and its relationship with health
literacy, quality of life, and well-being.
Front. Psychol. 15:1305569.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1305569
COPYRIGHT
© 2024 Carrasco-Dajer, Vera-Calzaretta,
Ubillos-Landa, Oyanedel and Díaz-Gorriti.
This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (CC BY). The use,
distribution or reproduction in other forums is
permitted, provided the original author(s) and
the copyright owner(s) are credited and that
the original publication in this journal is cited,
in accordance with accepted academic
practice. No use, distribution or reproduction
is permitted which does not comply with
these terms.
Universidad Andres Bello, Programa De Doctorado En Educación Y Sociedad, Facultad De Educación
Y Ciencias Sociales, Santiago, Chile, 2 Departamento Ciencias De La Enfermeria, Facultad De Medicina,
Universidad Catolica De La Santisima Concepcion, Concepción, Chile, 3 Departamento de
Kinesiología, Facultad Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Atacama, Copiapó, Chile, 4 Facultad
Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain, 5 Departamento de Psicología Social,
Universidad del País Vasco, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Introduction: Older people are the group with the greatest digital gap, so their
digital literacy is important to improve the conditions in which they age.
Methods: A study was conducted with pre- and post-evaluation of a digital
literacy (DL) intervention in people aged 60 years and over. A total of 56
participants (experimental group N = 32 and control group N = 24) were recruited
for convenience in community centers. The intervention was adapted to the
needs of the participants, there were five face-to-face sessions and remote
reinforcement for three months, carried out by trained university students for five
months. Sociodemographic variables such as self-perception of socioeconomic
level and education, among others, were evaluated. The impact was assessed
using the digital literacy scale (MDPQ16), indicators of frequency and types of
internet and mobile phone use, health literacy (SAHLSA and NSV), quality of life
(SF-12), hedonic well-being (Diener’s SWLS and Cummins’ PWI) and perceived
social support using the Zimet scale.
Results: The intervention had a significant impact with an effect size of r = 0.27
on digital literacy, separate t-test comparisons revealed a markedly significant
change for digital literacy in the experimental group, before and after the prepost t-test(31) = 3.56, p = 0.001, but not in the control group, t(23) = 0.082, p = 0.93.
No direct impact on health literacy, health-related quality of life, and hedonic
well-being was identified. We examined the indirect impact of change in digital
literacy and found that it correlated with improvements in well-being and social
support, as well as quality of life. Individuals with significant changes were
detected and compared with those who did not change.
Discussion: Evaluation that contributes by identifying elements for improvement
in future interventions and discusses the importance of culturally adapting
continuing education in older people.
KEYWORDS
digital literacy, health literacy, quality of life, older people, well-being, culturally
tailored intervention
Frontiers in Psychology
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10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1305569
Introduction
(Friemel, 2016), and the skills and knowledge necessary to function
in the information society (Martí et al., 2008).
Most studies on DL in OP come from developed countries,
showing a preponderance of female participants, ranging in age from
55 to over 70 years, and the number of participants ranging from 39
to more than 100 (Ferreira et al., 2014; Chiu et al., 2016; Hasan and
Linger, 2016; Castilla et al., 2018; Jimena, 2020; Lee et al., 2022; Ngiam
et al., 2022; Sriwisathiyakun and Dhamanitayakul, 2022). Key
components for program effectiveness are identified, such as
theoretical underpinning, clear and measurable objectives, and
preference for multifaceted interventions (Mirmohammadkhani et al.,
2020; Pourrazavi et al., 2020; Stormacq et al., 2020). In addition, the
importance of prior assessment of digital competencies and the
adaptation of programs to the educational and cultural needs of PMs
is emphasized (Paramio et al., 2015; Roque and Boot, 2016;
Ghorbanian and Nikou, 2021; Haase et al., 2021; Shi et al., 2021;
Kanakaris and Pavlis, 2022).
DL sessions range from 6 to 8, with durations of 1 to 2 h, and are
held in collective and individual formats. Personalized, volunteerdeveloped interventions that combine synchronous and asynchronous
formats show better results, allowing PMs to progress at their own
pace (Ferreira et al., 2014; Jimena, 2020; Ghorbanian and Nikou, 2021;
Arellano-Rojas et al., 2022; Ghorbanian et al., 2022; Kanakaris and
Pavlis, 2022; Ngiam et al., 2022). Contents include use of social
networks, personal development, self-sufficiency, and skills for
searching for information and collaborative work online (Hasan and
Linger, 2016; Castilla et al., 2018; Jimena, 2020). This data makes it
possible to identify what is most used, however, there is not enough
evidence to determine which is the most effective formula.
Population aging is an accelerated global reality (United Nations
Organization, 2023, p. IV). This trend is pronounced in Latin America
and the Caribbean, including Chile (National Institute of Statistics of
Chile, 2023; Pan American Health Organization and Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2023, pp. 7, 81).
At the same time, the digitalization of aging societies has generated a
digital divide between older people (OP) and other age groups, a
phenomenon that has been studied in various studies (Roque and
Boot, 2016; Cardozo et al., 2017; Pontificia Universidad Católica de
Chile y Caja de Compensación Los Andes, 2019; Sunkel and Ullmann,
2019; Ngiam et al., 2022).
Specifically in Chile, this gap is manifested in the fact that only
32% of OP use and have access to technologies, leaving two-thirds of
this group in a situation of digital exclusion (Subsecretaría de
Previsión Social del Gobierno de Chile, 2018). This problem is
aggravated by economic and cultural factors, mainly affecting those
in lower socioeconomic levels (Friemel, 2016; Mizrachi et al., 2020;
World Bank, 2021). Consequently, a social fracture is created that
increases inequality and the risk of social exclusion (Hasan and Linger,
2016; Cardozo et al., 2017).
In Chile, OP access to and use of technology, including the
internet, computers, and mobile phones, is positively associated with
educational level and inversely with age, with the mobile phone being
the device most used by this group (Subsecretaría de Previsión Social
del Gobierno de Chile, 2018). Against this backdrop, the development
of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is presented
as an opportunity to increase access to information and social
interaction, promoting new forms of social relations, such as social
networks, which facilitate the social integration of the elderly
(Cardozo et al., 2017; Castilla et al., 2018). However, these advances
also bring with them challenges, such as the high speed of
technological innovation and smartphone applications that are not
always accessible (ChePa et al., 2023) and understandable to OP
(Castilla et al., 2018).
Faced with these challenges, Chile has developed interest in digital
transformation strategies, such as “Chile Digital 2035,” which
emphasizes the digital literacy (DL) of OP. This strategy focuses on
identifying OP as one of the priority groups and seeks to facilitate their
adaptation to new technologies, especially in the field of health, thus
contributing to their health and psychosocial empowerment (Paramio
et al., 2015; Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean, Republic of Chile-Senado, 2023).
Effects of digital literacy interventions on
older persons
Increasing digital literacy levels
These DL programs focused on OP make it possible to reduce the
digital divide (Valenzuela et al., 2022) as they increase their
technological knowledge (Ma et al., 2020), significantly improve
digital literacy scores in the intervention group compared to controls
(Ngiam et al., 2022), contributing to the digital divide (Valenzuela
et al., 2022). with the development of skills and use of devices such as
mobile phones (Lee et al., 2022), digital tools for the detection of fake
news, and quality information (Moore and Hancock, 2022).
Increases in health literacy levels
According to the World Health Organization, health literacy (HL)
refers to the cognitive and social skills that motivate and enable people
to seek, understand, and use health information to maintain good
well-being (World Health Organization, 1998), a construct that
includes not only the ability to read health information, but also,
understanding concepts, interpreting medical instructions, and the
ability to make informed health care decisions. Studies in this area
indicate that OP have a low level of SA (Mirmohammadkhani et al.,
2020; Stormacq et al., 2020), particularly in socioeconomically
disadvantaged groups (Stormacq et al., 2020).
In addition, in the current context of technologization of social
and health services, OP have lower levels of literacy, health literacy
and digital literacy (Xie, 2011; Handtke et al., 2019; Ghorbanian and
Digital literacy interventions in the elderly
The development of digital literacy programs for OP is based on
a concept that has evolved since the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is initial definition
of “literacy” in 1958 (Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la
Educación, Ciencia y Cultura, 1958), now integrating aspects of health
(Galán and Zamora, 2015) and digital skills (Organización de las
Naciones Unidas para la Educación, Ciencia y Cultura, 2019). Digital
literacy is defined as the set of skills for operating digital devices and
essential skills in Information and Communication Technologies
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Effects of DA programs on perceived
well-being
Nikou, 2021) requiring these skills to understand the information
available on digital platforms, adequately solve a health problem
(Norman and Skinner, 2006; Stormacq et al., 2020), and access quality
services (Ghorbanian and Nikou, 2021; Shi et al., 2021; Sobral and
Sobral, 2021; Ghorbanian et al., 2022; Lee and Tak, 2022;
Sriwisathiyakun and Dhamanitayakul, 2022).
This deficit is associated with sociodemographic variables, cultural
barriers such as lack of familiarity and fear of using ICTs (Xie, 2011;
Handtke et al., 2019; Ghorbanian and Nikou, 2021), frequency of
internet use and the possibility of learning how to use it to find health
resources (Shi et al., 2021; Kanakaris and Pavlis, 2022). Thus, these
evidence-reported factors would be classified as individual,
interpersonal, and community, however, these results remain
inconsistent (Shi et al., 2021), demonstrating a gap in the body of
scientific knowledge in this area.
In this regard, experience of interventions reports mixed results,
those that promoted the continuous use of digital devices
demonstrated a decrease in fear of their use, an improvement in
interest in and ability to handle ICTs (Castilla et al., 2018) and an
increase in the use of digital health tools and services (Ghorbanian
et al., 2022). Most showed effectiveness with respect to the impact on
the ability to use health information, although on the competence to
understand health information, they were shown to be ineffective
(Stormacq et al., 2020). The results also suggest that health
empowerment of older people by making them digitally literate is
possible (Ghorbanian and Nikou, 2021; Ghorbanian et al., 2022)
through different intervention methods (Ghorbanian and
Nikou, 2021).
Considering the definition of subjective well-being as people’s
evaluations of their own life, which can be judgments, such as life
satisfaction (cognitive), feeling-based evaluations, including moods
and emotions (emotional) (Pavot and Diener, 1993; Diener and Suh,
1997); regarding these components of psychosocial health of older
people, digital skills deficits and poor understanding of health
messages are related to adverse effects on well-being (Stormacq et al.,
2020). Generally, OP who master new technologies have a good level
of psychological well-being due to the feeling generated by being able
to achieve it, which helps to improve their position in the eyes of their
family and even in society (Hasan and Linger, 2016; Cardozo et al.,
2017; Shi et al., 2021; Sobral and Sobral, 2021; Sriwisathiyakun and
Dhamanitayakul, 2022; Aggar et al., 2023), in contrast, the secondary
outcomes of Ngiam et al. (2022) included improvements, however,
they were not statistically significant in the personal well-being score
(Ngiam et al., 2022). In turn, Hasan and Linger (2016) report that the
increase in digital skills increases social well-being in the dimensions
of social participation and involvement, occupation, control over daily
life and dignity. Likewise, greater use of the internet would be a
predictor of higher levels of well-being and satisfaction with life (Heo
et al., 2015).
Effects of DA programs on perceived social
support
Under the conceptual framework that defines social support as
“the set of expressive or instrumental provisions – perceived or
received – provided by the community, social networks and trusted
individuals, provisions that can occur in both every day and crisis
situations (Lin, 1986), it has been stated in the evidence that the
development of technological skills and competences in this age group
favors their social interaction (Shi et al., 2021; Sobral and Sobral, 2021;
Sriwisathiyakun and Dhamanitayakul, 2022), helping to address social
isolation and loneliness in PMs by applying various technologies such
as ICTs, video games, robotics, personal reminder information and
social management system, asynchronous pairs, chat support and
telecare among others (Khosravi et al., 2016).
The development of digital interventions has been shown to have
a positive impact on the perception of social support, according to a
study carried out in Chile (2004), which attributed the positive results
to the ability of older adults to become visible and receive recognition
in their social environment thanks to the digital skills acquired (Cerda
and Llaña, 2005). Likewise, other research currently confirms that the
use of technology enhances social connection (Ma et al., 2020), since
the rapid digitalization and technological revolution allows the
integration of OP into society, since technology facilitates interaction
(Pan American Health Organization, 2023) and the maintenance of
relationships significant social and emotional factors, and social
support (Van Volkom et al., 2013). Likewise, greater use of the internet
would be a predictor of higher levels of social support (Heo et al., 2015)
and is also associated with an unhealthy lifestyle (La Duplaga, 2021).
Notwithstanding what has been analyzed, the evidence described
allows us to state that some of the studies of DL interventions were
Effects of DA programs on OP quality of
life
The construct quality of life is increasingly being used in
assessments within the health sector as a marker of well-being
(Urzúa, 2010; Martínez and Gallardo, 2020). In addition, there is a
growing interest in quantifying health-associated quality of life,
which is defined as “the subjective assessment of the domains of your
life that are perceived as important during a particular time”
(Burke, 2001).
These programs can improve the quality of life of participating
seniors by enabling them to access online services, such as
shopping, virtual healthcare, government paperwork, and banking
services (Mirmohammadkhani et al., 2020; Aggar et al., 2023),
which can be significantly important depending on the mobility
and self-esteem difficulties they suffer. Otherwise, it also improves
physical health (Ghorbanian and Nikou, 2021; Shi et al., 2021;
Sobral and Sobral, 2021; Sriwisathiyakun and Dhamanitayakul,
2022), favors active aging, finding that highly digital seniors have
a better healthy life (Mizrachi et al., 2020), along with decreasing
the negative effects of aging on health such as memory decline
(Chan et al., 2016; ChePa et al., 2023) for example. In addition,
greater use of the internet is associated with a better quality of life
(Boz and Karatas, 2015). However, experiences of DL have also
been reported in which there is no evidence of effects on the
perception of health and quality of life (Lee et al., 2022), so there
is no consensus on this.
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The final sample consisted of 56 older adults. Eighty-four percent
were women, with an average age of 73 years. The greater participation
of women responded to the fact that in this type of organization
female participation is in the majority. On the other hand, 43.6%
reported a basic or lower level of schooling and 67.6% rated their
socioeconomic situation as fair or poor (see Table 1).
found to show enormous effect sizes of d = 2 or r = 0.60 (De Main et al.,
2022), which could be defined as overestimates.
The present study describes an intergenerational digital literacy
intervention that was developed and culturally adapted for OP in a
territorial sector of the commune of Concepción-Chile and evaluates
its effectiveness in health literacy (HL), quality of life (QoL) and wellbeing. As it is quasi-experimental research with pre- and postintervention evaluations, it is a contribution because it allows us to
identify improvements and increase the effects in subsequent
experiences. In this way, it contributes with applied and updated
evidence that guides the design of integrative systems capable of
responding socially and technologically to demographic changes and
the needs of OP.
The hypotheses put forward were:
Formation of the groups
Two groups were formed with non-random assignment of
subjects (experimental group n = 32 and control group n = 24).
Participants were recruited from their own neighborhood center’s.
Older people waiting to participate in the program made up the
control group. They continued to develop community activities such
as handicraft and dance workshops.
H1: The intervention will improve the level of digital literacy,
mobile phone and internet use in the group of participating OP
compared to control.
Statistical power of the sample
H2: The intervention will improve the level of health literacy in
the group of participating PMs compared to control.
With respect to sampling and statistical power, a review of the
evidence identified that the effect sizes of some similar interventions
are very high; more than one standard deviation or r = 0.50 or more
(Xie, 2011; Kim and Xie, 2017). However, other estimates of the effect
of digital literacy give effect sizes of r = 0.18 (Ghorbanian et al., 2022).
For this study, it was estimated that with an effect size similar to
that of the training interventions (r = 0.20 or 0.21), with a statistical
power of α = 0.05 and β = 0.80, 138 subjects were needed. However, in
the present study only an n = 56 was achieved, which for an effect size
of r = 0.21 indicates a statistical power of 0.41, below 0.80 which is
H3: The intervention will improve QoL in the participating OP
group compared to control.
H4: The intervention will improve well-being and social support
in the participating OP group compared to control.
TABLE 1 Sociodemographic characteristics of the participants.
Methods
M
SD
73.0
6.3
N
%
Woman
47
83.9
Man
9
16.1
Illiterate
1
1.8
Age
Design
A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group study was
conducted, with pre and post evaluation of a Digital Literacy
intervention in the elderly. A culturally adapted multicomponent
program was implemented, carried out in a non-formal education
context in the community during the year 2022. After establishing the
baseline, three months after the intervention, its effects on the increase
in the use of technologies, the level of digital literacy and in health,
health related QoL, social support and subjective well-being
were evaluated.
Sex
Education
Basic
23
41.8
Media
17
30.9
Technique
6
10.9
Superior
8
14.5
Bad
7
12.5
Regular
32
57.1
Socio-economic situation
Participants
Elderly people from the city of. Concepción (Chile) participated
in the study. The inclusion criteria were to be 60 years of age or older
and to be members of 12 organizations in the urban sector that
participated in community workshops. The exclusion criteria were to
be inactive members of the community organizations or to have
sensory difficulties that prevented them from answering the survey
and participating in the intervention.
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Good
15
26.8
Very good
2
3.6
Experimental
32
57.0
Control
24
43.0
Group
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satisfactory (pre-test: α = 0.79; post-test: α = 0.78), although test–retest
reliability was r(55) = 0.222, p = 0.10.
Personal well-being index or PWI-8 was also used, an 8-item
satisfaction scale with life domains (Cummins et al., 2003), which
obtained satisfactory reliability in this study (pre-test: α = 0.90;
post-test: α = 0.84), as well as a good retest test of r(55) = 0.392,
p = 0.003.
Social support measured with the 12-item Multidimensional
Social Support Scale (Zimet et al., 1988) with a Cronbach’s alpha of
0.88 and subsequent study of 0.86 (Arechabala and Miranda, 2002).
Reliability in this study was also satisfactory (pre-test: α = 0.87; posttest: α = 0.85), as was a good retest of r(55) = 0.53, p = 0.0001.
Sociocultural measures a measure of self-perceived socioeconomic
status (Bad, Fair, Good, Very Good), and a measure of schooling
(Illiterate, Basic, Medium, Technical, Higher) were used as indicators.
Information on sex (male, female) and age was also obtained.
desirable. To address this problem, which is common in research of
this type, analyses were supplemented by the application of a
constructed non-causal baseline design, i.e., comparing post-test
treatment data with mass sample scales; and the use of reliable change
scores (Páez et al., 1993).
Variables and measuring instruments
In this study, predicted effects of participation in digital literacy
formation were assessed: (a) digital literacy; (b) health literacy; (c)
quality of life related to health and health behavior; (d) well-being; and
(e) social support.
Digital Literacy measured with the Mobile Device Proficiency
Questionnaire (MDPQ-16) (Roque and Boot, 2016). It is made up of
16 items that measure 8 dimensions: mobile device basics,
communication, data and file storage, internet, calendar,
entertainment, privacy, problem solving, and software management.
The answer is on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = I’ve never done it to
5 = very easy). The Cronbach’s alpha of the original version is 0.99. In
this study, the reliability of the scale in the pre-test was 0.91 and in the
post-test it was 0.90. It also has good test–retest reliability, obtained by
correlating the responses of the pre-test with the post-test, r(55) = 0.697,
p ≤ 0.001.
Availability and use of technological devices and the internet access
with a series of self-perception and self-assessment questions along
with a dichotomous 10-item scale on mobile phone use (pre-test:
Cronbach’s alpha (α) = 0.75; post-test: α = 0.76; test–retest = 0.78,
p ≤ 0.001); and another 15-item questionnaire on internet use (pretest: α = 0.86; post-test: α = 0.88; test–retest = 0.82, p ≤ 0.001). These
scales were created by the team of researchers based on the 2018
National Quality of Life Survey of Older Adults in Chile (Subsecretaría
de Previsión Social del Gobierno de Chile, 2018).
Health literacy was measured with the 6-item Newest vital sign or
NSV-6 (Weiss et al., 2005) and the Short Assessment of Health
Literacy for Spanish-speaking Adults or SAHLSA-50 (Monsalves et al.,
2016). The NVS-6 measures the level of comprehension of instructions
and the ability to perform numerical calculations on information on
a nutrition label. It is used as an indicator of functional health literacy.
In the validation for Chile, the reliability coefficient KR-20 was 0,7,478
(González et al., 2023). Cronbach’s alphas in this study were 0.57 in
the pre-test and post-test. The test–retest index was 0.28, p = 0.048.
The SAHLSA-50 consists of 50 items and assesses the ability to
read and understand the common medical terms of a Spanishspeaking adult, in the validation for Chile, a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.92
was obtained (Lee et al., 2006). For this study, Cronbach’s alphas were
0.89 in the pre-test and 0.90 in the post-test. The test–retest index was
r = 0.824, p = 0.0001.
Health-related quality of life measured with SF-12 with good
reliability reported by previous studies with α = 0.90 (Martínez and
Gallardo, 2020) and α = 0.74 (Vera et al., 2014). Cronbach’s alphas in
this study were 0.61 in the pre-test and 0.85 in the post-test. The test–
retest index was 0.24, p = 0.096.
Subjective well-being measured with the SWLS-5 scale, which
evaluates the dimension of general life satisfaction with 5 items. The
Cronbach’s alpha reported by its authors is 0.87 (Diener et al., 1985)
and another subsequent study 0.856 (Ramírez and Lee, 2012) and 0.82
(Vera et al., 2012). In this study, the internal consistency indices were
Frontiers in Psychology
Procedure
To access the intervention subjects, through the municipal
delegation of the city of Concepción, the leaders of different
community organizations of the elderly were contacted, who
facilitated the contact with the potential participants.
Before carrying out the intervention, once informed consent
was obtained, each subject was interviewed to assess their needs
and expectations regarding Digital Literacy (DL), the objective of
which was to incorporate them into the design and implementation
of each of the sessions contemplated in the protocol. In addition,
questionnaires were applied to establish the baseline for the
different variables of interest. Then, three months after the end of
the intervention, a second interview was carried out to apply the
questionnaires and thus obtain the post-measurement of
the variables.
The implementation of the intervention was carried out by
university students, digital natives, who were duly trained as literacy
teachers. Throughout the intervention process, two nurses who are
experts in community work and aging were supervised.
The implementation of the intervention followed a protocolized
structure in planned activities based on the achievement of the
objectives set according to the needs and expectations expressed by
the participating, most of them focused on communication and
leisure activities. To safeguard cultural sensitivity, awareness and
respect for the aging process were encouraged, as well as for the values
and beliefs of OP.
The sessions were held at the community headquarters of
each organization.
At the end of the year, a ceremony was held to award the
certification that accredited participation in the program.
Intervention
The intervention consisted of a digital literacy program in a
non-formal community educational setting. This was tailored to
be culturally competent (Handtke et al., 2019). Furthermore, it was
customized based on individual needs, preferences, and experiences,
combining face-to-face training, and online follow-up. Furthermore,
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treatment in interaction with time. Mean differences (t-test for paired
samples) were analyzed to measure changes in group measures at
baseline assessment and at 3 months post-intervention.
Using the calculation of the reliable rate of change (Jacobson and
Truax, 1991), significant changes in the DL variable were examined
individually, which allowed the identification of cases that worsened,
remained the same, and improved significantly. Pearson’s correlation
was performed between the DL change scores (MDPQ-16) with
changes in SA, health-related QoL, social support, life satisfaction, and
personal well-being.
the design was based on Henderson’s 14 needs theory (Henderson,
1966), the solidarity and intergenerational transfer model (Sánchez
et al., 2014; Jimena, 2020) and the older adult education or gerontology
approach (Fernández, 1999).
The program consisted of a maximum of 5 practical sessions of 1
h each. In these sessions, the transfer of skills in the use of cell phones,
tablets and personal computers was encouraged, according to the
needs and interest expressed by the users. Two components were
considered, one related to information (learning about technological
communication devices), and the other focused on skills (safety,
adaptability, use of applications and search for relevant information).
The contents covered in each session are presented in Table 2.
Ethical considerations
Statistical analysis
The research project was approved by the Scientific Ethics
Committee of the Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception Chile with the registration ORD 11/2022 which is governed by the
Helsinki Convention (World Medical Association, 2017). Informed
consent was applied before each evaluation, and personal data was
safeguarded to maintain confidentiality and anonymity. At the end of
the study, the results were presented to the participants and the
interested parties were given sessions to reinforce the learning.
A descriptive analysis of the sociodemographic and digital literacy
variables of the sample was carried out, calculating means with
standard deviations (SD), frequencies and percentages. The analysis
of the internal consistency of the items of the scales used was
performed with Cronbach’s alpha (Cronbach, 1951) and to evaluate
their stability the Pearson’s correlation re-test was performed.
The study of the normality of the distributions of the variables was
carried out with the Shapiro Wilk test and the homoscedasticity of the
groups with the Levene test.
On the other hand, to evaluate the hypotheses, repeated measures
analysis of variance was calculated before and after the test, comparing
the experimental and control groups, to evaluate the effect of the
Results
Relationship of sociodemographic
variables with the mastery and use of
technologies
TABLE 2 Contents of the sessions.
Session
0
First, the sociodemographic profile of the people who had a
greater mastery and use of technologies in the pre-test was analyzed.
A significant and negative correlation was found between DL
(r = −0.394, p = 0.003), mobile phone use (r = −0.472, p ≤ 0.001) and
internet (r = −0.623, p ≤ 0.001) and age. The differences according to
the level of schooling are also significant (DL: F(2.52) = 8.784, p ≤ 0.001;
mobile phone use: F(2.52) = 16.066, p ≤ 0.001; internet use: F(2.52) = 9.234,
p ≤ 0.001). People with a low level of schooling (DL: M = 25.50,
SD = 13.36; mobile phone use: M = 3.46, SD = 2.38; internet use:
M = 3.08, SD = 3.65) have a lower DL handle and a lower use of
technologies than people with medium education (DL: M = 31.29,
SD = 11.12; mobile phone use: M = 6.18, SD = 1.70; internet use:
M = 6.29, SD = 3.55) and above (AD: M = 43.57, SD = 13.83; mobile
phone use: M = 6.86, SD = 1.51; internet use: M = 7.86, SD = 3.16).
Likewise, people with high education have a higher mastery of DL
than those with medium education. Self-perception of socio-economic
level was not associated with the variables of AD and use
of technologies.
Contents
It consisted of a telephone call made by each monitor to the PMs
with the purpose of introducing themselves and knowing their
needs and expectations, along with the characteristics of their
mobile device and internet connectivity, with the aim of designing
the work protocol.
1
Basic handling and safety of the device.
Planning reinforcement activities to be carried out at home with
remote supervision.
2
Internet access, sites of interest, search for information of interest
on the sites.
Planning reinforcement activities to be carried out at home with
remote supervision.
3
Management of digital applications of your interest, basic tools of
the application.
Planning reinforcement activities to be carried out at home with
remote supervision.
4
Management of digital applications of your interest, advanced
application tools.
Comparison of the experimental group and
control in the pretest in the impact
variables
Planning reinforcement activities to be carried out at home with
remote supervision.
5
Closing the process by answering questions about the contents
worked on in the previous sessions or other new emerging needs.
To ensure the internal validity of the study, the similarity at
baseline in the experimental and control group was analyzed. The
ANOVA of the pretest showed that there were no significant
Planning reinforcement activities to be carried out at home with
remote supervision.
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differences between the two groups in the mean scores of the pretest
of all the variables analyzed (for the pretest means see Table 3).
showed no improvement in HL, QoL linked to health, well-being,
and social support.
Evaluation of the impact of the program by
comparing the experimental group with
the control group
Evaluation of the program comparing
post-test experimental group with a
constructed non-causal baseline
To examine the hypothesis, a repeated measures ANOVA
comparing experimental and control group for dependent variable
(e.g., digital literacy and so on) was carried out.
The analysis of repeated measures shows a significant time effect on
the DL variable (F(1.54) = 4.701, p = 0.035, ηp2 = 0.080 and observed
power = 0.57). The effect of the interaction of comparisons of pretest
scores with posttest DL scores is also significant (F(1.55) = 4.119, p = 0.047,
ηp2 = 0.071 and unilateral observed power = 0.64). There has been a
significant increase in knowledge and skills of digital technologies in the
experimental group compared to the control group. In the rest of the
variables, the effect of interaction is not significant (see Table 3).
Separate t-test comparisons revealed markedly significant
change for DL dependent variable in the experimental group, t-test
pre-post t(31) =3.56, p = 0.001, but not in the control group, t(23) = 0.082,
p = 0.93.
Regarding the first hypothesis, this was supported by the direct
effect of the intervention increasing the level of DL in the participants,
with an effect r = 0.27 translating the eta square value into a
correlation. On the other hand, making a biserial point correlation
with pre and post changes (post score minus pre, the higher the score,
the greater the improvement) with intervention (if = 1 and no = 0) the
same similar effect of r = 0.27 was found. However, hypotheses 2, 3
and 4 were disconfirmed by the results, as the experimental group
To confirm the results obtained with a sample that meets the
statistical power requirements of N = 138, the procedure called
“Constructed non-causal baseline” was applied, where the means and
standard deviations obtained by the experimental group of this study
in MDPQ-16 (DL) in the post-test (N = 32; M = 36.3; SD = 15.2) with
those of a large sample of older people in the United States (Roque and
Boot, 2016) (N = 105; M = 20; SD = 11). The experimental group t-test
versus the U.S. study showed significant differences, t(136) = 5.47,
p = 0.0001, d = 1.47 and r = 0.55. Likewise, the differences between the
experimental group and the Chilean study are marginally significant:
t(183) = 1.09, p = 0.10, d = 0.21. In both cases, the experimental group
shows more knowledge and skills in DL than the two baseline groups,
although the effect sizes are large in the case of the comparison with
the USA and small in the case of Chile.
Reliable change assessment
The reliable change score of Jacobson and Truax (1991) or CR
index (Iraurgi, 2010) was applied. The RCI standardized change score
is the absolute difference required for a change score to be considered
reliable or greater than the change due to measurement error.
TABLE 3 Comparison between experimental group and pre-test and post-test control in digital literacy, health literacy, health-related quality of life,
well-being, and social support.
Experimental group
Pre-test
Variables
Digital literacy
(DL)
Mobile
phone use
Use of the
internet
Health literacy
(NSV)
Health literacy
(SAHLSA)
Social support
Life satisfaction
SWL 5
PWI8 personal
wellness
SF-12 quality
of life
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Control group
Post-test
Pre-test
Post-test
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
29.9
13.8
36.3
15.2
34.5
1.2
34.8
14.9
4.8
2.7
5.1
2.5
5.6
2.1
5.8
2.4
4.9
4.2
5.0
4.2
5.8
3.6
5.7
4.0
1.6
1.3
2.1
1.5
1.8
1.4
2.3
1.3
42.3
6.3
43.3
6.5
44.3
5.3
44.6
5.3
35.5
8.9
37.1
9.6
33.6
9.6
35.5
7.1
28.7
4.4
26.0
6.3
27.0
6.2
27.3
5.2
60.0
12.2
61.0
11.2
62.1
13.0
63.5
10.1
30.0
4.5
31.7
8.4
27.6
5.2
30.5
6.4
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Interaction effect
F
p
ηp2
4.119
0.047
0.071
0.009
0.925
0.000
0.193
0.662
0.004
0.001
0.980
0.000
0.375
0.543
0.008
0.010
0.920
0.000
2.692
0.107
0.047
0.011
0.915
0.000
0.230
0.634
0.005
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The steps to calculate RCI are as follows:
TABLE 4 Reliable change results for each case.
Group
1 Calculate standard measurement error SEM = s√1-rxx. s is DT from a
Experimental
reference group or large sample or global pretest DT
(n = 32)
rxx fiabilidad Chronbach’s alpha o test retest
Cases that
improve
Cases that
remain
22, 29, 37, 40, 46,
23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30,
47, 48.
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38,
Cases that
get worse
39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 49,
2 Calculate SDIFF
50, 51, 52, 53.
SDIFF = √ 2*(SEM* SEM or SEM2)
Control
3 Calculate individual change score Diff = xt2 –xt1.
6, 7, 8, 14
(n = 24)
The higher the score, the higher the positive variable.
4 Calculate RC = xt2 –xt1 /SDIFF
Total (n = 56)
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12,
9, 17, 18, 20, 56
13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 54, 55.
11
40
5
RC is equal z-score example MDPQ
of Chile-Senado, 2023). However, there is little research in developing
countries that has focused on identifying the procedures implemented
and their effects on the adoption of technology by older people. Therefore,
this study investigated the effects of an intergenerational and culturally
adapted literacy intervention on health and psychosocial variables,
providing evidence that will facilitate future experiences.
The results of this study showed that the participants with the
highest level of DL and greater use of technologies such as mobile
phones and the internet are the youngest participants with a higher
level of education, unlike what was found by Ferreira et al. where
educational level was not a related factor (Ferreira et al., 2014).
The results showed a direct effect of the intervention on the
improvement of the DL level with a significant effect size of r = 0.27,
confirming hypothesis 1. Despite the fact that the power of the sample
was low and the results of the effect size were smaller than those
described in some studies (Roque and Boot, 2016), the efficacy of the
intervention was confirmed – although the evaluation using paired
samples from the sociocultural context showed a smaller effect, results
similar to those presented by Valenzuela et al. (2022).
The results of reliable change showed that the percentage of people
who improve is higher in the experimental group than in the control.
Similarly, while among the OP who have received the intervention, none
worsens, one-fifth of the control group worsens. Results that are consistent
with the results of Ngiam et al. (2022), and Ma et al. (2020) which reflected
the significant improvement in digital literacy in those who are intervened
in contrast to controls, also coincides with the systematic review of
Ghorbanian et al. (2022) and the Chilean study of Ferreira et al. (2014).
In relation to the results of mobile phone and internet use, no
significant improvements are seen when comparing both groups,
contrary to the conclusion of Lee et al. who show that this type of
intervention improves the use of devices such as the mobile phone
(Lee et al., 2022) and the internet (Heo et al., 2015). In addition,
increasing internet use is a significant predictor of higher levels of
social support and greater life satisfaction and psychological wellbeing among older adults (Heo et al., 2015), which could help explain
the results presented below.
The direct effect is not observed in SA, well-being, and social
support, suggesting that mere DL does not expand to improvements
in these variables. This could have been affected by several exogenous
variables, so it is important to remember that the control group was
not passive, but active: the people who made it up did not participate
in the DL but continued to attend a weekly workshop at the
community center, so this social integration activity probably helped
to maintain well-being and to perceive social support.
On the other hand, the association between the change scores in DL
and the impact variables in the experimental group shows that there are
indirect effects on personal well-being and social support. However, this
5 If CR ≥1.96 (standard value) or greater than 5% distribution - no error
should be measured only.
For PMDQ in this studio
1
variability s = 14.44 Chronbach’s α = 0.91
SEM = 14.44 √1–0.91 = 0.3
14.44 × 0.3 = 4.33, i.e., SEM = 4.33
2
SDIFF = √ 2(4.33*4.33) = √ 2(18, 76)
3
In a case you present: xt1 = 25 xt2 = 55 Diff = 30
4
30/6.12 = 4.9
5
4.9 > 1.96 = Reliable Gearbox.
SDIFF = √ 2(18.76) = √ 37.51 = 6.12
Table 4 presents results of the reliable change indicate that 7 out of 32
people improved significantly in the treatment group, i.e., 21.9%. The rest
improve, but do not exceed the cut-off point of 1.96. In the control group,
4 out of 24, or 16.7%, improved due to autonomous learning, 15 (62.5%)
did not change, and 5 (20.8%) worsened significantly. These results make
it possible to detect failed intervention groups to reinforce them, such as
cases 28, 30, 33 and 38 that improve less than 0.50, as well as to interview
those that improve to understand good practices, such as subjects 40, 46
and 48 (Table 4).
Correlation between reliable change in
digital literacy and change in the other
variables in the experimental group
Reliable change scores in DL were correlated with change scores
(post-test minus pre-test, the higher the score, the greater the
improvement) in SA, QoL links to health.
The reliable change in CDMD trendily correlated with the
improvement in health-related QoL assessed by SF-12, r(29) = 0.25,
p = 0.09, significantly with the improvement in well-being, assessed by
SWL r(30) = 0.33 p = 0.039, in the same sense but not significantly with
the well-being assessed by the PWI r(30) = .21, p = 0.14, and with a
tendency to improve social support r(25) = 0.27 p = 0.10.
Discussion
The relevance and development of digital literacy in the elderly make
it a propitious scenario to analyze the impact of the intervention programs
and methods used. Considering that technology education is largely seen
as a crucial element for the effective use of technologies (Van Volkom
et al., 2013; Heo et al., 2015; Cardozo et al., 2017; Castilla et al., 2018;
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Republic
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indirect effect did not occur in HL. Cases with substantial improvement
in DL (high change score) were characterized by improvements in wellbeing and, to a lesser extent, in social support, coinciding with Ma et al.
(2020) and in QoL. However, there was no direct effect of the intervention
on QoL, with no significant difference between the two groups, which
coincides with the results of Lee et al. (2022) and contrasts with the results
of Boz and Karatas (2015).
Carrying out this type of constructive evaluation of interventions
carried out in the field of AD in PM allows for improved treatment, as
it facilitates the detection of reliable improvements and worsenings.
By interviewing these cases, it is possible to consider the improvements
to be made in future DL interventions in OP, inferring good and bad
practices. Allowing us to conclude how to strengthen and improve the
intervention and its effects on DL and HL.
Important limitations of the study are self-selection, the application
of a quasi-experimental design, and the fact that some subjects did not
perform all sessions. The selection bias occurred when the OP of the
indicated organizations was invited to participate, and the interested
parties formed the intervention group and the non-interested ones
formed the control group, so in future studies it will be advisable to select
with a control group that does not participate in any community
organization. At the same time, the assignment of OP in both groups
should be randomized to ensure greater internal validity. Also, the
inclement weather associated with the winter limited the participation of
some of the people in the intervention group, which prevented them from
carrying out all the sessions and influenced the loss of cases. Evaluating
the quantity and quality of sessions held is important.
It should be considered that the intervention did not contemplate
specific content of physical HL, and this should be incorporated, since it
was found that the intervention had no effect of any kind on HL. Positive
mental health reinforcement and social integration activities should
be integrated. OPs are more receptive to improving well-being than
focusing on chronic disease management. Sutipan et al. (2017) reviewed
eight articles in five different countries, including Spain (n = 2), the
United Kingdom (n = 1), Hong Kong (n = 1), Taiwan (n = 1), and the
Netherlands (n = 1) on the impact of positive psychological interventions
on the well-being of healthy OP, finding that most were effective. Two
studies with an OP well-being intervention program, in China and Spain,
evaluated the intervention and control group before and after, finding that
interventions such as the thank-you visit, doing three good things, doing
three fun things, and using distinctive strengths in a new way, increased
well-being (Proyer et al., 2013; Sarrionandia et al., 2022). Therefore,
interventions of this type of improvement of well-being would have an
impact on HL or positive mental health.
Another fundamental element that should be considered to improve
the sensitivity and effectiveness of the intervention is related to the
variables included in the evaluation. These variables should integrate areas
that are of interest and meaning to OP, and that allow them to reflect their
experience in meeting needs and expectations when participating in this
type of program (Kanakaris and Pavlis, 2022), such as self-efficacy in
health and digital (Ghorbanian et al., 2022). Finally, implementing a
program to reinforce the learning and skills achieved with the intervention
will contribute to maintaining the effects on the participating OPs.
on DL, and indirect impact on mental health or well-being. No direct or
indirect effects on HL were identified. These types of studies contribute to
the reduction of the digital divide and are a contribution that supports future
interventions that should integrate content related to the improvement of
health and well-being, evaluate self-efficacy, and add learning maintenance
sessions, as well as generate spaces for intergenerational solidarity exchange
that promotes the social integration of the various age groups.
Finally, digital literacy programs for older people in countries
such as Chile are essential to promote social inclusion, improve the
conditions in which they age and empower them in an increasingly
technologized context, and in this way, they contribute to reducing the
digital divide and facilitating the way for older people to fully enjoy
the opportunities offered by technological development.
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in
the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed
to the corresponding author.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by Comité Científico
de la Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción. The studies
were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and
institutional requirements. The participants provided their written
informed consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
CC-D: Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition,
Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision,
Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. AV-C:
Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing
– review & editing. SU-L: Data curation, Formal analysis, Software,
Writing – review & editing. JO: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing
– review & editing. VD-G: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing –
review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research
was funded by the DIREG 02/2021 project of the Research
Directorate of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción
and has been supported partially by Grant SCIA-ANID CIE 160009.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The reviewer XO declared a past co-authorship with the author JO
to the handling editor.
Conclusion
The effects of multicomponent, culturally adapted DL intervention in
OP showed that it is possible to achieve changes with medium direct impact
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Publisher’s note
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
endorsed by the publisher.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
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TYPE
Original Research
26 April 2024
10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352399
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Eduardo Enrique Morales Sanhueza,
Major University, Chile
REVIEWED BY
Raquel Fernández-Cézar,
University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Miguel Friz,
University of the Bío, Chile
*CORRESPONDENCE
Validation of the questionnaire to
measure Chilean teachers’
perception of school violence
and coexistence management
(VI+GEC)
December 2023
March 2024
PUBLISHED 26 April 2024
Flavio Muñoz-Troncoso 1, 2,3*, Amy Halberstadt 4,
Isabel Cuadrado-Gordillo 3, Enrique Riquelme-Mella 1*,
Edgardo Miranda-Zapata 5, Ekaterina Legaz-Vadímisrkaya 6,7,
Valeria Sepúlveda-Bernales 1, Claudia Salamanca-Aroca 1 and
Gerardo Muñoz-Troncoso 6
CITATION
1
Enrique Riquelme-Mella
eriquelme@uct.cl
Flavio Muñoz-Troncoso
flaviomunoz@gmail.com
RECEIVED 11
ACCEPTED 11
Muñoz-Troncoso F, Halberstadt A,
Cuadrado-Gordillo I, Riquelme-Mella E,
Miranda-Zapata E, Legaz-Vadímisrkaya E,
Sepúlveda-Bernales V, Salamanca-Aroca C and
Muñoz-Troncoso G (2024) Validation of the
questionnaire to measure Chilean teachers’
perception of school violence and
coexistence management (VI+GEC).
Front. Psychol. 15:1352399.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352399
COPYRIGHT
© 2024 Muñoz-Troncoso, Halberstadt,
Cuadrado-Gordillo, Riquelme-Mella,
Miranda-Zapata, Legaz-Vadímisrkaya,
Sepúlveda-Bernales, Salamanca-Aroca and
Muñoz-Troncoso. This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication
in this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted
which does not comply with these terms.
Faculty of Education, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Temuco, Chile, 2 Facultad de Ciencias Sociales
y Artes, Universidad Mayor, Temuco, Chile, 3 Department of Psychology and Anthropology, Faculty of
Education and Psychology, Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain, 4 Department of Psychology,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States, 5 Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y
Humanidades, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Temuco, Chile, 6 Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades,
Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile, 7 Faculty of Education, Universidad San Sebastián, Valdivia,
Chile
In this article, we present the development and validation of a psychometric
scale that measures the teacher’s perception in the Chilean school system with
respect to elements of school violence and coexistence management. The
novelty lies in the incorporation of factors that address violence from teachers
to students, from students to teachers and coexistence management. A total of
1072 teachers from the Northern, Central, Southern and Metropolitan macrozones of Chile participated, with ages between 22 and 76 years (M=44.56;
SD=10.52) and from 1 to 54 years of work (M=17.14; SD=10.38). 76.3% identify
with the female gender and 23.7% with the male gender. Of the teachers,
78.4% worked mainly in the classroom and the rest performed managerial
or administrative functions outside the classroom in the school. The school
violence and coexistence management questionnaire for teachers (VI+GEC)
was used. The validity of the scale was demonstrated by means of Confirmatory
Factor Analysis, convergent validity analysis and discriminant validity. Reliability
was demonstrated by means of McDonald’s omega coefficient in all the factors
of the scale. An analysis with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) found a
mean, and statistically significant influence of the perception of coexistence
management on the perception of school violence. The findings are discussed
in terms of previous research on school violence and coexistence management.
KEYWORDS
school violence, management of school coexistence, teacher’s, teacher’s perception,
confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling
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1 Introduction
are often the first to face conflicts among students and they have the
power in the classroom to promote prosocial behaviors (Carbone and
Assante Del Leccese, 2023). Altering the interpersonal domain
includes the need to promote socioemotional skills that would be
helpful in the peaceful resolution of conflicts, thus increasing positive
coexistence among students (Nygaard et al., 2023). Teachers have that
capacity on a day to day basis, even if administration does not create
such curricula standards.
In institutional terms, coexistence management is strengthened
when there is clarity regarding the interaction between school
members, including positions of total rejection of violence in
general. Therefore, strategies for the prevention of violence and welldefined action protocols regarding roles and actions in conflict
situations are essential (Aravena et al., 2020). In this sense, it is
relevant to work in coordination with other support networks which
are mainly in the health and social areas (Medina and Olave, 2022).
In this regard, Chilean schools must comply with a series of
requirements to ensure adequate management of school coexistence,
following guidelines for the development of Internal Regulations,
Coexistence Manuals and Protocols for action (MINEDUC, 2018).
This is part of the Indicative Performance Standards emanating from
the educational policy that governs the school institution
(MINEDUC, 2021). From the legal point of view, the above policy is
in compliance with Law 20536 on School Violence and Law 20128
Safe Classroom, and in regulatory bodies legislated on school
violence and coexistence management in Chile (Muñoz-Troncoso
et al., 2023b).
Regarding teachers’ views on school violence at the
international level, reports by Han (2021) provided an overview of
perceived school violence in Australia, South Korea, the
United States of America, and Mexico. The study concludes that in
South Korea the overall perception of school violence is higher
than in the other participating countries. Teachers in Mexico see
violence as a phenomenon more typical of rural schools than urban
schools. The case of Australia highlights the increase in violent
behavior in recent years. Teachers in the United States see violence
as a serious problem that affects mostly urban schools. The study
used Likert-type scales as an instrument, which is a particularly
efficient method for comparison between countries (Han, 2021).
Other international studies have coincided in the high prevalence
of school violence, with teachers reporting mostly physical, verbal,
and psychological violence (Bourou and Papageorgiou, 2023).
In the Chilean context, several investigations examine the view
of teachers regarding the phenomenon of violence in schools,
however, few studies incorporate measurement scales. In particular
Varela et al. (2021) found that teachers who perceived themselves
to be affected by school violence also reported job dissatisfaction.
Furthermore, in that study, teachers’ relationship with their
schools was affected by various factors related to the school
environment, including student victimization, teachers’ perception
of the school climate and the level of violence in the environment.
Likewise, the research by López et al. (2020) showed a correlation
between victimization between teachers and students, evidencing
a higher prevalence of verbal violence than physical and sexual
violence. Thus, it is highlighted that both physical and verbal
victimization between students and teachers represented
determining factors in explaining the levels of mutual victimization
between them.
During the COVID-19 pandemic confinement, studies in several
countries reported an increase in domestic violence (Kim and Son,
2023), particularly that perpetrated against children (Cappa and Jijon,
2021), which enabled predicting an increase in violence among
students when classes returned (CEPAL, 2020). In Chile, after the
reopening of schools, the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC)
reported an increase in complaints about problems of school
coexistence, most of which were due to violence among students
(MINEDUC, 2022). In the same context, students also reported
statistically significant differences in school violence, with more
violence in face-to-face classes than in the online modality during
confinement (Muñoz-Troncoso et al., 2023b). School violence
continues to be a problem that affects children and young people,
however, research on the subject comes mainly from high-income
countries (Kelmendi et al., 2023), which highlights the need to study
the phenomenon in developing countries and countries with income
disparities. Chile, which has experienced significant economic growth
in recent decades but also high income inequality, is a good example,
in that its economic growth has not translated into greater well-being
for the population (Rojas and Charles-Leija, 2022).
School violence is a serious and complex phenomenon, in which
students involved in school violence are affected in many different
ways (Meldrum et al., 2022). Victims of school violence may suffer
from anxiety, depression, and stress disorders (Gómez-Mármol et al.,
2018). Affected students may also decrease in academic performance
which is also linked to the risk of dropping out of school (Yang et al.,
2021), given the fear and anxiety fostered by the perception of an
unsafe school space (Berger, 2019). Both victims and aggressors may
present difficulties in socialization, manifested in impulsive and
aggressive behaviors (Espelage and Hong, 2019). This set of conditions
may be related to the impact on students’ self-esteem and selfconfidence, as an impediment to sustaining healthy interpersonal
bonds and good academic performance (Lee and Wong, 2022). While
it is important to consider the consequences of school violence on the
victims, it is also relevant to know the characteristics of the
perpetrators. In this regard, one study found that aggressors and
aggressor-victims presented relatively low levels of moral judgment
and high levels of selfish cognitive distortions (Brugman et al., 2023).
To prevent, reduce, and mitigate the effects of school violence,
great value is attributed to the management of coexistence, and there
is evidence that intervention programs, as part of that management,
can reduce the prevalence of violent events among students (Pina
et al., 2021). Several elements are identified as central to the adequate
management of coexistence. First and foremost, is the participation of
the educational community, which is understood as a collaborative
work that includes all the actors of a school, i.e., students, parents,
teachers, non-teaching staff and management team (Redon et al.,
2023). While recognizing the importance of learning from all actors
in the school setting, we focus first on the teachers’ perception of
violence for several reasons. In addition to students, teachers are the
most prevalent actors in almost all school settings. Although they are
not as present as students in every aspect of the school grounds and
they cannot be witness to every social interaction, they are trained to
scan spaces in which students gather and to recognize multiple forms
of violence. They also have a broader historical perspective and
interact with many students each day. Perhaps most importantly they
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Chilean teachers face a critical situation that involves the
devaluation of their role, forcing the implementation of various
strategies with multiple approaches and possible consequences, a
scenario that highlights the work of teachers and their ability to
have a significant impact on school coexistence (Carrasco-Aguilar
and Luzón, 2019). In addition to the above, in the present
research, no psychometric instrument applied in Chile was found
that measures teachers’ perception of school violence, among
students, between students and teachers, and the management of
school coexistence.
There are multiple instruments currently available to explore the
views of different actors. From the student perspective, some studies
(Guerra et al., 2011) adapt and validate in Chile the Spanish
instrument Cuestionario de Violencia Escolar (CUVE) designed by
Álvarez et al. (2006), which evaluates violent behaviors in educational
establishments from the students’ perspective. There is validation in
the Chilean population of the questionnaire that measures students’
perception of peer mistreatment (MIAP) (Lecannelier et al., 2011).
The study by Gaete et al. (2021) validated in the Chilean context the
Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire-Revised Version (OBVQ-R),
which measures students’ perception of the forms of bullying. There
is also the “Cuestionario de violencia escolar para la No Violencia
(CENVI)”, which collects the perception of students on types of
violence and the management of school coexistence (Muñoz, 2014;
Muñoz et al., 2017; Muñoz-Troncoso et al., 2023a).
In the field of school coexistence, another measurement model is
the one that was contributed by Valdés et al. (2018), which consisted
of the adaptation and validation in Chile of the School Coexistence
Questionnaire designed by Chaparro et al. (2015) to evaluate school
coexistence management practices from the perception of students.
There is also the instrument developed and validated by Leal-Soto
et al. (2022) who suggest the possibility of exploring the management
of school coexistence from the students’ perspective through a
subscale; however, this would require further study of the
psychometric properties of the instrument.
Considering other actors in the school system, Ascorra et al.
(2020) designed and validated an instrument that evaluates the
management of school coexistence from the perspective of school
administrators. The study by López and Valdés (2018) consisted of
designing and validating two instruments that evaluate concrete
practices of school coexistence management in professionals working
in the educational context and in parents and/or mothers. The purpose
was to unveil the organizational practices that support the
management of school coexistence, in order to contribute to
decision-making.
In accordance with Torrego et al. (2022), the present study makes
it possible to specify that, although there are instruments that evaluate
school coexistence management in Chile, no psychometric
instruments were found that jointly evaluate school violence and
school coexistence management from the teachers’ perspective.
In view of the above, the general objective is to measure
teachers’ perception of school violence and coexistence
management by means of the validation of a psychometric scale
developed for this purpose. The specific objective is to estimate
the impact—from the teachers’ perception—that coexistence
management has on school violence and to explore the differences
in the perception of violence according to the defined categories.
The hypotheses are the following:
Frontiers in Psychology
H1: The proposed four-factor instrument shows adequate
goodness-of-fit and reliability indices.
H2: There is a statistically significant effect of the coexistence
management factor on school violence.
H3: There are statistically significant differences between men and
women in the perception of violence and school
coexistence management.
2 Materials and methods
Research with research methodology in psychology and education
of the quantitative type, with a descriptive comparative, crosssectional design (León and Montero, 2015).
2.1 Participants
A total of 1072 teachers from the Chilean school system from the
North (6.3%), Center (40%), South (23.5%) and Metropolitan (30.2)
macro-zones of the country participated. Teachers were between the
ages of 22 and 76 years (M=44.56; SD=10.52). and their years of work
ranged from 1 to 54 (M=17.14; SD=10.38). Of the participants 76.3%
identified with the female gender and 23.7% with the male gender,
with 78.4% of them working primarily in the classroom and 21.6%
performing other functions in the school. Ten percent reported
teaching pre-school (children of 4 and 5 years of age), 55.7%
elementary school (children of 6 to 13 years of age) and 34.3% middle
school (young people from 14 to 17 years old). Of the teachers, 51%
belonged to municipal schools, 34.8% to private subsidized schools
and 14.2% to private schools; 76.3% identified as female and 23.7%
as male.
All of them participated voluntarily through a letter of informed
consent, and a non-probabilistic sampling was carried out by
accessibility in the indicated macro-areas.
2.2 Instrument
The 21-item school violence and coexistence management
questionnaire for teachers (VI+GEC) was applied. It is a Likert-type
scale with four scales. Three of the four scales were adapted from the
CENVI questionnaire for students (Muñoz-Troncoso et al., 2023a), in
order to create a measure that allowed for comparability across
students and teachers. Factor 1, called Violence among students
(VEE), is composed of five items. Factor 2, called Violence from
teacher to student (VPE), is composed of six items. The new Factor 3,
called Student-to-teacher violence (STV), is composed of four items.
Factor 4, called Management of School Coexistence (GCE), is
composed of six items. The indicators of factors 1, 2 and 4 were
adapted from the CENVI questionnaire (for students) of MuñozTroncoso et al. (2023a), the indicators of factor 3 were elaborated for
the present study. For each item, teachers were asked to respond on a
scale in which 1=Never and 6=Always. Thus, for the three violence
subscales, the higher the score the greater the violence, and for
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greater than 0.65 as admissible, greater than 0.7 as acceptable, between
0.8 and 0.9 as good, and above 0.9 as excellent.
An analysis was carried out through structural equation modeling
(SEM) to measure the effect of coexistence management on school
violence, proposing that factors 1 to 3 can be measured by a secondorder factor (G1) and thus assess the effect that factor 4 (coexistence
management) has on it.
Subsequently, we calculated scales using k-means cluster analysis,
determining three clusters to differentiate high, medium, and low
levels in each factor. Finally, teachers were grouped according to their
level of perception of each factor.
The last stage consisted of reviewing the measurement invariance
of the questionnaire for all the defined categories. The configural
invariance is achieved by fulfilling the criteria of a CFA, and the
metric invariance is achieved if the variations of CFI and RMSEA
between it and the configural invariance are not significant. Similarly,
scalar invariance is evidenced if the CFI and RMSEA variations
between it and the metric invariance are not significant. In this
regard, it is expected: ΔCFI <0.01, ΔRMSEA<0.015. Given the above
finding, the differences between pairs of groups of the defined
categories were checked through the Mann–Whitney U-test.
Data were analyzed with Microsoft Excel v.16.74 (Microsoft,
2023), SPSS v.23 (IBM Corp, 2020), JASP v.0.17.21 (JASP Team, 2023),
RStudio v. 2023.06.0 + 421 (RStudio Team, 2022), and G*Power v.
3.1.9.6 (Buchner et al., 2020).
coexistence management, the higher the score the higher the
evaluation of management.
2.3 Procedure
The study is nested in the FONDECYT Regular 1191956 project
“Family and school education: Emotional socialization in contexts of
social and cultural diversity,” and reviewed and approved by the
Research Ethics Committee of the Universidad Católica de Temuco
(Chile). The instrument is hosted on a web platform, which begins
with a description of the questions, an informed consent and
confidentiality notice with details about the characteristics of the
research, the instrument, and the time required to respond. The
voluntary nature of participation was made explicit, guaranteeing
anonymity and data protection. The study was conducted according
to the international deontological guidelines referred to in the
Declaration of Helsinki and the Singapore Declaration, as well as those
referred to in Chile by Law 20120.
2.4 Plan for analysis
The adaptation and creation of items, in addition to the proposed
structure, considered content validity by means of inter-judgment of
experts. The normality of the indicators was evaluated using the
Kolmogorov–Smirnov test to choose the subsequent analyses. Based
from previous reports from students and teachers, we hoped that the
data would reveal a skewed distribution reflective of lower rates of
violence. Thus, we anticipated that our next step, specifically, a
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) would be carried out, as appropriate
for non-normative data, using the Maximum Likelihood adjusted by
Mean and Variance (MLMV). The Chi-square statistic would be optimal
if the ratio with its degrees of freedom is less than 3:1. The goodness-of-fit
indices considered are the root mean squared error of approximation
(RMSEA), expecting values less than 0.5 as excellent or less than 0.7 as
acceptable. The comparative fit index (CFI) and the Tucker-Lewis index
(TLI) would be excellent with values greater than 0.95 and acceptable
with values greater than 0.9.
Convergent validity was assessed where each factor must present:
(1) standardized loadings with values greater than 0.5 and statistical
significance level p-value less than 0.05; (2) average variance extracted
(AVE) with values greater than 0.5; and (3) composite reliability with
values greater than 0.7. The discriminant validity assessment consisted
of comparing the AVE with the shared variance, where the AVE of a
factor should be greater than the square of the correction between it
and the other factors. The reliability of the measurement model was
evaluated through McDonald’s omega coefficient, considering values
3 Results
Content validity made it possible to retain the proposed fourfactor model shown in Table 1.
The saturations and correlations are shown in Figure 1.
The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test showed that the data did not
resemble a normal distribution (p-value<0.001). The AFC presented
X2 = 643.904; DF = 183 and p < 0.001. The model is a good fit for the
data (RMSEA = 0.048; CFI = 0.967; and TLI = 0.962).
The convergent validity of the model is supported in that there are
saturations greater than 0.5, AVE greater than 0.5, and composite
reliability greater than 0.7 (Table 2). Discriminant validity is evidenced
in that the AVE of each factor is greater than the squared correlation
between factors (Table 3). The scale has good reliability given that all
factors reach ω = 0.9 (Table 2).
The model proposed to measure the direct effect of coexistence
management on school violence (Figure 2) presents a good fit to the
data (RMSEA = 0.058; CFI = 0.951; TLI = 0.945). The effect of
Coexistence Management on School Violence is of medium
magnitude, statistically significant (γ = −0.462; p < 0.001), and shows
a good confidence interval (range = −0.462; L = −0.537; U = −0.387).
TABLE 1 Structure of the measurement model.
Factor
Name
Abbreviation
Items
Variables
F1
Student-to-student violence
SSV
5
x1–x5
F2
F3
Teacher-to-student violence
TSV
6
x6–x11
Violence from student to teacher
VST
4
x12–x15
F4
School coexistence management
MSC
6
x16–x21
Source: Prepared by the authors.
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The cutoff points for the factors are presented in Table 3. For
factors 1 to 3, the higher the score, the higher the perception of
violence; for factor 4, the higher the score, the better the evaluation of
coexistence management.
A good fit of the model to the data was found in all groups of the
categories analyzed. Except for the macrozone grouping, scalar invariance
was achieved in the categories reviewed (ΔCF1 < 0.01; ΔRMSEA<0.015).
The differences between groups are presented in Table 4.
4 Discussion and conclusion
Based on the obtained results, it is possible to argue that the
VI + GEC questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument that
measures teachers’ perceptions of school violence and coexistence
management. Having a psychometrically developed questionnaire
such as the one presented is relevant for understanding the
phenomenon of violence in schools and for the analysis of coexistence
management. A comprehensive perspective in this regard can favor
decision-making (Torrego et al., 2022) to prevent and mitigate the
effects of violence (Muñoz-Troncoso et al., 2023b). Thus, the novelty
of the study is the development of a psychometric scale—for
teachers—that incorporates factors of mutual violence between
students and teachers, in addition to the factor of school coexistence.
This scale also made it possible to measure the effect of coexistence
management on school violence.
Regarding the psychometric properties of the designed instrument,
the content validity allowed maintaining the proposed model of four
factors that refer to (1) violence between students; (2) teacher-to-student
violence; (3) student-to-teacher violence; and (4) school coexistence
management. This structure is consistent with the National Policy on
School Coexistence (MINEDUC, 2019). Convergent validity was
demonstrated, indicating that each factor of the questionnaire is
significantly related to its respective construct and in the ways we
predicted. Likewise, discriminant validity was evidenced, given that there
is no high correlation between the factors that comprise it. The
confirmatory factor analysis identified a good fit of the proposed model
to the data, showing that the indicators measure the latent variables to
which they conform. Similarly, all the factors of the instrument showed
good reliability indicators. In addition, scalar invariance was achieved in
the defined categories (except Macrozone), which allowed for an unbiased
review of the differences between groups.
A relevant finding is that, from the obtained results, it was evident
that there is a direct effect of the perception of coexistence
management on the perception of school violence since a medium and
statistically significant effect was found. This finding is in agreement
with what was stated by Pina et al. (2021) regarding the importance of
coexistence management with respect to school violence and the need
to generate efficient strategies in the face of conflict situations
(Aravena et al., 2020). It also corroborates the importance of training
tools that facilitate the management of coexistence and the approach
FIGURE 1
Measurement model diagram. Source: Prepared by the authors.
TABLE 2 Convergent, discriminant, and reliability validity indicators.
Factors
Factors
Saturations
Abbreviation
F1
SSV
Minimum
Maximum
Reliability
AVE
0.736
0.801
0.9
0.577
F1
F2
F3
F4
SSV
TSV
VST
MSC
0.360
0.476
0.072
F2
TSV
0.841
0.806
0.9
0.698
0.600
F3
VST
0.876
0.765
0.9
0.635
0.690
0.489
0.239
F4
MSC
0.836
0.869
0.9
0.678
−0.268
−0.391
0.153
0.157
−0.396
SSV= Student-Student Violence. TSV= Teacher-Student Violence. VST= Violence from student to teacher. MSC= Management of school coexistence. Correlations between factors are shown
below the diagonal. The squares of the correlations between factors are shown above the diagonal. Source: Prepared by the authors.
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TABLE 3 Levels according to cutoff points for each factor.
Factor
Abbreviation
Low
Medium
High
F1
SSV
5–11
12–17
18–30
F2
TSV
6–12
13–20
21–36
F3
VST
4–8
9–14
15–24
F4
MSC
6–18
19–27
28–36
Source: Prepared by the authors.
FIGURE 2
SEM path diagram. Source: Prepared by the authors.
to situations of violence (Morales et al., 2014). It is important to note
that this result is opposite to that reported by Muñoz-Troncoso et al.
(2023b), where a null effect of management on violence was found.
However, this effect can be explained by the fact that the questionnaire
used in that study measures the perception of students, actors who,
according to López et al. (2023), have little or no impact on
coexistence management.
The final analysis showed groups with statistically significant
differences. Gender: In the VST factor, women perceived more
violence than men, and in the MSC factor, women gave better ratings
than men. This difference could be due to the fact that women present
better moral judgment and less egoistic cognitive distortions than men
(Brugman et al., 2023), so they make a better assessment of situations,
identifying facts of violence that might not be evidenced by men.
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Function: In the VST dimension, classroom teachers see more
violence, and in the MSC dimension, ‘administrative’ teachers value
the factor better than teachers who work in the classroom. This
finding can be explained by the fact that teachers exposed to situations
of violence may see the coherence with which they perceive their
school community deteriorate (Morales et al., 2014). School level: In
the SSV and TSV factors, elementary school teachers see more
violence than pre-school teachers, and secondary school teachers see
more violence than pre-school and elementary school teachers. In the
MSC dimension, elementary school teachers give a better evaluation
than pre-school teachers. A better evaluation could occur because
supervision decreases as the age of students increases, and many acts
of violence occur in situations where supervision is less strict (Bourou
and Papageorgiou, 2023).
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TABLE 4 Comparisons between pairs of groups using the Mann–Whitney U-test.
Factor
SSV
TSV
VST
MSC
Group 1
Mdn.
Rng.
Group 2
Mdn.
Rng.
p
U
1-β
d
Female
13
25
Classroom
13
24
Male
13
21
0.042
95965.5
0.39
0.01
Administrative
13
25
0.619
95373.0
0.63
0.02
Pre-school
9
19
Primary
13
24
<0.001
15506.5
1.00
0.90
Pre-school
9
19
Secondary
Primary
13
24
Secondary
14
25
<0.001
7613.5
1.00
0.90
14
25
0.002
96947.0
0.28
0.17
Municipal
13
25
Subsidized
12
20
<0.001
88281.5
0.87
0.24
Municipal
13
25
Private
13
22
0.187
38675.0
0.51
0.12
Subsidized
12
20
Private
13
22
0.199
26330.0
0.87
0.12
Urban
13
25
Rural
11
20
<0.001
47694.5
0.97
0.45
Female
11
30
Male
11
21
0.127
98140.5
0.38
0.09
Classroom
11
30
Administrative
11
26
0.107
90730.0
0.84
0.11
Pre-school
8
26
Primary
11
30
<0.001
23271.5
0.50
0.34
Pre-school
8
26
Secondary
12
26
<0.001
12037.5
1.00
0.79
Primary
11
30
Secondary
12
26
0.003
97349.0
0.20
0.15
Municipal
11
30
Subsidized
10
26
0.001
89332.5
0.59
0.19
Municipal
11
30
Private
12
21
0.189
38687.0
0.38
0.10
Subsidized
10
26
Private
12
21
<0.001
22979.0
0.39
0.30
Urban
11
30
Rural
9
23
0.002
55859.5
0.25
0.22
Female
7
20
Male
7
14
0.845
103890.0
0.89
0.07
Classroom
7
20
Administrative
6
14
<0.001
80586.0
0,85
0.33
Pre-school
7
17
Primary
7
20
0.426
30409.5
0.56
0.09
Pre-school
7
20
Secondary
7
14
0.191
18064.0
0.32
0.09
Primary
7
20
Secondary
7
14
0.331
105790.0
0.33
0.01
Municipal
8
20
Subsidized
7
15
<0.001
87950.0
0.92
0.26
Municipal
8
20
Private
6
15
<0.001
31165.0
0.84
0.41
Subsidized
7
15
Private
6
15
0.025
24857.5
0.29
0.17
Urban
7
20
Rural
6
11
<0.001
48260.5
0.95
0.45
Female
26
30
Male
27
29
0.012
93926.0
0.59
0.01
Classroom
25
30
Administrative
30
30
<0.001
66589.0
1.00
0.59
Pre-school
24
25
Primary
26
30
0.019
27415.0
0.47
0.24
Pre-school
24
25
Secondary
26
30
0.142
17,854
0.55
0.16
Primary
26
30
Secondary
26
30
0.123
103365.0
0.43
0.09
Municipal
25
30
Subsidized
26
30
0.048
94189.5
0.63
0.13
Municipal
25
30
Private
27
30
0.712
40758.5
0.73
0.04
Subsidized
26
30
Private
27
30
0.290
26682.0
0.47
0.09
Urban
26
30
Rural
28
30
0.166
61652.5
0.49
0.11
Source: Prepared by the authors.
Type of school: In the SSV dimension, teachers in municipal schools
see more violence than those in private subsidized schools; in TSV,
teachers in municipal schools see more violence than those in private
subsidized schools, and teachers in private schools see more violence
than those in private subsidized schools. For the VST dimension,
teachers in private subsidized schools perceived more violence than
those in private schools, and teachers in municipal schools perceived
more violence than those in private subsidized schools and those in
Frontiers in Psychology
private schools. In MSC, teachers in private subsidized schools
perceived better management than those in municipal schools. This
finding could be related to the concentration of students at low
socioeconomic levels in Chilean municipal schools. Children from this
group are more exposed to community violence, which impacts their
relationship with the teacher and the school and can negatively affect
the school environment, which in turn influences the wellbeing of
students and teachers (Varela et al., 2021). Similarly, in municipal
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from the sample accessed, it is feasible that the instrument becomes an
applicable tool in Chilean educational establishments to evaluate
school violence and the management of coexistence from the teachers’
perspective. Certainly, the measure can be used to assess chronological
shifts within schools or regions to assess success of programs designed
to reduce violence in schools. Its implementation could contribute to
understanding the specific panorama of the factors measured by the
VI + GEC, allowing informed and preventive decision-making in the
face of school violence, with pertinent actions from the management
of coexistence in school spaces.
schools, economic, infrastructure, and management resources are
lower than in private subsidized schools, with private schools having
more resources (Guerra et al., 2011). Location: In the three types of
violence measured, teachers in urban schools saw more violence than
those in rural schools. This finding is related to the existing perception
of rural education as a space with a lower risk of violence dynamics,
which, in the perspective of Núñez et al. (2023), has been reinforced by
the School Inclusion Law and has even led to an increase in enrollment
in these schools from students living in urban centers.
Being able to assess the perception of teachers is of great relevance,
because it influences the quality of teaching and learning processes
(Torrego et al., 2022), job dissatisfaction, and the relationship that teachers
have with their schools (Varela et al., 2021). This fact confirms the
primordial role of teachers’ work in the promotion and implementation
of actions in school coexistence (Carrasco-Aguilar and Luzón, 2019). In
addition, the teacher’s perception is particularly relevant, given that it
differs from what students perceive (Ascorra and López, 2019).
It is possible to argue that, to obtain a comprehensive
measurement of school violence and coexistence management, the
joint application of the VI + GEC (developed in the present study)
and CENVI questionnaires (Muñoz-Troncoso et al., 2023a) is
necessary. The former allows us to know the perception of the
teaching staff, and the latter allows us to approach the students’
perspectives and experiences. This finding could contribute to a
general appreciation of the different actors in the educational
communities (D’auria-Tardeli et al., 2023), considering the
importance of developing evaluation and monitoring systems that
contribute to the implementation of management models by school
directors and managers (Ascorra et al., 2021).
The present study fulfills the proposed objective since the
perception of Chilean teachers regarding school violence and
coexistence management was measured, which implied the
validation of a psychometric scale elaborated—ipso facto—for this
purpose. Regarding the hypotheses raised, it can be pointed out:
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusion of this article will be made
available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving humans were approved by Research Ethics
Committee of the Universidad Católica de Temuco. The studies were
conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional
requirements. The participants provided their written informed
consent to participate in this study.
Author contributions
FM-T: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft,
Visualization, Validation, Software¸ Resources, Methodology,
Investigation¸ Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization.
AH: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Resources,
Conceptualization. IC-G: Writing – review & editing, Supervision,
Resources, Investigation, Conceptualization. ER-M: Writing – review
& editing, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Resources, Project
administration,
Methodology,
Funding
acquisition,
Conceptualization. EM-Z: Writing – review & editing, Validation,
Supervision, Software, Resources, Methodology. EL-V:
Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Writing – original
draft, Resources. VS-B: Conceptualization, Writing – review &
editing, Writing – original draft, Resources, Investigation. CS-A:
Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Writing – original
draft, Investigation. GM-T: Writing – review & editing, Writing –
original draft, Supervision, Resources, Conceptualization.
“H1: The proposed instrument evidence adequate goodness-of-fit and
reliability indexes.” It is confirmed that, since the confirmatory factor
analysis showed a good fit of the proposed model to the data,
convergent and discriminant validity was evidenced, along with
demonstrating good reliability indicators for all the factors of the scale.
“H2: There is a statistically significant effect of the coexistence
management factor on school violence”. It is confirmed due to the
evidence of a direct, medium, and statistically significant effect
of the perception of coexistence management on the perception
of school violence.
Funding
“H3: There are statistically significant differences between men and
women regarding the perception of violence and management of school
coexistence”. It is confirmed by evidence that women perceive more
violence among students than men. Similarly, women perceive a better
management of school coexistence than men.
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was
funded by the Fondecyt Regular project 1231178 “Ambivalencia
sociocultural y educativa en contexto mapuche: tensión epistémica de
docentes con estudiantes y padres de familia”; Fondecyt Regular
project 1191956 “Educación familiar y escolar: Socialización
emocional en contextos de diversidad social y cultural”; and Fondecyt
Iniciación project 11191041 “Educación familiar e intercultural en
contexto mapuche: hacia una articulación educativa en perspectiva
Limitations. Despite the large sample size, we note that the sample
is non-probabilistic due to accessibility, and turned out not to
be proportional among the defined macro-zones nor representative of
the teaching staff of the Chilean population, which prevents the
generalization of the results. Although the proposed cutoff points arise
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10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352399
decolonial”. Funding was also provided by the Research Department
of the Universidad Católica de Temuco (Chile).
The handling editor EM declared a shared parent affiliation with
the author FM-T at the time of the review.
Acknowledgments
Publisher’s note
The authors thank the Directorate of Research of the Universidad
Católica de Temuco, Chile. To the Directorate of the Doctoral Program
in Psychology at the Universidad de Extremadura, España. To the
Directorate of Graduate Studies in Education of the Universidad
Mayor, Temuco, Chile. We also appreciate all the participating teachers
who volunteered their time to provide their perceptions of violence in
their schools and did so without remuneration.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
endorsed by the publisher.
Conflict of interest
Supplementary material
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The Supplementary material for this article can be found online
at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352399/
full#supplementary-material
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