The Impact of Parental Educational Support on Academic Self-Efficacy Among Middle School Students: The Mediating Role of Teacher Support and Enjoyment in Chinese Language Arts

This study investigates how parental educational support influences middle school students’ academic self-efficacy, focusing on the mediating roles of teacher support and enjoyment in Chinese language arts. Drawing on ecological systems theory and achievement emotion theory, a dual-mediation model was proposed and tested using data from 507 students in a middle school in Fujian Province, China. All key constructs were measured using validated scales, and structural equation modeling confirmed the hypothesized relationships. Results indicated that parental educational support had a significant direct effect on academic self-efficacy and also exerted indirect effects through both teacher support and enjoyment. Notably, teacher support enhanced students’ enjoyment in Chinese language arts, which in turn strengthened their academic self-efficacy, supporting a sequential mediation pathway. These findings highlight the importance of both emotional and relational factors in shaping students’ beliefs about their academic capabilities. Importantly, the study was conducted within a Chinese collectivist cultural context, where academic success is closely tied to family expectations and teacher–student relationships. This setting provides a valuable contrast to Western individualist models and extends cross-cultural understanding of self-efficacy development. The results underscore the need for integrated school–family support systems and offer practical implications for enhancing academic motivation through emotionally supportive teaching and culturally sensitive parental engagement. This study contributes a nuanced model of academic self-beliefs and offers theoretical and practical insights relevant to both Eastern and Western educational systems.