An Investigation Of The Relationship Among Parental Academic Involvement,Self-Efficacy And Academic Burnout Of Left-Behind Children In Junior High School

Academic burnout is an important issue that could affect the student’s academic performance and their physical and mental health.Exploring the factors and mechanisms that affect academic burnout will be helpful to the prevention and intervention of academic burnout.As an important component of the middle school education system,the parental academic involvement could influence academic competence of students,thereby affecting their academic burnout.The existing researches rarely reach the mechanism of how the parent’s involvement in academy and the self-efficacy affect academic burnout.Furthermore,the research targets of academic burnout mostly focus on college students and common middle school students,and rarely involves the giant population of the left-behind children,who is special for their parent’s participation in academy.Employing two studies,this paper studied the features and relationships of parental academic involvement,self-efficacy and academic burnout of left-behind children.It provides scientific and objective methods and strategies for improving left-behind children’s academic burnout.In study1,a total of 910 junior high school students from two junior high schools in Chongqing（370 left-behind children,average age 13.81±0.97）were surveyed.The parental involvement scale（Cheung&Pomerantz,2011）,the general self-efficacy scale（Wang,2007）and the academic burnout scale（Hu&Dai,2007）were employed to measure their the parental academic involvement,self-efficacy and the academic burnout,respectively.Study 2 was conducted to interviews 10 left-behind children in junior high school.The interview outline was developed on the basis of the original questionnaire in study1.The interview can further confirm,supplement and deepen the research results of study 1,and lay a foundation for future research.The research results were as follows:1.The features of parental academic involvement,self-efficacy and academic burnout of left-behind children:（1）The average value of parental academic involvement of left-behind children was 3.58±0.97（1-5 scale）,which was significantly lower than that of non-left-behind children(3.88±0.89,t=-4.72^***,p<0.001).The results of the interview showed that parents care and support to their children were mainly delivered via phone and buying learning materials.However,the communication between the parents of left-behind children and school teachers were insufficient.The effectiveness of parental involvement was affected by the quality of parental academic involvement and children’s perceptions and attitudes towards parental academic involvement.（2）The average value of self-efficacy of left-behind children was 2.52±0.73（1-4 scale）.The average value of self-efficacy of male students was 2.60±0.74,which was significantly higher than that of female students（2.43±0.77,t=2.21*,p<0.05）.The interview results showed that the self-efficacy level of most left-behind children were at the middle level.（3）The average value of academic burnout of left-behind children was 2.33±0.78（1-5 scale）,which was significantly higher than that of non-left-behind children（2.12±0.71,t=4.02***,p<0.001）.The average value of academic burnout of male students was 2.40±0.77,which is significantly higher than that of female students（2.24±0.77,t=2.00*,p<0.05）.The academic burnout of left-behind children in junior high school was significantly different in terms of grade（F=5.57,p<0.05）.The result of LSD test showed that the academic burnout significantly scored higher in grade 3（2.57±0.88）than in grade 2（2.28±0.67）and grade 1（2.23±0.78,p<0.05）.The results of the interview also indicated that the academic burnout of left-behind children was common.In addition,the academic environment,academic pressure,support from peers and teachers were the factors that affected academic burnout.2.The relationship among parental academic involvement,self-efficacy and academic burnout of left-behind children:（1）The parental involvement of left-behind children in junior school was positively correlated with self-efficacy（r=0.34,p<0.01）,while the parental involvement was negatively correlated with academic burnout（r=-.40,p<0.01）.The self-efficacy of left behind children in junior high school was negatively correlated with academic burnout（r=-.28 p<0.01）.（2）The parental academic involvement of left-behind children significantly negatively predicted their academic burnout（β=-0.28,t=-6.69,p<0.01）;the parental academic involvement of left-behind children significantly positively predicted their self-efficacy（β=0.27,t=6.94,p<0.01）,the self-efficacy of left-behind children significantly negatively predicted their academic burnout（β=-0.17,t=-3.26,p<0.01）.The self-efficacy of left-behind children was a part mediator between the parental academic involvement and academic burnout.（3）Gender moderated the relationship between academic burnout and parental academic involvement and self-efficacy.Female students’self-efficacy could significantly negatively predict their academic burnout（simple slop=-0.32,t=-4.19,p<0.01）,while male students’self-efficacy could not（simple slop=-0.05,t=-0.68,p>0.05）.The conclusions of the present study are as follows:1.The parental academic involvement of left-behind children in junior high school is at the level of slightly over medium.However the form and effect of parental involvement remain defects.The academic burnout is at low to medium level,but widespread.Comparing to non-left-behind children,the parental academic involvement of left-behind children in junior high school is significantly lower and their academic burnout is significantly higher.2.There are significant differences on multiple demographic variables for left-behind children in junior high school in terms of their parents’academic involvement,self-efficacy and academic burnout.3.The self-efficacy of left-behind children in junior high school plays a part mediator role between the parental academic involvement and academic burnout.Gender plays a moderating role in the prediction of academic burnout by parental academic involvement and self-efficacy.Female students’self-efficacy significantly and negatively predict their academic burnout,while male students’self-efficacy could not do.This paper provides practical evidence for preventing and interfering the academic burnout of the left-behind children in junior high school of China.It enriches and expands the research area regarding to the academic burnout of the left-behind children in junior high school,and further sets foundation for further researches on the academic burnout of the left-behind children in junior high school.