| Primary school is a critical period for students to acquire learning skills and learning styles,and it is the initial stage to enhance their motivation and sense of independent learning.Academic achievement is the main indicator used by schools to evaluate students’ academic performance,summarising their academic performance in all areas of school and can be used to represent their academic ability and level of academic success.The main factors influencing the academic performance of primary school students include individual factors,which relate to cognitive ability,learning psychology and academic behaviour,and environmental factors,which relate to the school climate and the social background of the family.Psychological quality is a mental quality that is closely related to adaptive-developmental-creative behaviour(Zhang Dajun,Feng Zhengzhi,Guo Cheng,& Chen Xu,2000).Previous research has shown that psychological qualities,as intrinsic psychological qualities,can have a direct impact on academic achievement.Based on the existing research,this study further explores the relationship between psychological quality and academic achievement and its neural mechanisms from a neuroscience perspective.In this study,33,754 primary school students from three provinces,including Sichuan,Chongqing and Guizhou,were surveyed using the Primary School Students’ Psychological Profile Questionnaire,with the aim of examining the real situation of primary school students’ psychological profile and exploring the differences in the psychological profile of different categories of primary school students,such as gender,grade level,family residence and parents’ education.The results found that:(1)In terms of the overall condition of psychological quality,primary school students’ overall psychological quality development is better,which indicates that the overall performance of primary school students’ psychological quality is generally better.(2)In terms of sub-dimensions,personality quality scored the highest among them,followed by cognitive quality and adaptability in that order.In other words,the personality quality scores of primary school students were significantly higher than the cognitive quality and adaptive ability.(3)In terms of variability between demographic variables,in terms of gender,girls scored significantly higher than boys in both total and sub-dimensional scores for psychological qualities.In terms of grade level,grade 5 performed better overall in terms of psychological quality levels,with grade 3 scoring the lowest.In terms of family variables,the psychological quality scores of primary school students from different family residences showed an increasing trend from rural,urban and city.The psychological quality scores of primary school students with different levels of parental education tended to increase as their parents’ education increased,with postgraduate education scoring better than primary school education and below.In addition,the overall psychological quality scores of only children were significantly higher than those of non-only children.The overall level of psychological quality of primary school students who had no experience as left-behind children was significantly better than that of primary school students who had experience as left-behind children;Study 2 explored the brain functional basis of each sub-dimension of psychological quality from the perspective of neuroscience,using the resting-state local coherence method,and found that personality quality was negatively correlated with the local coherence of brain regions such as the left cerebellum,postcentral gyrus,frontal lobe and parietal lobe;adaptive ability was correlated with the local coherence of brain regions such as temporal lobe and Study 3 further explored the relationship between psychological quality and academic achievement and its neural basis by combining behavioural data and brain imaging data with resting-state functional connectivity and mediation analysis,based on Study 2.By using the brain regions associated with personality qualities and adaptive abilities found in Study 2 as regions of interest,the functional connectivity of brain regions associated with adaptive abilities was obtained and signal values were extracted,and finally the neural basis of the influence of psychological qualities on academic achievement was explored by mediation analysis.The results showed that the functional connectivity activity in the precuneus was significantly negatively correlated with adaptive capacity;the functional connectivity activity in the dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus was significantly positively correlated with adaptive capacity.The results of the mediation analysis suggest that psychological qualities have a mediating role in the influence of the dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus on academic achievement,i.e.the dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus can influence academic achievement through psychological qualities. |
