Impact of Parents’ Attitudes on Learning Ineffectiveness: The Mediating Role of Parental Self-Efficacy

Parents play a key role in children’s home-based online learning. This study constructed a mediating model to explore the mechanism of parents’ attitudes toward online learning (PATOL) and the perceived online learning ineffectiveness (POLI) of their children and to investigate the mediating effect of parents’ self-efficacy (PSE) on PATOL and POLI. Valid questionnaire data from 18,170 middle school parents were collected by snowball sampling. The hypotheses proposed in this study were verified by using Model 4 of PROCESS. The results showed that: when controlling parents’ gender, age, and children’s length of online learning in regression equations, (1) both PATOL and PSE were negatively related to POLI, while PATOL was positively related to PSE; (2) PSE played a mediating role in the relationship between PATOL and POLI. This study also discusses how to support parents to assist children’s home-based online learning. Schools should carry out some necessary training for parents. Parents can get guidance and advice on how to create an environment conducive to children’s online learning.