Effect of Teacher Support on Adolescents’ Positive Academic Emotion in China: Mediating Role of Psychological Suzhi and General Self-Efficacy

Positive academic emotions can promote good academic performance and development in students. Therefore, how teachers stimulate students to produce more positive academic emotions is particularly important. This study aimed to reveal the underlying mechanism of teacher support and adolescents’ positive academic emotions. A total of 854 students from western China participated in this survey, which included the Students’ Perception of the Teacher’s Behavioural Support Questionnaire, the Psychological Suzhi Questionnaire for Middle School Students, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (396 boys; 12 to 20 years old, M(age) = 15.3, SD = 2.04). Results showed that (1) teacher support, psychological suzhi, and general self-efficacy were positively correlated with students’ positive academic emotion; (2) psychological suzhi and general self-efficacy played a separate mediating role between teacher support and adolescents’ positive academic emotion; and (3) teacher support also influenced adolescents’ positive academic emotion through the serial mediation of psychological suzhi and general self-efficacy.