Positive Parenting, Self-Efficacy, and Academic Motivation in Ethnic Minority University Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

Academic motivation plays a prominent role in ethnic-racial minority students' academic development. Social cognitive theory suggests that positive parenting and peer context could benefit adolescents' academic motivation through developing self-efficacy. Moreover, the elevated stress and ethnic discrimination brought by the COVID-19 pandemic made it increasingly challenging for minority students to maintain high academic motivation. This study leveraged data collected before and during the pandemic through a three-wave longitudinal design and investigated the relationships between positive parenting, peer attachment, self-efficacy, ethnic-racial discrimination, and COVID stress among minority students. 220 ethnic-racial minority first-year university students (Mage: 18.14, 69.38% female) from a major western university participated in Wave 1 in Fall 2019 by filling out an online survey. The same procedure was repeated 2.5 years later in Wave 2 with 142 participants and 6 months afterwards in Wave 3 with 106 participants. Positive parenting at Wave 1 was not directly related to Wave 2 self-efficacy, Wave 3 intrinsic or extrinsic academic motivation. Wave 2 self-efficacy promotes Wave 3 intrinsic academic motivation. Positive parenting promoted self-efficacy when peer attachment was low, whereas positive parenting hindered self-efficacy when peer attachment was high. Self-efficacy promoted intrinsic academic motivation when ethnic-racial discrimination was low or when COVID-stress was high. Findings demonstrate the interweaving, yet ambivalent interaction effects of parental and peer influences on minority students' academic self-efficacy, as well as the risk of discrimination on suppressing the promotive effect of self-efficacy on intrinsic motivation during the pandemic. Educational practices should target the immediate social and family environment to promote minority students' academic development during periods of stress and uncertainty.