Environment and Social Psychology

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the moderating role of spiritual well-being in the relationship between parenting stress and resilience among parents of children with special needs. Using a quantitative correlational design, data were collected from 30 parents through validated questionnaires, analyzed using Pearson Product–Moment Correlation test and SEM-PLS. The results showed a significant and very strong positive correlation between parenting stress and resilience (r = 0.908, p < 0.001). Spiritual well-being significantly moderated this relationship, with a beta value of 0.893 and a t-statistic of 2.477 (p < 0.05). Parents with higher spiritual well-being demonstrated better stress management and resilience. The findings highlight the novelty of spiritual well-being as a resource for reframing parenting challenges positively. Practical implications include the development of spirituality-based support programs, such as mindfulness and prayer practices, to strengthen resilience in parents. Policymakers and mental health practitioners are encouraged to integrate spiritual components into educational and family support initiatives to better address the needs of this population.

Abstract Background: The growing emphasis on teaching quality in higher education has intensified interest in understanding its role in shaping students’ learning experiences, particularly within Chinese private universities. Alongside teaching quality, student satisfaction and critical reflection are increasingly recognized as essential indicators of effective teaching and meaningful learning. However, the relationships among these constructs remain insufficiently examined in the context of China’s private higher education sector. Purpose and methods: This study aims to explore the relationships among teaching quality, critical reflection, and student satisfaction, identify key influencing factors, and develop a conceptual framework grounded in existing literature. This research adopted a four-step method aiming to define the research scope, synthesize relevant literature, identify core constructs, and propose a conceptual framework. Results:  The synthesis of the included studies indicates that teaching quality—including teaching content, teaching methods, teaching conditions, and teaching management—functions as a foundational determinant of student satisfaction. The findings further suggest that critical reflection operates as a central mediating mechanism through which instructional quality translates into meaningful evaluative outcomes. Additionally, gender and disciplinary major appear to condition the strength of these relationships. Conclusion: By integrating the Teaching Quality Model with Transformative Learning Theory, the proposed framework advances understanding of student satisfaction beyond linear instructional effects and emphasizes cognitive transformation as a key explanatory process. The model provides a theoretically grounded basis for future empirical validation and offers practical guidance for private universities seeking to enhance student satisfaction through reflective, student-centered pedagogical strategies rather than solely procedural improvements.

Abstract Digital addiction is typically examined as a psychological or behavioral condition, while its broader economic consequences remain insufficiently addressed. This paper reframes digital addiction as an economic pathology, emphasizing its welfare and productivity implications across individuals, organizations, and public systems. Drawing on behavioral economics, time-allocation theory, and the economics of externalities, the study develops a theory-driven analytical framework to map the diffusion of economic costs associated with excessive digital use. Methodologically, a structured literature synthesis is combined with relative intensity scoring and heatmap visualization to compare cost channels and affected stakeholders. The findings indicate that the primary economic burden arises from time misallocation, productivity losses, and social spillovers rather than direct expenditures alone, with costs distributed asymmetrically across the economy. The framework provides a diagnostic basis for future empirical research and policy intervention in the digital economy.

Abstract Metacognitive strategies (MLS) play a significant role in foreign language learning by enabling students to plan, monitor, and adjust their acquired strategies. In addition, they also play a crucial role in language acquisition by positively influencing learners’ language development. However, foreign language learning anxiety (FLLA) is a negative emotion that exerts multifaceted detrimental effects on learners’ metacognitive learning strategies and language outcomes. This study was aimed at investigating the influence of FLLA on MLS, and the moderating Role of MLS in the relationship between FLLA and language performance (LP) among 736 university-level Chinese foreign language learners. A quantitative survey in this study revealed a significant negative correlation between two paths, namely, language confidence (LC) and MLS and academic anxiety (AA) and MLS. However, there was no significant correlation between the two paths of classroom anxiety (CN) and MLS and communication apprehension (CA) and MLS. Moreover, it was also discovered that MLS was a significant moderator of the relationship between FLLA and LP. The implications of the study were discussed.

Abstract The increasing change and competitive pressure in higher education have raised concerns about student anxiety, especially across different educational pathways. This study examines anxiety among associate degree and bachelor’s degree students and explores how educational level and cognitive characteristics are related to anxiety. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional, and non-experimental design, data were collected from 100 third-year students at a Chinese university through standardized questionnaires measuring generalized anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty. Descriptive analysis, group comparison, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression were conducted to examine patterns of association among the variables. The findings indicate that anxiety levels vary across educational backgrounds and that intolerance of uncertainty is meaningfully associated with students’ anxiety when educational level is considered. Although causal inferences cannot be drawn, the results highlight the relevance of both structural educational factors and individual cognitive tendencies in understanding student anxiety. This study provides empirical support for future research employing prospective or intervention based designs to further explore these relationships.

Abstract This study examines how team cohesion and sports motivation shape student engagement and competitive ability in university basketball courses operating under Outcome-Based Education (OBE). Drawing on a qualitative research design grounded in open-source data integration, we systematically synthesized publicly available educational datasets, published empirical studies, and open-access sports education records. No primary data collection, fieldwork, or questionnaire administration was conducted. The analytical framework positions OBE as a structured environmental intervention, through which team cohesion functions as the team-level psychological foundation, sports motivation operates as the intrinsic driving force, student engagement serves as the behavioral mediator, and competitive ability constitutes the targeted outcome. Findings derived from integrated analysis of open-source materials reveal five patterns. First, team cohesion scores in intervention-documented cases increased substantially (pretest 5.23 → posttest 7.82), with environmental support playing a consistent moderating role. Second, satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs promoted intrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, and social motivation—defined here as encompassing belonging, social identity, and interpersonal harmony—through differentiated pathways. Third, cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement demonstrated stepped collaborative development, with the high-coordination profile achieving optimal learning outcomes. Fourth, all four dimensions of competitive ability developed comprehensively across reviewed cases, with technical skills showing the largest increase (54.5%) and stratified analysis indicating a convergence effect. Fifth, structural equation modeling drawn from published studies confirmed the complete chain: team cohesion → sports motivation → student engagement → competitive ability, with sports motivation and student engagement serving dual mediating roles (CFI=0.97, RMSEA=0.046). These findings illuminate the social-psychological mechanisms underlying basketball teaching improvement under OBE and offer theoretically grounded practical guidance for physical education reform.

Abstract Social media has become deeply embedded in adolescent daily life. This prolonged exposure places young people in a persistent tension between their virtual self-presentations and their offline identities. How this image-reality discrepancy reshapes adolescent self-concept through specific psychological mechanisms has emerged as a pressing concern in environmental and social psychology. This study introduces "virtual liminal space" as its central theoretical framework. A mixed-methods design was adopted, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The sample consisted of 1,000 school-enrolled adolescents aged 12 to 18. Three interconnected dimensions were examined: the behavioral patterns and environmental drivers underlying online image construction; the perceptual structure and emotional experience of image discrepancy within virtual liminal spaces; and the dual pathways—internalization and externalization—through which image discrepancy reshapes self-concept. Several key findings emerged. First, adolescent image construction behaviors vary significantly across platforms. Second, a stable triadic tension exists among the ideal self, the online self, and the real self. Third, image discrepancy drives self-concept reconstruction through two coordinated routes. The internalization pathway follows a chain of social comparison, cognitive dissonance, and self-schema updating. The externalization pathway operates through behavioral compensation, identity experimentation, and re-socialization. Finally, outcomes diverge markedly based on individual psychological resilience and available social support. Some adolescents achieve positive identity integration, while others experience self-fragmentation. These findings offer both theoretical grounding and practical implications for understanding the distinctive features of adolescent self-development in the digital age.

Abstract This study examines the associations between sports community building and urban-rural economic coordinated development in the Yulin region, exploring the mediating role of group cohesion from an interdisciplinary perspective integrating environmental psychology and social psychology. Through systematic integration of open-source data encompassing 600 data entries related to sports community participants, this study conducts quantitative analysis by referencing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) parameters and Bootstrap mediation effect testing results synthesized from existing empirical literature. The findings reveal that the overall level of sports community building in Yulin is moderately high (M=3.42), with urban communities (M=3.78) significantly outperforming rural communities (M=2.95); physical environment development is relatively well-established, but institutional environment construction remains inadequate. Sports community building is significantly and positively associated with urban-rural economic coordinated development (β=0.52, p<0.001), with the social environment dimension showing the strongest association. Group cohesion serves as a partial mediator, with a mediation effect of 0.244, accounting for 46.9% of the total effect; the mediating contribution of task cohesion (27.3%) exceeds that of social cohesion (19.6%). Social identity and place attachment are associated with cohesion formation through chain pathways, which in turn correlates with economic development outcomes. Urban-rural disparities exhibit significant moderating effects, with the proportion of mediation effect in rural communities (62.5%) surpassing that in urban communities (45.8%), and the moderating intensity diminishes as economic development levels increase. This research illuminates the psychosocial associations through which sports community building correlates with economic coordinated development by cultivating social capital and enhancing collective action capacity, thereby providing theoretical foundations and practical pathways for the transformation and development of resource-based cities in western China and urban-rural integration, while enriching the application of environmental psychology in community governance and economic development research. The study employs a cross-sectional quantitative research design based on open-source data integration, which has temporal limitations for causal inference, and the synthesized secondary data may be subject to inherent limitations of the original sources. The sample is limited to the Yulin region, and external validity needs to be further verified in regions with different developmental stages and cultural contexts.

Abstract Understanding the dynamics of public opinion requires attention to the cognitive processes through which personal beliefs and emotions shape issue-specific judgments, such as geopolitical evaluations in international conflicts. Drawing on rounds of opinion surveys and interviews conducted among young Chinese respondents from Generation Z in Beijing, this study explores whether interpersonal friend–foe beliefs are associated with attitudes towards the Russia–Ukraine war. The findings suggest that analogical transfer from interpersonal friend–foe beliefs to geopolitical evaluations can be observed, but only to a limited extent. Similar pro-Russia judgments pointed to the perceived importance of Russia in countering Western containment rather than interpersonal relational reasoning. Moreover, an “us-versus-them” mindset rooted in such interpersonal logic was associated with a tendency among those who valued Russia’s energy supply to view Russia as part of “us” and to prioritise offering it support. Among respondents who perceive Russia as a longstanding good friend, support appears to rest more on historically grounded relational affinity than on threat-oriented friend–foe beliefs. Overall, the results indicate that analogical transfer operates as one possible cognitive pathway among several shaping geopolitical evaluations within this Beijing-based cohort.

Abstract This study employs a qualitative research design to investigate how digital teaching resource inputs are integrated into teaching quality within the context of rural primary schools, grounded in the social system model. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, including six educational administrators and nine teachers from three rural primary schools in Yunnan, China. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study are threefold. First, although investments in digital teaching resources have increased under top-down policy initiatives, a persistent systemic disconnect between resource adaptability, technical support, and pedagogical practice constrains the effective transformation of these resources into educational utility. Second, the school cultural system is crucial in translating digital resources into teaching quality through shared values, teachers’ sense of belonging, ethnic minority cultural integration, and home–school collaboration. Third, digital teaching resources boost student engagement and classroom interactivity but have limited effects on learning outcomes due to gaps in family support, weak localization, and uneven teacher competence. The enhancement of teaching quality in rural primary schools needs to be advanced synergistically across three dimensions: resource construction, teacher professional development, and cultural ecology, thereby building a holistic educational ecosystem that supports sustainable digital transformation.

Abstract Despite growing scholarly interest in graduate employability, existing research has largely focused either on individual-level psychological attributes or macro-structural environmental conditions in isolation, leaving the dynamic interaction between personal psychological resources and socio-environmental contexts — particularly in the context of technology-mediated career development — underexplored. To address this gap, this study draws on Person-Environment Interaction Theory and Environmental Social Psychology as its theoretical framework, integrating three core constructs: individual psychological capital (encompassing self-efficacy, resilience, and career cognition), environmental support systems (comprising policy environment, technological infrastructure, and social support networks), and technology-assisted employment program engagement. A qualitative research design grounded in systematic open-source data integration was employed, combining thematic synthesis of publicly available graduate employment datasets, policy documents, and peer-reviewed empirical literature to capture both the breadth and depth of the phenomena under investigation. Findings reveal a structural imbalance in graduate employability, with social and human capital emerging as the primary developmental shortfall. Technology-assisted programs demonstrated meaningful positive patterns across employability dimensions, with impact varying by program type and usage context. The synthesized multi-level analytical framework further confirmed that employability formation is shaped by the interplay of individual and environmental factors, with psychological capital and policy support emerging as particularly influential. This study contributes to the field by offering an empirically grounded, integrative framework that advances employability theory beyond single-level explanations, while providing actionable evidence for the design of differentiated intervention strategies, the optimization of employment support policies, and the development of more contextually responsive technology-assisted career programs.