The impact of Chinese adolescents visual art participation on self-efficacy: A serial mediating role of cognition and emotion

Abstract

A large volume of evidence indicates that only high-class students attend extracurricular activities (Art, music, sport, dancing). On the other hand, this evidence intensively underlines the substantial importance of such extracurricular activities, particularly in visual art, in promoting children’s cognitive and non-cognitive well-being. Adolescents’ participation in visual art was always interrelated with enhancing their emotional affection towards the Art and cognitive skill in making one, which ultimately built solid efficacy that allows them to interact with their society. The present cross-sectional study sought to shed light on the potential impact of visual art on adolescents’ emotional, cognition, and self-efficacy development, which needs to be improved in the Chinese context. Hence, randomly sampled (N = 2139) junior secondary school students were recruited from the rural province of Guizhou in Southwest China to attain the aim of the study. The study’s finding affirms that students engaged in artistic activities start to develop a habit of communicating with their peers, showing their work, and commenting on works made by their peers or observed in art exhibitions or museums; such a process makes them self-efficacious. Ultimately, this paper extends the application of visual art activities from educational benefits to nonacademic development, which are the primary agents for children’s well-being.

Effect of out-of-school visual art activities on academic performance. The mediating role of socioeconomic status

“…These findings perfectly explain the modern Chinese parenting style, which practices a strategy in which both parents take different but parallel responsibilities for their children’s development. Moreover, our analysis supports the development model, which pronounces the influence of ECAs on children’s cognitive and noncognitive development [ 12 , 27 , 36 ]. Astonishingly, this finding negates Chinese evidence, which argues that children’s participation in after-school ECAs doesn’t only predict academic benefits directly but indirectly [ 11 ].…”

“…In the preceding literature, Chinese parents are known for spending money rather than time on their children's cognitive and noncognitive adjustment. This paper confirms the latest studies' perspective, arguing that present-day maternities follow their children's academic and nonacademic progress by involving themselves and their monetary allegiance [e.g., 12,27,40]. The aforementioned study mentioned that in addition to participation in OOS-organized visual art programs, parents should support their children by expanding their exposure to activities ([.f., 1].…”

“…It is well documented that OOS ECAs are serviced by commercial training centers that spotlight cultural capital's power in children's well-being [e.g., 1,25,27]. Nevertheless, in the modern world, low-SES societies strive to forfeit their will to send their children to OOS centers to enrich their self-confidence among their peers [12,32].…”

“…A follow-up analysis by Lagacé‐Séguin and Case indicated that parents who support their children alongside the paid OOS program foster their academic outcome [ 22 ]. Likewise, in addition to paid OOS training, children develop robust cognition and emotion for visual art, and more parents commit and are involved in artistic work with their children [ 9 , 12 , 27 ]. Therefore, parents should dedicate their time and money to obtain the intended outcome of visual art and other ECAs [ 2 ].…”

“…Stimulatingly, although SES determines children’s participation in OOS ECAs, a growing number of studies claim that low-SES or disadvantaged children who are minority participants in in-and-out-of-school organized and supervised activities benefit more than their high-SES peers [ 1 , 27 , 28 ]. Explicitly, a longitudinal study in the USA that assessed the significance of ECAs stated that from all activities, visual art affects the well-being of low-SES counterparts compared with high-SES counterparts [ 29 ].…”