| In recent years,adolescent suicide,self-abuse and other adverse social events have emerged,making it more urgent to study the sense of meaning of life more urgent.Having a sense of meaning is an important goal in one’s life.Homework,taking up one third of students’ spare time,may affect their perception and search for the meaning of life.However,how homework affects a student’s sense of life meaning is not well known until now.Two studies have been designed to clarify the influence mechanism of homework on students’ sense of life meaning.The first study,an open survey,was conducted among 10 students,10 teachers and 10 parents with self-made open questionnaires.It aims to explore the specific impact of homework on the sense of meaning in life.The main findings of the study are:(1)Students think that finishing homework is an experience of current life and they will gain a sense of meaning from it;It is also a special way for them to pursue the meaning of life,which makes them feel meaningful.(2)Parents believe that appropriate homework helps to enhance students’ sense of life meaning.(3)Teachers believe that doing homework itself has the meaning of existence,and effective homework can promote students to form a better sense of life meaning.In study 2,686 junior high school students were surveyed using the Meaning in Life Questionnaire,Homework Behavior Questionnaire and Academic Self-efficacy Scale.This study examined the mediating role of junior high school students’ self-efficacy in the relationship between homework behavior and life meaning.The main findings of Study 2 are:(1)There is no gender difference in the sense of meaning of life,but there exists a significant difference in grade.The second grade students have the lowest score of life meaning,the third grade students have the highest score of life meaning.(2)The sense of meaning of life,the sense of academic self-efficacy and homework behavior are both positively correlated.The correlation is between 0.447 and 0.737.(3)Homework behavior can not only directly and positively predict students’ sense of life meaning,but also influence students’ sense of life meaning partly through academic self-efficacy,and its mediating effect value is 0.241.Homework can have both a direct impact on students’ sense of life meaning and an indirect impact on students’ sense of self-efficacy.Based on this,this paper suggests:(1)By improving the content and form of homework,schools,families and the society can integrate the education of the meaning of life into homework to help students pursue and maintain the sense of the meaning of life.(2)Schools,families and the society can enhance students’ senses of academic self-efficacy,thus improving their senses of life meaning,helping them to experience the meaning of life,clarifyig their pursuit of life and making them grow up happily. |
