Dai Middle School Students’ Dropout:A SEM Investigation Of The Self-system Model Of Motivational Development

Dropout refers to the phenomenon that students fail to complete their education for a prescribed number of years after enrollment,and then stop studying or leave the school.With the continuous development of the country’s nine-year compulsory education and the control of dropouts,the dropout rate of Chinese students is getting lower and lower.Because dropout is the last stage of a dynamic accumulation process,students usually have less noticeable forms of disengagement before dropping out,such as bad attitudes and behaviors about learning,and previous studies have clearly pointed out that the intention to drop out is the most powerful Single predictor.In addition,students ’environmental background,emotional cognition,and behavioral behaviors on learning have also been found to influence the occurrence of students’ final dropout behavior.The Self-System Model for Motivation Development(SSMMD)provides an ideal framework for studying the above variables to influence dropouts.Based on the self-system model of motivation development,this study explores the status quo of the dropout intention of Dai middle school students and the dynamic mechanism of the development of dropout intention.1301 Dai students in 3 middle schools in Ruili Shi,Yunnan Province were selected as the research objects.They need to complete a series of self-reporting questionnaires,among which context factors include teacher support questionnaires and parent support questionnaires;self-system factors include perceived control questionnaires,perceived identification with school questionnaires,and Aspiration index questionnaires;the action includes academic engagement questionnaires,behavior engagement questionnaires,emotional engagement questionnaire;the dependent variable was the dropout intention questionnaire.The research data were analyzed and modeled using SPSS22.0 and AMOS23.0.The results are as follows:(1)In terms of context,the parent support level is low,while teacher support level is high.In the self-system,the perceived control and the level of external goal are lower,while the perceived identification with school and the level of internal goal are higher.The level of academic engagement,emotional engagement and behavioral engagement is high.The overall level of dropout intention was low.(2)At least 2% of the Dai middle school students are in a strong recessive dropout state;32.7% of the Dai students may be in a recessive dropout state or are developing towards a recessive dropout state;10% of the students are present Intention to drop out.(3)Among demographic variables such as gender male,partner dropout,partner mainly Dai,living in rural villages,not knowing their family’s economic status,and parents’ occasional participation in village activities,Dai middle school students who meet any of the conditions may have a higher risk of dropping out of school.(4)In the context,both parent support and teacher support can negatively predict the school dropout intention of Dai middle school students.Teacher support has a stronger predictive effect than parent support.(5)In the self-system,internal goals and perceived control cannot directly affect students’ dropout intentions,external goals positively predict students’ dropout intentions,and identification with school negatively predicts students’ dropout intentions.Among them,identification with school has the strongest influence on school dropout intentions.(6)In the school engagement,the school engagement,behavior engagement,and emotional engagement can all negatively predict the dropout intention of the middle school students of the Dai ethnic group.Among them,the influence of behavior engagement and emotional engagement is more than twice the impact of school input on dropout intention.(7)Demographic variables will interfere with the self-system model of motivational development;after controlling demographic variables,the self-system plays a full mediating role between the context and the school engagement.The context can only affect the middle school students of the Dai ethnic group through the mediating effect of the self-system and the learning input sequence Intention to drop out of school.(8)Both parent support and teacher support positively predicted perceived control,identification with school and internal goals in the self-system,and the above self-system variables positively predicted the academic engagement,behavioral engagement and emotional engagement,and finally negatively predicted the intention to drop out.(9)Parent support and teacher support play different roles in the path involving external goals.Parent support positive prediction of dropout intention through the sequential mediating effect of extrinsic goals and school engagement(academic,emotion and behavioral engagement),while teacher support negative prediction of dropout intention through the sequential mediating effect of extrinsic goals and school engagement(academic,emotion and behavioral engagement).(10)Among all the mediating paths,parents support and teachers support have the most obvious effect on students’ emotional engagement and behavioral engagement through identification with school,and finally affect their intention to drop out.In summary,this study has reached the following conclusions:(1)Although the level of hidden dropout and dropout intention of Dai middle school students is not high on the whole,there are still a few students with high dropout intention.(2)Although the support of parents and teachers can enhance the sense of identity of school and learning for the middle school students of Dai ethnic group,it has not further significantly increased their investment in schoolwork.Instead,it has reduced their learning process by increasing their compliance with classroom rules and discipline The negative emotions that are generated ultimately make them less likely to drop out of school.(3)The cultural differences behind the support of parents and teachers produce different results in shaping the goals of students’ self-system,and the opposite results in students’ intention to drop out.