Psychological Capital, Cognitive Appraisals, and Achievement Emotions in Mathematics: Exploring Mediation Pathways

Abstract

With the affective turn in education, particularly with the control-value theory (CVT) proposal, a wide range of antecedents of achievement emotions, including psychological capital (PsyCap), have been investigated and verified. It is worth noting, however, that few studies have examined whether cognitive appraisals mediate the association between PsyCap and achievement emotions. Using latent structural equation model analysis (SEM), this study examined whether mathematical PsyCap predicted mathematics achievement emotions directly and indirectly mediated by mathematics-related control and value appraisals. Data were gathered from 1106 Chinese secondary school students, all of whom were between the ages of 11 and 16 years old. Corroborating the CVT, results indicated that mathematics PsyCap was positively correlated with mathematics enjoyment and achievement and negatively associated with mathematics boredom. The mediating effects of control and value appraisals were also confirmed in the relationships between mathematics PsyCap and achievement emotions (i.e., enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety), as well as between mathematics PsyCap and mathematical achievement. These findings enhance the current knowledge supporting the CVT and provide further insights into the linkage between PsyCap and achievement emotions in Chinese adolescents’ mathematics education.