Author(s)

Xiaozhou Zhang¹, Jie Luo², Ting Peng³, Yun Hong¹, Xiaoyan Li⁴

¹School of Education, Tongren University, Tongren, China.
²School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China.
³Humanities Foundation Department, Guizhou Health Vocational College, Tongren, China.
⁴School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China.

Objective: To explore the mediating effects of self-esteem and academic self-efficacy on gratitude and core self-evaluations in rural junior middle school students. Methods: The Gratitude Scale, Self-esteem Scale, Academic Self-Efficacy Scale and Core Self-Evaluations Scale were used to conduct a questionnaire survey among 923 rural junior middle school students. The bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method was conducted to test the chain mediating role of self-esteem and academic self-efficacy between rural junior middle school students’ gratitude and core self-evaluations. Results: Correlation analysis showed significantly positive correlations between gratitude, self-esteem, academic self-efficacy and core self-evaluations (r = 0.30 - 0.56, P < 0.01); the mediation model indicated that gratitude had a significant direct effect on core self-evaluation, with an effect value of 0.094 and accounting for 21.91%. The mediating role of self-esteem and academic self-efficacy between gratitude and core self-evaluations was significant, with effect values of 0.225 and 0.027, accounting for 52.45% and 6.29%, and the chain mediating role of self-esteem and academic self-efficacy in rural junior middle school students’ gratitude and core self-evaluations was also significant, with an effect value of 0.083 and accounting for 19.35%. Conclusion: Gratitude not only directly influences the core self-evaluations of rural junior middle school students, but also through the indirect path of self-esteem and academic self-efficacy, as well as the chain mediating path between these two variables.

Rural Junior Middle School Students, Gratitude, Self-Esteem, Core Self-Evaluations, Academic Self-Efficacy

Zhang, X. , Luo, J. , Peng, T. , Hong, Y. and Li, X. (2020) The Impact of Gratitude on Core Self-Evaluations of Rural Junior Middle School Students: A Chain Mediation Analysis. Psychology, 11, 1141-1152. doi: 10.4236/psych.2020.118075.