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Objective Based on the self-determination theory, the three types of autonomy support of parents, teachers and peers as a whole were included in the same research system to explore their effects on exercise adherence of higher vocational college students and their internal mechanisms. Methods The study used the exercise autonomy support scale, autonomous motivation scale and exercise adherence scale to construct and test the hypothesised pathways for promoting exercise adherence among students in higher vocational college. Using the data obtained from a survey of 436 higher vocational college students as the unit of analysis, and taking into account the variable of students’ self-determined motivation. The three types of autonomy support of parents, teachers and peers were simultaneously incorporated into the same research system to explore their effects on higher vocational college students’ exercise adherence and their internal mechanisms. Results Except for parent autonomy support, neither teacher nor peer autonomy support had a significant positive effect on exercise adherence of higher vocational college students. Unlike the role played by teacher autonomy support, neither parent nor peer autonomy support was able to positively predict exercise autonomous motivation among higher vocational college students. Conclusion Parent autonomy support can positively influence the exercise adherence of higher vocational college students, neither teacher nor peer autonomy support can significantly positively influence the exercise adherence of higher vocational college students. Teacher autonomy support can significantly and indirectly influence higher vocational college students’ exercise adherence through autonomous motivation, while parent and peer autonomy support cannot indirectly influence higher vocational college students’ exercise adherence through autonomous motivation.

With the acceleration of the pace of life and the aggravation of learning tasks, primary school students are facing unprecedented physical and mental pressure. As an important part of school education, physical education (PE) not only undertakes the task of improving students’ physical quality, but also plays an irreplaceable role in promoting students’ mental health and cultivating good social adaptability. In this context, PE teacher autonomy support behaviours have a profound impact on the physical and mental health of primary school students. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of PE teacher autonomy support on primary school students’ physical and mental health, and to analyse in depth the chain-mediated roles of interest and physical activity level in this process. Multi-Dimensional perceived autonomy support scale for PE, KIDSCREEN-52 scale, PE Learning Interest Level Scale for Elementary School Students and Physical Activity Level Scale were used to investigate 528 elementary school students. The results of Pearson’s analysis indicated that PE teacher autonomy support was significantly and positively correlated with interest, physical activity level and physical and mental health. The results of the mediation effect test found that interest and physical activity level produced a total indirect effect value of 0.467, with a confidence interval of [0.302, 0.548] not including 0. The mediation effect of the model consisted of 3 paths. PE teacher autonomy support→interest→physical activity level→physical and mental health, with an effect value of 0.351, 95% CI [0.286, 0.405]. PE teacher autonomy support→interest→physical activity level→physical and mental health, with an effect value of 0.127, 95% CI [0.139, 0.274]. None of the above three paths contains 0 at the Bootstrap 95% confidence interval, indicating that interest and physical activity level play a role in mediating the chain of mediation between PE teacher autonomy support and physical and mental health. PE teacher autonomy support has a positive impact on primary school students’ physical and mental health, with a chain mediating effect mainly through stimulating their interest in physical activity and enhancing their physical activity levels. This chain of positive effects not only promoted the physical health of primary school pupils, but also had a significant positive impact on their mental health.

Anchored in the socio-ecological framework, the current study examined the association of teacher autonomy support with emotional-behavioral functioning profiles using a person-centered approach and investigated whether growth mindset and adolescents’ gender would moderate this association. To achieve these research objectives, this study involved 1741 adolescents (54.1% girls; M age = 12.62; SD  = 1.50) who were uniformly instructed to fill in a set of self-report questionnaires. Results based on latent profile analysis revealed four emotional-behavioral functioning profiles: primarily externalizing (6.2%), comorbid (32.9%), well-adjusted (53.7%), and high-risk (7.2%). Adolescents with high teacher autonomy support were more likely to be group members of the well-adjusted profile than the remaining three emotional-behavioral functioning profiles. Moreover, interaction analyses demonstrated that girls benefited more when teacher autonomy support and growth mindset were congruently high, whereas boys did not. The current findings suggest that teachers should be equipped with sufficient skills and training to maintain an autonomy-supportive classroom climate. Meanwhile, growth mindset intervention may develop into an integral part of the school’s activities to facilitate adolescents’ optimal emotional-behavioral functions, but distinctly gendered pathways for these activities should be carefully considered.

Abstract Previous research on self-determination theory has primarily focused on analyzing experiences and behaviors, without fully elucidating the neural basis of how teacher autonomy support influences students’ academic performance. In this study, four individuals were selected to act as teachers, while 42 individuals were assigned as students. The study manipulated teacher autonomy support and control styles. By simulating the real teaching process, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning technology was used to examine how teachers’ autonomy support style affected students’ autonomous motivation, academic emotions, and test scores. The behavioral findings indicated that, in comparison to the teachers’ control style, students exposed to the teacher autonomy support style demonstrated heightened autonomous motivation and more positive academic emotions. Furthermore, these positive effects were mediated by students’ autonomy need satisfaction. The fNIRS results revealed that, compared to the teachers’ control style, the students and teachers in the teachers’ autonomy support style exhibited enhanced interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) in the left prefrontal cortex (lPFC). This INS was positively associated with autonomy need satisfaction and positive emotions, with consistent findings observed in dynamic teacher–student INS. These findings provide a basis for further exploration into the neural mechanism underlying autonomy need satisfaction.

Higher education faculty’s autonomous support of online teaching can promote students engagement in online context. This study collected 492 Chinese university students’ survey questionnaires and applied structural equation model to measure their teacher autonomy support, self-efficacy, self-regulated learning (SRL), and online learning engagement. This study adopted self-determination theory (SDT), systematically explored the relationship between teachers’ autonomy support and student learning engagement from the perspective of online contexts, and examined the mediating effects of students’ self-efficacy and self-regulated learning (SRL) in online contexts. This study found that teacher autonomy support had a significant effect on student engagement in online learning, and was mediated by self-efficacy. Teacher-directed support had a significant effect on student engagement in online learning mediated by SRL. Teacher-directed support had a significant impact on online learning with self-efficacy and SRL as the main mediating variables. Therefore, this study gave a fresh perspective to improve students’ online learning engagement, that is to say, teachers were encourage to improve students’ autonomy in practical teaching on the basis of giving students autonomy support. Students can promote online learning engagement by strengthening self-efficacy and self-regulation through organizational exchanges and mutual assistance and cooperation of students. Plain Language Summary Teacher Autonomy Support Influence on Online Learning Engagement Autonomous support for online teaching and learning by higher education teachers can increase students’ engagement in online learning. This study collected 492 Chinese university students’ survey questionnaires and applied structural equation model to measure their teacher autonomy support, self-efficacy, self-regulated learning (SRL), and online learning engagement. This study adopted self-determination theory (SDT), systematically explored the relationship between teachers’ autonomy support and online learning engagement from the perspective of online contexts, and examined the mediating effects of students’ self-efficacy and self-regulated learning (SRL) in online contexts. This study found that teacher autonomy support had a significant effect on student engagement in online learning, and was mediated by self-efficacy. Teacher-directed support had a significant effect on student engagement in online learning mediated by SRL. Teacher-directed support had a significant impact on online learning with self-efficacy and SRL as the main mediating variables. Therefore, this study gives a fresh perspective to improve students’ online learning engagement, that is to say, teachers are encourage to improve students’ autonomy in practical teaching on the basis of giving students autonomy support. Students can promote online learning engagement by strengthening self-efficacy and self-regulation through organizational exchanges and mutual assistance and cooperation of students.

Prior research has widely demonstrated that children who remain in their original communities after one or both biological parents migrated (i.e., left-behind children) confront salient emotional and behavioral difficulties; however, an insufficient amount of research has been devoted to understanding their prosocial behavior. The current study extended prior research by comparing the prosocial behavior between left-behind children and their non-left-behind peers. Subsequently, this study examined the individual variations (i.e., narcissism and left-behind status) of the correlation between teacher autonomy support and prosocial behavior in a combined sample of left-behind and non-left-behind children. 738 youth ( N left-behind  = 246, Mean age  = 15.77, 53.6% girls; N non-left-behind  = 492, Mean age  = 15.91, 55.1% girls) participated in the present research and completed a packet of well-established questionnaires. The results, after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, showed that the prosocial behavior of left-behind children did not significantly differ from that of non-left-behind children. Furthermore, the results based on linear regression analysis exhibited teacher autonomy support was positively related to prosocial behavior, and high narcissism buffered against the adverse effect of low teacher autonomy support on left-behind children’s prosocial behavior. The current study indicates that creating an autonomy-supportive atmosphere at school and facilitating left-behind children’s narcissism are paramount to promoting their prosocial tendencies.

We investigated the relationship between teacher support at school intended to promote students’ autonomy and immigrant adolescents’ psychological well-being. A structural equation model was tested on 3130 immigrant adolescents who attended a representative sample of 654 Italian high schools. Gender, socioeconomic status, previous school achievement and immigrant generation were included in the analysis as control variables. Results showed that when teachers are perceived as adopting an approach that is supportive of autonomy, immigrant adolescents report significantly higher levels of psychological well-being. Gender appears to be the most relevant background factor, with girls being more at risk than boys as regards mental health. Overall, our findings suggest that interventions of enacted support by teachers at school that aim to foster students’ autonomy would be an effective approach for protecting against mental illness in immigrant adolescents.

The present research compared internalizing problems of adolescents who experienced parental divorce with those of adolescents who remained in intact families. Furthermore, this research investigated the association of teacher autonomy support with adolescents’ internalizing problems for the whole sample and further ascertained whether this association was moderated by distinctive personality profiles using a person-centered approach and family structures (divorced vs. intact families). A sample of 2756 Chinese adolescents (8.5% from divorced families), aged 13–18 years, participated in the present research. They completed a set of self-reported questionnaires during school hours. Results based on ANCOVA showed that adolescents who experienced parental divorce reported higher internalizing problems than did those who remained in intact families. Moreover, latent profile analysis revealed three personality profiles: psychopathic (22.7%), normative (56.4%), and resilient (20.9%). In addition, teacher autonomy support was negatively related to adolescents’ internalizing problems in the overall sample. However, interaction analyses further exhibited that this association was insignificant for psychopathic adolescents who experienced parental divorce. The current findings indicate that although teacher autonomy support may protect adolescents from internalizing problems, psychopathic adolescents whose parents got divorced should be paid exceptional attention by mental health professionals and school counselors.

The objective of this study is to examine the mechanism by which teachers’ autonomy support influences student creativity. A relationship model comprising five variables—teacher autonomy support, positive emotion, creativity self-efficacy, academic engagement, and creativity—was developed based on the ecosystem theory, self-determination theory, and social cognitive theory. A survey was administered to 637 undergraduate students in China. The study found that teacher autonomy support significantly enhances creativity, with creativity self-efficacy and academic engagement partially mediating the relationship between teacher autonomy support and creativity and producing a chain mediation effect between the two variables. Positive emotions, as a moderating variable, favourably influenced all mediation interactions. The findings extend the explanatory power of three theories on the relationship between teacher autonomy support and creativity, offering fresh insights and theoretical references to foster students’ creative development.

In this study, we adopted a person-oriented approach to (a) identify latent profiles of adolescents characterized by unique patterns of perceived teacher autonomy support and student agency, (b) investigate whether perceived interpersonal justice can predict profile membership and (c) compare different profiles in relation to personal responsibility. Participants were 545 Italian secondary school students (55% boys, 94% born in Italy, M age = 14.24, SDage =. 53). Five adolescents’ profiles emerged: disengaged (24%), average students (34%) and committed (28%), with low, mean and high scores, respectively, in both teacher autonomy support and agency; resistant (5%), with low scores in teacher autonomy support and high scores in agency; compliant (9%), with high scores in teacher autonomy support and low scores in agency. Perceptions of interpersonal justice significantly predicted profile membership in the comparison of almost all profiles. Several significant differences in responsibility among profiles also emerged. Implications of the findings for practices and policies are discussed.