Social support and continuing motivation in chemistry: the mediating roles of interest in chemistry and chemistry self-efficacy

Continuing motivation in science can promote science literacy, identity, and lifelong learning, which has received considerable attention. As a crucial part of the science discipline, the study on continuing motivation in chemistry has also become a research hotspot. Yet, we have little knowledge about how to improve students’ continuing motivation in chemistry. Due to this situation, the present study was designed to explore the mechanisms of students’ perceived social support (parents support, teacher support and peer support), interest and self-efficacy in continuing motivation in the context of chemistry, further offering suggestions to the progress of students’ continuing motivation in chemistry. Measures were collected from 1260 Chinese high school students aged 15 to 17 years. Structural equation modelling (SEM) tested the hypothesized direct and mediated relations between these variables. The results showed that (1) parents support significantly negatively predicted students’ continuing motivation in chemistry; teacher support, peer support, interest in chemistry and chemistry self-efficacy significantly positively predicted students’ continuing motivation in chemistry; (2) both interest in chemistry and chemistry self-efficacy played mediating roles in the relationship between social support and continuing motivation in chemistry, respectively. We concluded by discussing the main findings of this study, highlighting their educational implications, acknowledging their limitations, and proposing lines of future research on chemistry education.