Perceived parenting style and Chinese nursing undergraduates’ learning motivation: The chain mediating roles of self-efficacy and positive coping style

The aim of this study was to examine the chain mediating effects of self-efficacy and positive coping style on the relationship between parenting style and learning motivation in Chinese nursing students. Despite the abundance of literature that focuses on learning motivation, there is a lack of research that accurately and thoroughly examines the factors that influence learning motivation among nursing students. This study involved a cross-sectional design. In total, 677 Chinese undergraduate nursing students completed the parental bonding instrument, the general self-efficacy scale, the simplified coping style questionnaire, and the learning motivation scale. A structural equation model was performed with AMOS 26.0 to explore the influence paths of variables and the mediating effects of self-efficacy and coping style. Parental care positively predicted intrinsic learning motivation directly or indirectly through the mediating effects of self-efficacy (B = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.12–0.23) and positive coping style (B = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.01–0.06), and this mediating effect contributed 54.06% of the total effect. Parental encouraging autonomy positively predicted intrinsic learning motivation indirectly through the mediating effects of self-efficacy (B = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.12–0.24) and positive coping style (B = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.01–0.06), and this mediating effect contributed 71.42% of the total effect. Parental control negatively influenced intrinsic learning motivation directly or indirectly through the mediating effects of self-efficacy (B = −0.10, 95% CI: −0.15 to −0.04) and positive coping style (B = −0.02, 95% CI: −0.05 to −0.01), and this mediating effect contributed 42.85% of the total effect. Parents should provide more care and autonomy to nursing students and reduce control over them. Nurse educators should consider targeted improvement strategies to improve the level of self-efficacy and positive coping style of nursing undergraduates to enable them to maintain a more intrinsic learning motivation.