A motivational perspective on the educational arms race in China: self-determination in out-of-school educational training among Chinese students and their parents

Chinese families suffer from an educational arms race, a significant aspect of which being their over-investment in out-of-school educational training (OET). Aimed at mitigating the arms race, educational authorities have implemented policies that outlawed OET. In the current research, we hypothesize that it is not involvement in OET per se, but the non-self-determined motivation underlying OET that explains the negative outcomes in the educational arms race. Further, we hypothesize that parents’ non-self-determination for OET indirectly associates with children’s non-self-determination for OET via a family-transmitted process mediated by autonomy-supportive vs. controlling parenting, and that parents’ non-self-determination indirectly associates with child outcomes via the mediation of child non-self-determination. Multi-informant survey data collected from Chinese adolescents and their parents (paired N = 394) support these hypotheses. Our research also aims to examine how self-determination for OET associates with parent and child experiences of the educational arms race and corresponding educational policies. However, contrary to our expectation, we found no relationship between self-determination for OET and experiences of the educational arms race or support for governmental policy. Based on our findings, we suggest that evidence-based policy should focus on improving self-determination, rather than controlling OET.