







































 

 

 

 

 

How Teacher Support Affects Migrant 

Children’s Learning Satisfaction

Zaihua Liu 

 
Psychology and Special Education Institute, China National Academy of 

Educational Sciences, Beijing 100088, China 

 

Abstract: Teacher support significantly affects student learning and directly relates 

to their academic development. Learning satisfaction is the subjective perception 

and evaluation of learning quality on the part of the student, which represents, to 

certain extent, the quality of education. Based on data from a questionnaire survey of 

1251 migrant children in grades three throughout six, this study analyzed how 

teacher support impacted the learning satisfaction of migrant children. Research 

findings indicated that teacher support had a significantly positive effect on migrant 

children’s learning satisfaction; and that teacher support indirectly and positively 

affects their learning satisfaction through the separate mediating effect of their 

learning engagement as well as via the chain mediating effects of their academic 

adjustment and learning engagement. 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2024; 16(1):1817-1821. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.24.ar105 

How to Cite: Liu, Z. (2024). How teacher support affects migrant children’s learning 

satisfaction. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 16(1):1817-1821. 

Keywords: Teacher Support, Migrant Children, Learning Satisfaction, Academic Adjustment, 

Learning Engagement 

 

 

 
 

Correspondence to: Zaihua Liu, Psychology and Special Education Institute, China National Academy of 

Educational Sciences, Beijing 100088, China. E-mail: editorial-office@bonoi.org 

Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2024 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 

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(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of 

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mailto:editorial-office@bonoi.org
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Liu. (Beijing, China). Teacher Support and Migrant Children’s Learning. 

BECE, Vol.16, No. 1, 2024 1818 

N CHINA, migrant children, also referred to as “children of migrant workers,” are 

those who move to urban from rural areas with their migrant worker parents and are 

under the age of 18. This group emerged amid the accelerated social transformation 

in China. Statistical data show that in 2022, there were a total of 13.6468 million chil-

dren of migrant workers enrolled in compulsory education schools, including 9.6986 

million primary school students and 3.9483 million junior secondary school students. 

Migrant children often find themselves in a relatively underprivileged or mar-

ginalized position in schools and have more academic adjustment problems than their 

non-migrant peers. Strengthening migrant children support systems to guarantee their 

access to public basic education services and improve their learning satisfaction and 

quality of education concerns educational equity of the nation. It has a direct impact on 

the achievement of developmental goals of balanced compulsory education and social 

harmony. 

According to the ecology of human development theory, the microsystem 

composed of the family, peers, and school is the primary environmental determinant of 

the individual’s development. Moreover, research has revealed that human factors have 

a greater impact on student learning satisfaction than physical factors. The in-class 

learning environment built on teacher-student interactions is an important factor for 

students’ academic performance. Teacher support is the supportive attitude and behav-

ior of a teacher perceived by students in their learning, which directly or indirectly af-

fect their learning engagement and ultimately impact their academic performance. Re-

cent studies found that teacher support significantly positively predicts academic ad-

justment and engagement in secondary school students. Based on existing theoretical 

and empirical research, this study developed a theoretical model for the effects of 

teacher support on migrant children’s learning satisfaction and analyzes the paths of the 

impacts. 

A Theoretical Model for the Effects of Teacher Sup-

port on Migrant Children’s Learning Satisfaction 

Teacher support can positively predict student learning engagement, and migrant chil-

dren’s learning engagement directly affects their learning satisfaction. Hence, the pre-

sent study proposed hypothesis one: teacher support impacts migrant children’s learning 

satisfaction through the mediation of student learning engagement. Student learning 

satisfaction enhances as their learning needs are met, or their learning goals are 

achieved. Given this, hypothesis two was put forward: student academic adjustment 

mediates the effect of teacher support on migrant children’s learning satisfaction.  

The literature indicates that there are interplays between the four variables of 

teacher support, student academic adjustment, student learning engagement, and student 

learning satisfaction. Thereby, structural equation modeling was adopted to define the 

structural relationships between teacher support and migrant children’s learning satis-

faction. Hypothesis three was posed: teacher support affects migrant children’s learning 

satisfaction via the chain mediating effects of student academic adjustment and learning 

engagement. 

I 



Liu. (Beijing, China). Teacher Support and Migrant Children’s Learning. 

BECE, Vol.16, No. 1, 2024 1819 

Research Methods 

Research Participants 

Using convenient sampling, children of migrant workers were selected as research par-

ticipants from three schools from Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan and questionnaire sur-

veyed. A total of 1,251 (705 males and 546 females) valid participants were included, 

ranging from grade 3 throughout 6, with 288, 297, 330, and 336 students from the four 

grades, respectively. 

Research Tools 

The Migrant Children Learning Satisfaction Scale 

This is a self-developed four-point scale with 38 items grouped in six dimensions: class-

room environment, teaching techniques, teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, 

family relationship, and academic achievement. The coefficient of internal consistency 

reliability of the scale is 0.89, and its split-half reliability coefficient is 0.87. Items with 

a less-than-0.3 factor loading were deleted after the first confirmatory factor analysis, 

and after that, an additional confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. The results 

show that the factor loading of each item is between 0.33 and 0.76, indicating good 

construct validity of the scale. The overall goodness-of-fit indicators of the model by 

confirmatory factor analysis are χ2/df = 4.10, NFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.97, CFI = 0.95, 

RMSEA = 0.05, indicating good construct validity of the questionnaire. 

The Teacher Support Scale 

The six-point student-perceived teacher supportive behavior scale developed by Ouyang 

(2005) has relatively high reliability and validity, including 19 items in three dimen-

sions: learning support, emotional support, and capability support. The three factors 

could explain 50.64% of the total variance, indicating that the questionnaire has good 

construct validity. The reliability of the questionnaire is 0.87. The higher the student 

scores on the questionnaire, the more teacher support he or she receives. 

The Student Academic Adjustment Scale 

“School adjustment scales for Chinese primary and secondary school students” were 

developed by Jiang et al. (2017), among which the scale for the 3rd-6th graders was 

used in this study. It adopts a five-point rating method, including 17 items in three di-

mensions: learning motivation, learning skill, and learning difficulty. The correlation 

coefficient between each item and its corresponding dimension ranges from 0.39 to 0.61, 

all above the significance level of 0.01. The correlation coefficients between dimen-

sions are lower than the dimension-total correlation coefficient, indicating the scale has 

desirable construct validity. The test-retest reliability of the scale is 0.78, and its criteri-



Liu. (Beijing, China). Teacher Support and Migrant Children’s Learning. 

BECE, Vol.16, No. 1, 2024 1820 

on validity is good. The higher the student scores on the scale, the better the student’s 

academic adjustment.  

The Migrant Children Learning Engagement Scale 

The self-developed five-point scale for measuring learning engagement of migrant chil-

dren includes 31 items grouped three dimensions: cognitive engagement, emotional 

engagement, and behavioral engagement. The scale has an internal consistency coeffi-

cient of 0.97 and a split-half reliability coefficient of 0.93. Confirmatory factor analysis 

shows that the factor loading of each item in its respective dimension is between 0.68 

and 0.83, indicating good construct validity of the scale, which is also confirmed by the 

overall goodness-of-fit indicators of the model: χ2/df = 4.46, NFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.92, 

CFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.06. 

Research Findings 

The Direct Effects of Teacher Support on Migrant 

Children’s Learning Satisfaction  

Teacher support could significantly and directly predict migrant children’s learning sat-

isfaction. The academic guidance and emotional care from the teacher made migrant 

children feel respected and recognized, thus generating a strong sense of identification 

with and belonging to the school and fueling positive emotional experience of learning 

in them. Teacher support could also positively impact academically struggling migrant 

children by enhancing their self-confidence, boosting their sense of hope, and encourag-

ing self-motivation in them.  

The Separate Mediating Effect of Learning Engage-

ment 

Teacher support could effectively instigate student learning engagement. Student learn-

ing engagement posed a separate mediating effect on the relation between teacher sup-

port and migrant children’s learning satisfaction, which confirmed hypothesis one. 

Teacher support suits the needs of migrant children for a sense of security, promotes the 

development of harmonious teacher-student relationships, improves their academic re-

silience, and stimulates their intrinsic motivation, thus enhancing their level of learning 

engagement. The more teacher support migrant children obtain, the greater their sense 

of hope for their studies, resulting in their increased investment of time and energy in 

learning, which can help upgrade their academic performance and consequently, their 

learning satisfaction. 

The Chain Mediating Effects of Student Academic Ad-

justment and Learning Engagement 



Liu. (Beijing, China). Teacher Support and Migrant Children’s Learning. 

BECE, Vol.16, No. 1, 2024 1821 

The connection between teacher support and student academic adjustment exists in var-

ious student groups. This study expanded the scope of research on the topic by targeting 

at migrant children, and thus, increased the generalizability of the research results. In-

creased teacher support made the smooth adjustment of migrant children to their studies 

possible by heightening their interest in learning and boosting their pursuit of self-

development, and thus led to increased learning engagement of this group. Better com-

pletion of learning tasks contributed to improving their academic performance, generat-

ing enhanced learning satisfaction in them. As a result, hypothesis three was verified. 

Conclusion 

Based on the ecology of human development theory, this study conducted a relatively 

comprehensive analysis of the relations between teacher support and the academic ad-

justment, learning engagement, and learning satisfaction of migrant children. A con-

struct model for the external and internal factors affecting migrant children’s learning 

satisfaction was created, which corroborated the hypotheses of the study. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References 

Jiang, G., Ying, M., Lin, X., Wei, H., & Zhang, H. (2017). The development of school 

adjustment scales for Chinese primary and secondary school students. Chinese Journal 

of Clinic Psychology, 25(3):435-444. 

 

Ouyang, D. (2005). Relationships between Teacher expectations, Student Academic 

Self-concept, Student Perception of Teacher Support Behavior, and Student Academic 

Performance (master’s thesis). Guangxi Normal University. DOI: 

https://doi.org/10.76666/d.y784638  

 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Educational Research, 2023; 2023(11):149-

159. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE by the author(s) and the 

Chinese journal. 

刘在花. (2023). 教师支持对流动儿童学习满意度的影响机制. 教育研究, 2023(11):149-159. 

 

 
 

Received: 22 November 2023 

Revised: 01 December 2023 

Accepted: 15 December 2023 

 

 

 

https://doi.org/10.76666/d.y784638

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