Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1427041
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring the Psychology of Vocational Education: From the Perspective of Literacy Promotion - Volume II View all 4 articles

Under the Trend of the 'Lying Flat' Phenomenon: The Influence of Competitive Atmosphere on Vocational High School Students' Self-Efficacy and Motivation

Provisionally accepted
Cheng Ma Cheng Ma 1Bo-Ching Chen Bo-Ching Chen 2*
  • 1 Other, Shanghai 200093, China
  • 2 Other, Tainan 709301, Taiwan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In recent years, 'lying flat' has emerged as a significant term in contemporary discourse, referring to the phenomenon where modern young people choose passive resistance due to a lack of motivation when facing various situations. These trends have the potential to diminish the future learning enthusiasm and holistic development of vocational high school students, thus impacting their competitiveness in the future job market. Methods: This study employs a motivational model for vocational high school students based on self-efficacy theory and person-environment fit theory to explore whether the competitive atmosphere moderates the impact of self-efficacy and competitive attitudes on task motivation. Using a secondary data research approach, the study analyzed a sample of 944 Taiwanese vocational high school students from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) dataset with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).The results indicate that self-efficacy and competitive attitudes positively influence task motivation. Additionally, self-efficacy not only enhances competitive attitudes but also indirectly influences task motivation through the mediation of competitive attitudes. The study also revealed that the moderating effect of the competitive environment was not statistically significant in the overall sample. Further multiple-group comparisons between male and female vocational high school students showed no significant differences in most paths, but gender differences emerged in the positive moderating effect of the competitive environment on the influence of competitive attitudes on task motivation.These findings suggest that in cultivating task motivation among vocational high school students, interventions should be tailored to accommodate the differing responses of male and female students. For female students, providing more opportunities for teamwork and utilizing collaborative approaches to cope with the competitive environment may enhance task motivation. Conversely, for male students, enhancing self-efficacy and stimulating intrinsic competitive attitudes may be more effective. Addressing these differences could potentially reduce the occurrence of the 'lying flat' phenomenon among vocational high school students in the future.

    Keywords: Attitudes towards Competition, task Movement, Perceived Competitive Environment, Student competition, Lie-Flat Movement, Goblin Mode, PISA 2018

    Received: 02 May 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ma and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Bo-Ching Chen, Other, Tainan 709301, Taiwan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.