Volume 3 Issue 4

The current study examined the impact of Baumrind’s parenting styles on academic anxiety among Chinese undergraduate students majoring in education. A sample of 183 students, aged 18 to 23, was randomly selected from Northeastern Normal University (NENU), a prominent institution in mainland China specializing in education. Data were collected using the Parenting Authority Questionnaire (PAQ-2nd) and the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) to evaluate perceived parenting styles and academic anxiety levels. Although the overall relationship between parenting style and academic anxiety was not statistically significant, distinct patterns emerged. Students raised with authoritative parenting exhibited the lowest levels of academic anxiety, indicating that this style may be most effective in creating a supportive academic environment. Conversely, those raised with authoritarian parenting reported the highest anxiety levels, suggesting that this more controlling approach may contribute to greater psychological stress. Students from permissive backgrounds showed anxiety levels that were intermediate, higher than those from authoritative households but lower than those from authoritarian ones. These findings highlighted the role of parenting style in shaping academic anxiety among Chinese education majors. Additionally, the study challenged the stereotype that Chinese parents predominantly use authoritarian methods, as many students reported being raised with authoritative parenting. This shift toward a more balanced, supportive approach may reflect evolving cultural norms in Chinese education, suggesting that adopting authoritative practices could help reduce academic anxiety in this population.

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This study adopts the trade-off hypothesis as its theoretical framework, focusing on three key dimensions: complexity, accuracy, and fluency. It examines the differences in EFL learners’ speaking performance between independent practice and real-time communication. The findings show that learners tend to use more complex and accurate sentences during independent practice, as the absence of time pressure and interactive feedback allows greater cognitive resources for planning and self-monitoring. By contrast, in real-time communication, learners prioritise fluency to ensure smooth interaction, often simplifying sentence structures and sacrificing accuracy. This difference does not indicate insufficient ability but reflects strategic trade-offs under limited cognitive resources. The study argues that oral performance is context-dependent and should be understood as the speaker’s adaptation to the context, instead of a single-dimensional deficiency. Complexity and accuracy in independent practice reveal learners’ potential, while simplifications in real-time communication reveal their strategic choices in authentic interaction. These dynamics underscore the close link between language output and cognitive resource allocation, offering new insights into learner strengths and limitations. The implications of this study lie in two aspects. Firstly, it helps learners understand their performance across contexts, thereby enhancing their confidence and developing more effective learning strategies. Secondly, it provides insights for oral pedagogy, suggesting that teachers can balance complexity, accuracy, and fluency in task design.

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