Abstract Background Curiosity in learning is a driving force for students' knowledge acquisition and academic achievement, yet its declining trend during adolescence has been observed across multiple countries. Aims This study aimed to identify key supports for adolescents' learning curiosity across countries by examining the associations of learning curiosity with psychological need–based supports from family and school and further comparing the effectiveness of these supports across three countries. Method Representative samples of 19,161 adolescents aged 10 and 15 from the OECD Social and Emotional Skills Study were selected in the study (7246 in China, 6433 in the USA and 5482 in Finland), and hierarchical linear modelling was adopted for analysis. Results (1) Relatedness supports, especially sense of school belongingness, stood out as the most effective factor for curiosity in learning, followed by parents' autonomy support and teachers' competence; (2) startling differences were observed between China and the other two countries: among Chinese adolescents, sense of school belonging and parental autonomy support were vital for learning curiosity, whereas in the USA and Finland, emotional supports from parents and teachers played more essential roles than the same supports in China; and (3) parents' academic communication showed modest effects on only Finnish adolescents' learning curiosity. Conclusion By uncovering both cross‐national similarities and differences in the key curiosity facilitators, findings provide crucial insights into adolescents' learning curiosity stimulation in family and school contexts across diverse national settings.
Huang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.