With the rapidly changing social-economic environment and the popularization of higher education, college students are facing increasingly severe employment pressures as well as competition over educational qualifications. In their studies, they are confronted with problems such as anxiety and ambiguous goals. Their learning motivation and resilience in the face of setbacks can be influenced by the self-efficacy and parental rearing styles. However, existing research hasn’t explored the specific mechanisms between PASS and students’ SE. Therefore, this study focuses on college students as the primary research subjects, utilizing the Parental Autonomy Support Scale (PASS) and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) as measurement tools, aiming to investigate the mechanisms through which parental autonomy support affects self-efficacy, providing a theoretical basis for family education and psychological interventions in higher education. This research hopes to offer practical insights for alleviating college students’ academic and employment anxiety and optimizing family support models. The findings revealed that: ① A significant positive correlation exists between parental autonomy support and general self-efficacy; ② Parental education level is correlated with general self-efficacy but not with parental autonomy support; ③ Parental education level did not exhibit a moderating effect on the influence of parental autonomy support on general self-efficacy.
Shi et al. (2025) studied this question.