A serial mediation model reveals the association between parental over-protection and academic entitlement among nursing students

Abstract

The study aims to explore the influence of parental over-protection on academic entitlement of nursing students, and examine the mediating roles of external locus of control and psychological entitlement. The study sampled two medical universities in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, China. Participants were nursing students in grades one to four (N = 1003; mean age = 19.51 years; 81.95% female). Using a structural equation model, we examined the mediating effect of external locus of control and psychological entitlement on parental over-protection and academic entitlement. The results show that there was a significant correlation between all variables, and external locus of control and psychological entitlement played a serial mediating role between parental over-protection and academic entitlement. Our findings suggest that academic entitlement of nursing students can be reduced by adjusting parental rearing behaviors, reducing students’ psychological entitlement, and teaching them how to form a healthier attribution style.