Can Non-Academic Extra-curricular Tutoring Improve Chinese Children's School Adaptation: An Analysis on the Mediating Effect of Non-cognitive Ability

Investigating the impact of non-academic external tutoring on children's school adaptation in the context of the "Double Reduction" policy helps people make more reasonable and scientific judgments and choices regarding non-academic external tutoring. Based on data from the China Education Panel Survey and using a fixed effects model to examine the relationship between non-academic external tutoring and school adaptation, the results indicate that participation in non-academic external tutoring has a significant positive impact on school adaptation, and this effect is robust. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that non-academic external tutoring has a significant positive impact on non-migrant children, the children from well-off families, and those ones with below-average academic performance, while it has no significant impact on migrant children, the children from less advantaged families, and the children with above-average academic performance. Non-academic external tutoring improves children's school adaptation through non-cognitive abilities such as agreeableness, extraversion and openness. Parents can enroll their children in interest classes based on their actual circumstances and interests. Extracurricular education institutions need to provide customized services for the children with special family backgrounds, and the government should guide schools and non-academic external tutoring education to conduct in-depth cooperation in the field of after-school services to reduce inequalities in non-academic external tutoring and after-school services.