The role of social responsibility in kindergartens is critical for fostering parental loyalty, especially amid declining enrollment rates in China. However, the relationship between kindergarten social responsibility, brand trust, perceived value, and parental loyalty is not well understood. This study investigates the influence of kindergarten social responsibility on parental loyalty, focusing on the mediating roles of brand trust and perceived value. A nationwide survey was conducted, collecting 745 valid responses from parents across 27 provinces in China. Data were analyzed using the PROCESS macro, with mediation effects tested via the bias-corrected nonparametric percentile bootstrap method. The findings reveal that kindergarten social responsibility significantly enhances parental loyalty both directly and indirectly through brand trust and perceived value. Brand trust was identified as the strongest mediator, particularly in non-inclusive kindergartens, where its effect on loyalty was more pronounced. The study also found that parents with higher education levels and higher income tend to have lower perceptions of social responsibility and perceived value, affecting their loyalty. These results suggest that kindergartens must tailor their social responsibility strategies to different parent demographics and kindergarten types to maximize parental loyalty. The study emphasizes the importance of social responsibility in strengthening parental loyalty, with specific implications for inclusive and non-inclusive kindergartens. By understanding the mediating roles of brand trust and perceived value, kindergartens can develop targeted strategies to improve competitiveness and parental engagement.

Within the global sustainable development agenda, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) highlights improving the accessibility, quality, and learning experience of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). In China, students in vocational colleges often face greater disparities in academic preparation and access to educational resources than their peers in general higher education. Although artificial intelligence (AI) can provide additional learning support and help mitigate such inequalities, there is little empirical evidence on whether and how Gen-AI usage is associated with vocational students’ learning experiences and emotional outcomes, particularly academic anxiety. This study examines how Gen-AI usage is related to academic anxiety among Chinese vocational college students and explores the roles of class engagement and teacher support in this relationship. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we analyse survey data from 511 students using structural equation modelling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The SEM results indicate that Gen-AI usage is associated with lower academic anxiety, with class engagement mediating this relationship. Teacher support for Gen-AI usage positively moderates the association between Gen-AI usage and class engagement. The fsQCA results further identify several configurations of conditions leading to low academic anxiety. These findings underscore AI’s potential to enhance learning quality and experiences in TVET and provide empirical support for advancing SDG 4 in vocational education contexts.

Against the backdrop of sustainable education and the digital transformation of higher education, AI assistants on online learning platforms have become important tools for facilitating students’ access to learning resources, providing immediate feedback, and supporting self-directed learning, thereby creating new opportunities for more effective and sustainable learning experiences. However, the psychological mechanisms linking AI assistant intelligence to students’ innovative behavior remain unclear. Based on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this study examines how AI assistant intelligence on online learning platforms relates to higher education students’ innovative behavior through academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination and further explores the moderating role of AI literacy. Using a two-phase time-lagged design, the study collected data through online questionnaires from students at Chinese universities, yielding a final matched sample of 503 students. The findings show that AI assistant intelligence is positively associated with both academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination, but it has no significant direct effect on innovative behavior. Importantly, these two mediators operate in opposing directions: academic self-efficacy transmits a positive indirect effect, whereas academic procrastination transmits a negative indirect effect on innovative behavior. In addition, AI literacy strengthens the positive relationship between AI assistant intelligence and academic self-efficacy while weakening its positive relationship with academic procrastination. These findings reveal the dual psychological pathways through which AI assistant intelligence shapes students’ innovative behavior, extend Social Cognitive Theory in intelligent learning environments, and offer practical implications for leveraging AI-assisted learning to foster students’ innovative capacity and inform the sustainable integration of AI in higher education.

This study leverages longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS, 2012–2020) to examine the association between teacher support and cognitive ability among children aged 10–16 living in economically disadvantaged rural areas of China. Employing a difference-in-differences (DID) framework, we found that exposure to the Rural Teacher Support Program (RTSP) is associated with an improvement of about 0.19 standard deviations in students’ cognitive abilities after accounting for individual-, family-, and county-level characteristics. Two key mechanisms appear to underlie this association, reflected in increased teacher quantity and enhanced student satisfaction with teachers. Heterogeneity analyses further show that these benefits are more pronounced among female students and those from low-income households, suggesting that teacher-centered institutional improvements may help mitigate developmental disparities. Overall, the longitudinal results indicate that better teacher-related environments are likely to support children’s cognitive development, which in turn may help reduce educational inequality in under-resourced areas.