The Impact of Active Coping with Negative Public Opinion on Learning Power of Pre-service Primary School Teachers: The Mediating Role of Perceived Social Support

Background Recent years have witnessed increasing negative public discourse targeting primary school teachers, which has adversely affected pre-service teachers’ career commitment and impeded the development of their learning competence. Methods To investigate the mechanism through which active coping with negative public opinion influences learning power among pre-service primary school teachers, this study employed a stratified random sampling method to survey 1,083 participants from six universities in Shandong Province between April and June 2025. Data were collected using a self-developed questionnaire and analyzed via SPSS 26.0 for descriptive, correlational, and regression analyses, with mediation effects tested using the PROCESS macro. Results The results indicated that both active coping with negative public opinion and perceived social support significantly and positively predicted learning power. Moreover, perceived social support played a partial mediating role—active coping enhanced learning power indirectly by strengthening perceived social support. Conclusion This study provides empirical evidence clarifying the intrinsic pathways influencing pre-service teachers’ professional growth and offers practical insights for optimizing teacher training programs.