School-based music and extracurricular engagement as pathways to adolescent learning and wellbeing: mediating roles of self-regulation and school climate

Introduction Music and other creative activities are often recommended as affordable ways to support adolescent development, yet large-scale evidence on the psychological correlates linking such engagement to learning and wellbeing remains limited, especially in high-achieving East Asian systems. Using PISA 2018 data from the four Chinese economies of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang (B-S-J-Z), this study examines whether self-regulation and school climate statistically account for the associations between two engagement indicators and two outcomes. The engagement indicators are school-reported creative and musical provision (e.g., whether the school offers a band, orchestra or choir) and the availability of musical and cultural resources at home (musical instruments; books on art, music or design); both index opportunity and exposure rather than measured participation. Outcomes are academic achievement and subjective wellbeing. Methods The analytic sample comprised 12,058 15-year-old students in 361 schools (weighted population ≈ 992,302). A structural equation model with latent mediators and outcomes was estimated via full-information maximum likelihood, complemented by a weighted, plausible-value-pooled regression-based mediation analysis with bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals, a school-clustered bootstrap accounting for the nested design, and a gradient-boosting model for triangulation. Given the cross-sectional data, results are reported as associations, not causal effects. Results School-reported provision was associated with achievement directly, with no statistical mediation by self-regulation or school climate. Home musical and cultural resources were associated with both outcomes indirectly—through self-regulation and, to a smaller degree, school climate—and for wellbeing the indirect association exceeded the direct one. Self-regulation was the strongest correlate of wellbeing across all methods, though this association is inflated by conceptual overlap with wellbeing and is interpreted with caution. Discussion Musical and creative engagement is associated with adolescent outcomes through different statistical routes depending on where the engagement is situated, and self-regulatory capacity and supportive school relationships are central correlates of wellbeing. Findings are specific to B-S-J-Z and are not generalised to China as a whole. Implications for curriculum policy, measurement and future longitudinal research are discussed.