The Impact of Teachers’ Innovative Support Behaviors on Creative Anxiety Among Art and Design Majors in the Context of Innovation Education: The Mediating Roles of Creative Self-Efficacy and Achievement Motivation

In the age of innovation, the mission of higher education is to cultivate innovative talent. Teachers’ innovative support behaviors have a significant impact on students’ emotions and creative performance. As students at art and design colleges will generally confront creative anxiety—an unfavorable emotion that affects their innovative abilities—this study aims to explore the mediating effects of creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation in the relationship between teachers’ innovative support behaviors and the creative anxiety of art and design students. Based on random cluster sampling, a questionnaire survey was used to collect 785 valid questionnaires from undergraduate art and design students attending six universities across eastern, central, and western China for the analysis of four variables: teachers’ innovative support behaviors, creative self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and creative anxiety. The results show that (1) teachers’ innovative support behaviors significantly negatively predict students’ creative anxiety (β = −0.631, p < 0.001); (2) creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation both have significant mediating effects (β = −0.241, p < 0.001; β = −0.183, p < 0.05, respectively); and (3) these two factors present a chain mediation effect. Bootstrap tests showed an indirect effect of −0.062 with a 95% confidence interval [−0.121, −0.008]; as the interval did not include zero, this chained mediating effect was significant. The results indicate that teachers’ innovative support behaviors not only have a direct effect on alleviating students’ anxiety but also have indirect effects through motivational and cognitive mechanisms, which provides a new theoretical reference with practical significance for art and design education.