Burden or empowerment? A double-edged sword model of the efficacy of parental involvement in the academic performance of chinese adolescents

Abstract

It has been traditionally thought that children can obtain resources that promote their academic performance through their parents’ involvement. However, in reality, parents’ involvement in their children’s education may threaten children with an excessive academic burden. This study argues that parental involvement is both empowering and burdensome for children and proposes a model in which parental involvement is a double-edged sword. The model entails two paths, one in which learning constitutes a burden and another in which learning leads to empowerment. Based on a survey of 647 adolescents, a structural equation model is used to test this hypothesis. The results suggest that parental involvement can negatively impact academic performance because children feel more stressed as a result of the increase in academic expectations; parental involvement also has a positively impact on academic performance because of an increase in children’s engagement in learning. The above results provide some practical guidance for parents’ involvement in their children’s education.