Perceived parental academic pressure and adolescent students’ school burnout and achievement: Different types of cost as mediators

Abstract

Drawing on Situated Expectancy-Value Theory, we examined how students’ perceptions of parental academic pressure would predict different types of perceived cost, namely effort, opportunity, psychological, and emotional costs, which in turn lead to different levels of school burnout and academic achievement. Results based on a group of 616 Chinese seventh-grade students revealed that parental academic pressure positively predicted all four types of cost. In addition, emotional and opportunity costs mediated the relationship between parental pressure and school burnout, while effort and emotional costs mediated the relationship between parental pressure and achievement. Interestingly, psychological cost was positively associated with achievement, suggesting that concern over self-worth may motivate students under high parental expectations. Multi-group analyses revealed no significant gender differences in these cost-mediated pathways linking parental academic pressure to burnout and achievement, indicating broadly similar underlying psychological mechanisms across boys and girls. These findings underscore the multidimensional nature of cost and highlight the role of parental influences in shaping students’ motivational beliefs and academic outcomes.