Associations between Rejective Parenting Style and Academic Anxiety among Chinese High School Students:The Chain Mediation Effect of Self-Concept and Positive Coping Style

Background:The phenomenon of academic anxiety has been demonstrated to exert a considerable influence on students’academic engagement,leading to the emergence of a phenomenon known as“learned helplessness”and undermining the selfconfidence and motivation of high school students.Using acceptance-rejection theory,this study elucidated how a rejective parenting style affects Chinese high school students’academic anxiety and explored the urban-rural heterogeneity of this relationship.Methods:Data were analyzed using a stratified whole-cluster random sampling method.There are a total of 30,000 high school students in the three regions of northern and central China(from Shanxi,Hebei and Henan).A sample of 2286 high school students aged 14–19 years was ultimately selected from 2760 respondents for this investigation,which was conducted at the beginning of the 2023 school year.Pearson correlation,ordinary least squares(OLS)regression analysis,path analysis,and Fisher’s permutation test(FPT)were used to examine the effects of rejective parenting style on high school students’academic anxiety.Results:Results indicated a significant positive predictive effect between rejective parenting style and academic anxiety among high school students(β=0.815,t=116.211,p<0.001).Students’self-concept was significantly positively related to positive coping style(β=0.424,t=21.208,p<0.001)and chain-mediated this relationship.Therefore,this parenting style may indirectly mitigate academic anxiety through these mediators.The study also found that the effect of rejective parenting style on academic anxiety varied by students’residential background and was more pronounced in urban areas(0.226)than in rural areas(0.130).Conclusion:The research underscores the imperative for Chinese families to reexamine their utilization of rejection parenting and to prioritize the cultivation of students’intrinsic attributes.These findings offer a theoretical framework and practical evidence for policymakers and educators to develop efficacious and targeted interventions.In particular,greater attention should be directed towards the discrepancies in the manifestation of emotional and academic anxiety between urban and rural students,and prompt guidance should be furnished.