Parental Educational Expectations,Academic Pressure,and Adolescent Mental Health:An Empirical Study Based on CEPS Survey Data

Background:This study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental educational expectations and adolescent mental health problems,with academic pressure as a moderating variable.Methods:This study was based on the baseline data of the China Education Panel Survey,which was collected within one school year during 2013–2014.It included 19,958 samples from seventh and ninth graders,who ranged from 11 to 18 years old.After removing missing values and conducting relevant data processing,the effective sample size for analysis was 16344.The OLS(Ordinary Least Squares)multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between parental educational expectations,academic pressure,and adolescents’mental health problems.In addition,we established an interaction term between parents’educational expectations and academic pressure to investigate the moderating effect of academic stress.Results:The study found that adolescents whose parents had high educational expectations reported less mental health problems.(β=−0.195;p<0.001).Additionally,adolescents who had high academic pressure reported more mental health problems.(β=0.649;p<0.001).Furthermore,the study found that academic pressure had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between parental educational expectations and adolescents’mental health problems(β=0.082;p<0.001).Conclusion:Parental educational expectations had a close relationship with adolescents’mental health problems,and academic pressure moderated this relationship.For those adolescents with high levels of academic pressure,the association between high parental educational expectations and mental health problems became stronger.On the contrary,for those adolescents with low levels of academic pressure,the association between high parental educational expectations and mental health problems became weaker.These findings shed new light on how parental educational expectations affected adolescent mental health problems and had significant implications for their healthy development.

Childbirth expectations and correlates at the final stage of pregnancy in Chinese expectant parents

Purpose:To explore the childbirth expectations of Chinese expectant parents during their transition to parenthood.Methods:A cross-sectional descriptive survey was used through the Chinese version of the Childbirth Expectations Questionnaire.A total of 240 expectant parents were recruited when they were admitted to the obstetric units waiting for delivery at a large Maternal and Child Health care Center in Beijing,and 210 couples completed the questionnaires,yielding a response rate of 87.5%.Results:The expectant parents had a high level of childbirth expectations towards caregiving environment,spousal support,control and participation and medical support.Conversely,their expectations toward labor pain and their own ability to cope with the pain were relatively low.Expectant fathers’childbirth expectations and preference of partner’s accompany were two significant predictors of expectant mothers’childbirth expectations,explaining 18.9%and 3.3%of the total variance,respectively.While expectant mothers’childbirth expectations was the only significant predictor of expectant fathers’childbirth expectations.Conclusion:This study adds to understanding of the childbirth expectations of Chinese expectant parents.It is suggested that maternity healthcare providers pay close attention to the childbirth expectations of expectant parents,and improve the nursing care service to promote positive childbirth experiences and satisfaction of expectant parents.

Parental expectation of early childhood education: comparison between China, Japan, and Korea

This study investigates 727 parents from China, Japan, and Korea by a self-devised scale and compares the differences in their expectation of early childhood education in cross-cultural backgrounds. The result shows that parents from the three countries have a positive attitude toward their children’s development. The main effect of nations on such factors as individual development, close attention to diet, willpower training, moral judgment, and emotional exchange with adults is significant, while the two-way interaction between nations and child gender, nations and child age, and the three-way interaction between nations, child gender, and child age are not significant.

The Effect of Family Background and Parental Expectations on Eighth Graders’Academic Achievement in Rural and Urban China

Extensive research has suggested that there is a large rural-urban student achievement gap in China.However,less is known about the effects of family background and parental expectations on student achievement.Using a large representative sample of Chinese eighth graders,this study examines these relationships.We find that:(1)Rather than a rural/urban hukou(household registration system)type,it is variation in family background,especially family socioeconomic status(SES),which plays a significant role in student achievement;(2)although factors of family background show different patterns of influence on Chinese,mathematics,and English achievement,maternal education and home educational resources are significantly positive predictors consistently across three subjects;(3)parental expectations are significantly and positively associated with Chinese,mathematics,and English achievement.