Peer-reviewed article

Parenting and Adolescents’ Academic Achievement: The Mediating Role of Goal Engagement and Disengagement

Priscilla S. Yau, Yongwon Cho, Jacob Shane, Joseph Kay, Jutta Heckhausen · 7 Jul 2021

Abstract

Abstract Prior research has investigated parental behavior and students’ motivation separately as predictors of adolescents’ academic achievement. The current study jointly examined the associations between parental behavior, adolescents’ motivation, and academic achievement. Using data collected from participants in youth programs (N = 220), we investigated whether students’ academic goal engagement and disengagement mediates the association between adolescents’ relationships with their parents and their academic achievement. Findings from regression-based mediation models indicated that adolescents’ perceived maternal support was positively associated with their academic achievement, and that this association was mediated by students’ engagement with academic goals. Perceived maternal psychological control was negatively associated with students’ academic success, mediated by students’ academic goal disengagement. Supplementary analyses examining components of perceived parental support and psychological control showed that maternal warmth may be most beneficial for adolescents’ academic success, whereas maternal devaluation may be most detrimental. Perceived paternal psychological control was only associated with lower academic achievement, but was not related to adolescents’ goal disengagement.