The Relationship Between Parental Education Expectations And Learning Input Of Middle School Students

Study engagement is a continuous,complete and positive emotional state related to study.It is an important indicator to measure students’ academic performance and the quality of school education.The research on the study engagement of middle school students can help reveal its influencing factors and mechanisms,thus promoting the study engagement of middle school students,and help to further improve the academic performance of middle school students and the quality of education in secondary schools.There are many factors influencing students’ study engagement.Among them,family factors have received extensive attention.This study conducted a series of surveys on the study engagement of middle school students from the perspective of parents’ educational expectations.The parental education expectation scale,study engagement scale and learning motivation scale are used.A questionnaire survey was conducted among 650 middle school students in the first to second grades to investigate the characteristics of parents’ educational expectations,study engagement,learning motivation and parent-child relationship,and to examine the relationship between parents’ educational expectations and study engagement.The dual intermediary role of learning motivation and parent-child relationship is to explain the influence mechanism of parental education expectation on study engagement.The results showed:(1)From the overall point of view,the external learning motivation of the middle school students was stronger than the inner learning motivation,and the perceived quality of the mother-child relationship was better than the quality of the father-son relationship.(2)Differences in parental education expectations,study engagement,learning motivation,and parent-child relationship in demographic variables:The expectation of parental education perceived by male middle school students was higher than that of female middle school students.The quality of mother-child relationship perceived by female middle school students was better than that of male middle school students.The expectation of parental education perceived by the only middle school students was higher than that perceived by the non-only middle school students;In the study engagement total score and vitality,dedication dimension,urban middle school students scores were higher than rural middle school students scores;(3)Middle school students’ parental education was psitively predicting study engagement;(4)Learning motivation and parent-child relationship played a full mediating role in parental education expectation.Conclusions:(1)The moderate increased in parental education expectations contributed to the study engagement of middle school students.(2)Higher parental education expectations could enhance students’ learning motivation,improved the quality of parent-child relationship,and thus improved students’ study engagement.