The relationship between home-based parental involvement, parental educational expectation and academic performance of middle school students in mainland China: A mediation analysis of cognitive ability

As China continues to develop rapidly, Chinese parents are increasingly focused on their children’s education. Previous research investigates the relationship between parental involvement and children’s academic performance, in which home-based involvement and parental educational expectations play an increasingly important role in secondary school. The secondary school years coincide with key changes in early adolescent development and are period of rapid cognitive development. As documented by previous research, individual cognitive ability is among the strongest contributors to academic performance. However, research on the relationship between these three variables—parental involvement, academic performance and individual cognitive ability—is rare. Therefore, we run an OLS regression and conduct mediation analysis using baseline data from the China Education Panel Survey to examine the association of home-based parental involvement and parental educational expectations with academic performance and the mediation effect of cognitive ability. Our results show that educational expectations, tutoring, and homework supervision have the largest impact on student academic performance, while other forms of parental involvement are less influential. Using mediation analysis, we find the effect of parental involvement on academic performance is in part attributable to parental involvement’s impact on student cognitive ability. Our findings can guide parents to make appropriate choices concerning their children’s education and ultimately raise levels of human capital in Chinese society.