Abstract:

Educational expectations are the expectations of individuals, parents, or teachers for the future level of education of learners, which have a great impact on academic performance and individual development. Numerous studies have overlooked the prevalence of differences in educational expectations between parents and children, while such differences can easily result in poor behavioral and performance. Based on the large-scale data of the 2014—2015 China Education Panel Survey, we use OLS, PSM and corrected Bootstrap method to explore the effects of parent-child discrepancies in education expectations on the academic performance of adolescents, as well as the differences in the influence mechanisms. The research has found that, firstly, parent-child discrepancies in education expectations have negative and significant effects on the academic performance of adolescents. Secondly, upward-biased parent-child discrepancies in education expectations, typically manifest as holding high hopes for children, are not rational, with a significant and negative effect on academic performance. However, there is no significant relationship between downward-biased parent-child discrepancies in education expectations and academic performance. Thirdly, psychological stress, academic burden and negative emotions play partial mediating roles in the relationship between the upward-biased parent-child discrepancies in education expectations and academic achievement. Finally, compared to that of girls, the academic performance of boys is more susceptible to the negative impact of upward-biased parent-child discrepancies in education expectations. Based on the results of empirical research, we put forward countermeasures such as forming appropriate educational expectations and improving parent-child communication.

Key words: adolescents, discrepancies in educational expectations, academic performance, mechanism