Abstract
An important question for parents and educators alike is how to promote adolescents’ academic identity and school performance. This study investigated relations among parental education, parents’ attitudes toward their adolescents’ school, parental support for learning at home, and adolescents’ academic identity and school performance over time and in different national contexts. Longitudinal data were collected from adolescents and their parents in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). When adolescents were 16 years old, their mothers (N = 1083) and fathers (N = 859) provided data. When adolescents were 17 years old, 1049 adolescents (50% girls) and their mothers (N = 1001) and fathers (N = 749) provided data. Multiple-group path analyses indicated that, across cultures, higher parent education was associated with better adolescent school performance. Parents’ attitudes toward their adolescents’ school and parent support for learning in the home were not associated with adolescents’ school performance but were associated with academic identity. The findings suggest somewhat different pathways to school performance versus academic identity. Implications for helping parents and educators in different countries promote adolescents’ academic identity and achievement are discussed.
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Funding
This research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Adolescent Health and Human Development grant RO1-HD054805 and Fogarty International Center grant RO3-TW008141. This research also was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant P30 DA023026; the Intramural Research Program of the NIH/NICHD, USA; UNICEF; and an International Research Fellowship at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, UK, funded by the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 695,300-HKADeC-ERC-2015-AdG).
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Current themes of research
Parent-child relationship, the child’s adjustment, attitudes and beliefs, cultural values, and self-regulation among the children. Adolescents’ reward-seeking, self-regulation, social information processing, academic identity, school performance, and risk-taking.
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Al-Hassan, S.M., Duell, N., Lansford, J.E. et al. Parents’ learning support and school attitudes in relation to adolescent academic identity and school performance in nine countries. Eur J Psychol Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00827-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00827-4