Family socioeconomic status, parental expectations, and adolescents’ academic achievements: a case of China

This study examines direct and indirect effects of family socioeconomic status (SES) and parental expectations on adolescents’ mathematics and problem-solving achievement in mainland China. SES here is composed of family wealth, home educational resources, and parental education. Over 5,000 ninth-grade students in 5 geographical districts of China participated in the study and were assessed by using the items adapted from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results from structural equation modelling indicated that 2 components of SES–home educational resources and parental education–positively predicted parental expectations; however, the 3rd component–family wealth–negatively predicted parental expectations. Family wealth, parental education, and parental expectations significantly predicted mathematics achievement, and home educational resources, parental education, and parental expectations significantly predicted problem-solving achievement. The 3 components of SES also had significant indirect effects on both mathematics and problem-solving achievement through parental expectations, and the effect of family wealth was a suppression effect. These results were further discussed from Chinese cultural contexts.