TY - JOUR
T1 - Parents’ Impact on Children’s School Performance
T2 - Marital Satisfaction, Parental Involvement, and Mental Health
AU - Lui, Ming
AU - Lau, Gilbert K.
AU - Tam, Vicky C.
AU - Chiu, Hiu Man
AU - Li, Sandy S.
AU - Sin, Kuen Fung
N1 - Publisher copyright:
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - Objectives: The present study aims to formulate a conceptual model of the mediating factors between parents’ marital satisfaction and children’s academic performance, with a sample drawn from Hong Kong Chinese parents and children. The mediators included parental involvement, parents’ psychopathological symptoms, and children’s internalizing behavior and school engagement. Methods: Survey responses from 507 Grade 4–6 children and their parents, who were primary caregivers, were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the internal structures of the seven scales, and the finalized scales have moderate to high reliabilities (Cronbach’s α values ranging from 0.74 to 0.95). Structural equation modeling analysis was applied to test the relationships between the latent variables in the proposed model. Results: Structural equation modeling revealed that parents’ marital satisfaction had a significant indirect effect on children’s academic performance via two pathways: (1) with parents’ psychopathological symptoms, children’s internalizing behaviors, and school engagement as mediators; (2) with parental involvement and school engagement as mediators. Marital satisfaction had no direct effect on school engagement or on academic performance. Conclusions: Our findings highlighted the importance of parents maintaining harmonious relationships with their spouses and being highly involved in their children’s education, in order to provide an optimal social environment to promote children’s academic development.
AB - Objectives: The present study aims to formulate a conceptual model of the mediating factors between parents’ marital satisfaction and children’s academic performance, with a sample drawn from Hong Kong Chinese parents and children. The mediators included parental involvement, parents’ psychopathological symptoms, and children’s internalizing behavior and school engagement. Methods: Survey responses from 507 Grade 4–6 children and their parents, who were primary caregivers, were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the internal structures of the seven scales, and the finalized scales have moderate to high reliabilities (Cronbach’s α values ranging from 0.74 to 0.95). Structural equation modeling analysis was applied to test the relationships between the latent variables in the proposed model. Results: Structural equation modeling revealed that parents’ marital satisfaction had a significant indirect effect on children’s academic performance via two pathways: (1) with parents’ psychopathological symptoms, children’s internalizing behaviors, and school engagement as mediators; (2) with parental involvement and school engagement as mediators. Marital satisfaction had no direct effect on school engagement or on academic performance. Conclusions: Our findings highlighted the importance of parents maintaining harmonious relationships with their spouses and being highly involved in their children’s education, in order to provide an optimal social environment to promote children’s academic development.
KW - Academic performance
KW - Marital satisfaction
KW - Mental health
KW - Parental involvement
KW - School engagement
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075239133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10826-019-01655-7
DO - 10.1007/s10826-019-01655-7
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85075239133
SN - 1062-1024
VL - 29
SP - 1548
EP - 1560
JO - Journal of Child and Family Studies
JF - Journal of Child and Family Studies
IS - 6
ER -
