short essay on parental pressure

The Psychological Impact of Parental Pressure on Kids and Teens

In this article.

Children and teenagers are struggling with mental health challenges like never before, and one factor that often contributes to their difficulties is excessive pressure from well-intentioned but misguided parents. Although it's understandable for parents to want their children to be happy and successful, pushing too hard can have serious negative consequences. This post explores the detrimental effects of parental pressure and offers strategies for providing healthy support and encouragement to help children thrive.

The Mental Health Consequences of Parental Pressure

Research shows that parental pressure, whether direct or indirect, can take a major toll on kids' psychological well-being. Some of the most common effects include:

• Depression and negative self-talk. Children who face frequent verbal criticism and unrealistic expectations from parents are at higher risk for depression. [1] They often internalize that criticism, engaging in harsh self-talk like "I'm stupid" or "I'll never be good enough."  
• Eating disorders and body image issues. Kids and teens whose parents tease them about weight or police their eating habits are more likely to develop disordered eating and poor body image. [2] Even if well-intentioned, comments about appearance send the message that they're being judged.
• Academic underperformance. While parents often push kids academically in hopes of motivating them, studies find that children with controlling parents actually tend to do worse in school. [3] Constant pressure saps their intrinsic motivation. 
• Social withdrawal. When affection and approval are conditional on meeting parental expectations, kids often start to withdraw. They may hide their true feelings, avoid asking for help, and struggle to form close relationships.

Why Parents Resort to Pressure

As damaging as parental pressure is, it usually comes from a place of love and concern. In one study, 86% of parents said they pressured their kids because they wanted to be more attentive than their own distant parents had been. [4] Others feel guilty about upheavals like divorce and try to compensate by pushing their kids to succeed. 

Ultimately, most parents simply want the best for their children. But in our achievement-obsessed culture, it's easy to lose sight of what really matters for kids' long-term happiness and well-being. Pushing them to live up to an idealized vision of success often does more harm than good.

Strategies for Healthy Encouragement 

So how can you support your child without resorting to unhealthy pressure? Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Praise effort, not just achievements . Instead of only celebrating the "A," praise your child for studying hard or asking questions when confused. This builds confidence in their ability to overcome challenges. [5]
• Avoid appearance-based comments . Even "positive" remarks about looks can make kids self-conscious. Focus praise on things like kindness, curiosity, and perseverance instead.[2] 
• Let them take the lead sometimes . Resist the urge to micromanage. Letting kids make age-appropriate choices builds their sense of autonomy and competence. [6]
• Validate their feelings . Remember, your child is a unique individual, not an extension of you. Listen to and acknowledge their perspective, even when it differs from yours. [7]
• Set collaborative rules . Kids are more likely to follow rules they had a voice in creating. Make expectations clear and consistent, but leave room for flexibility and discussion.

The Bottom Line

Parental pressure is incredibly common, but that doesn't make it harmless. Pushing your child to live up to rigid standards set by you, rather than supporting them in developing their own identity and goals, can lead to serious mental health issues that persist into adulthood. 

The good news is, you have the power to break the cycle. By being mindful of how you communicate with your child, you can create an environment where they feel loved, respected, and empowered to grow into their best selves. It's not always easy, but your relationship with your child is worth the effort.

Common Questions

What is parental pressure.

Parental pressure refers to the emotional stress that parents impose on their children, often related to academic performance, extracurricular activities, social standards, appearance, and relationships. It can be direct (yelling, force) or indirect (guilt-tripping, rigid expectations).

Why do parents put pressure on their kids?

Most parents pressure their kids with good intentions, wanting them to be happy and successful. Some reasons include: wanting to be more attentive than their own distant parents, feeling guilty about life disruptions (divorce, moving), or believing their choices will make their child's life easier or more successful.

What are the mental health consequences of excessive parental pressure?

• Children who experience excessive parental pressure may develop:
• Depression and negative self-talk
• Eating disorders and body image issues
• Poor academic performance 
• Social withdrawal and difficulty maintaining relationships
• Anger management problems and aggression

How can I tell if I'm pressuring my child too much?

Signs you might be pressuring your child include:

• Frequently criticizing or yelling at them
• Setting rigid expectations without their input
• Overreacting to mistakes or failures
• Withholding affection when they don't meet your standards
• Doing their work for them or intervening in their conflicts

What are some healthy ways to encourage my child without pressuring them?

Some strategies for healthy encouragement include:

• Praising effort and progress, not just end results
• Focusing on character traits, not appearance
• Allowing age-appropriate autonomy and choice
• Validating their feelings and perspective
• Setting clear, consistent rules collaboratively

Can I still have high expectations for my child without pressuring them?

Absolutely. The key is to communicate your expectations clearly and kindly, while also leaving room for your child's input and feelings. Emphasize growth and learning over perfection, and celebrate their efforts along the way.

What if my child is resistant to my encouragement?

If your child seems resistant, it might be a sign that they feel pressured or controlled. Try backing off a bit and focusing on rebuilding trust and connection. Let them know you're there to support them, but also respect their need for space and autonomy.

Where can I go for help if I'm struggling to break the cycle of parental pressure?

If you're having a hard time changing your parenting style, consider reaching out to a therapist or counselor who specializes in family dynamics and child development. They can provide guidance and support as you work on creating a more positive, nurturing relationship with your child.

• Wang, M.-T. and Kenny, S. (2014), Longitudinal Links Between Fathers’ and Mothers’ Harsh Verbal Discipline and Adolescents’ Conduct Problems and Depressive Symptoms. Child Dev, 85: 908-923. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12143
• Sprague, Stephanie Leigh. “Fat Talk with Parents and Weight Bias in High School and Undergraduate Students.” (2013). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Fat-Talk-with-Parents-and-Weight-Bias-in-High-and-Sprague/7a020e69316ffea32e7a814f3aeb44b2fbe1d13d
• Boggiano, Ann K. and Phyllis A. Katz. “Maladaptive Achievement Patterns in Students: The Role of Teachers' Controlling Strategies.” Journal of Social Issues 47 (1991): 35-51. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Maladaptive-Achievement-Patterns-in-Students%3A-The-Boggiano-Katz/d6ead7339aca2e06bb717d0629329c0d57b5a953
• Wolford, Sarah N et al. “Examining Parental Internal Processes Associated with Indulgent Parenting: A Thematic Analysis.” Journal of child and family studies vol. 29,3 (2020): 660-675. doi:10.1007/s10826-019-01612-4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7731216/
• Kamins, M. L., & Dweck, C. S. (1999). Person versus process praise. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-05027-021
• Joussemet, Mireille et al. “Parenting and Self-Determination Theory 1 Running head: Parenting and Self-Determination Theory A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Parenting.” (2019). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Parenting-and-Self-Determination-Theory-1-Running-A-Joussemet-Landry/37849173bd575690fde4d00699b5f137fd4c530f
• Joussemet, M., et al. (2008). Promoting optimal parenting and children's mental health. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257578835_Promoting_Optimal_Parenting_and_Children's_Mental_Health_A_Preliminary_Evaluation_of_the_How-to_Parenting_Program

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Essay on Parental Pressure

Students are often asked to write an essay on Parental Pressure in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Parental Pressure

Understanding parental pressure.

Parental pressure is when moms and dads expect their kids to meet high standards, often in school and other activities. They want the best for their children but may push too hard.

Effects on Children

Kids can feel stressed, anxious, or unhappy because of this pressure. They might worry a lot about disappointing their parents or feel like they can’t enjoy their hobbies or time with friends.

Finding Balance

Parents should encourage their kids without pushing too much. It’s important for children to try their best but also have fun and relax.

Communication is Key

Talking openly with each other can help. Kids can share their feelings, and parents can understand better, creating a happier family life.

250 Words Essay on Parental Pressure

What is parental pressure.

Parental pressure is when moms and dads expect their kids to do really well in different parts of life, especially school and sports. They often hope their children will achieve a lot, sometimes without realizing how tough they are being.

The Good Side

Sometimes, this pressure can be good because it pushes kids to work hard and be their best. Parents who encourage their children can help them to do well in school, which is important for a good future.

The Tough Side

But too much pressure can make kids feel stressed or scared. They might worry about disappointing their parents if they don’t get the best grades or win at sports. This can make kids unhappy and even make it hard for them to do well.

Balance is Key

It’s important for parents to find a balance. They should cheer on their kids and help them set goals, but also understand that making mistakes is part of learning. Kids need to know it’s okay to try their best and not be perfect.

In the end, it’s all about love and support. Parents should guide their children to do well, but also make sure they are happy and healthy. When moms and dads get this balance right, their kids can grow up feeling confident to take on the world.

500 Words Essay on Parental Pressure

Parental pressure is when moms and dads expect their kids to do really well in different areas of life, especially in school and other activities like sports or music. Sometimes, parents might want their children to reach the goals they themselves couldn’t achieve, or they think that pushing their kids will help them succeed in life.

Why Parents Push Their Kids

Parents often push their kids because they care a lot and want the best for them. They might believe that if they don’t push, their kids won’t try their hardest or will miss out on important chances in life. Some parents see other kids doing great things and they want their own kids to do just as well or even better.

The Good Side of Parental Pressure

A little bit of pressure from parents can be a good thing. It can help kids learn to work hard and stick with things, even when they get tough. This can help kids do better in school and prepare them for the real world. When parents support their kids and cheer them on, it can make kids feel loved and important.

The Bad Side of Parental Pressure

Too much pressure can be really stressful for kids. They might feel scared of making mistakes or worry all the time about not being good enough. This can make them unhappy and even make it harder for them to do well. Kids might also get tired because they’re trying to do too many things at once.

How Kids Feel

When parents put a lot of pressure on their kids, the kids can feel like they’re not good enough just the way they are. They might think they have to be perfect to make their parents happy. This can make them feel lonely or like they can’t talk to their parents about how they’re feeling.

It’s important for parents to find a balance. They should encourage their kids to try their best but also let them know it’s okay to make mistakes. Parents should listen to their kids and help them find things they love to do, not just things they have to do. This way, kids can learn and grow without feeling too much stress.

Parental pressure comes from a place of love, but it’s important to keep it in check. A little bit of encouragement can help kids succeed, but too much pressure can have the opposite effect. Parents should aim to guide their kids, not push them too hard. And kids should feel free to talk to their parents about how they feel. This way, everyone can work together to make sure that the pressure to do well is just right – not too much, and not too little.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Parental Involvement In Education
• Essay on Parental Consent For Abortion
• Essay on How Is Race A Social Construct

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The Dangers of Putting Too Much Pressure on Kids

ImagesBazaar / Riser / Getty Images

Many parents want to help their children be the best they can be. However, some, parents put their children under too much pressure to perform. Being under such intense pressure can have serious consequences for kids.

A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 64% of Americans say parents do not put enough pressure on children to do well in school .   Children might be less likely to perform at their best if they don't get enough pressure from their parents.

However, some kids might be under too much pressure. Adults have also expressed concerns that kids today "can't be kids anymore" because they are pressured and expected to constantly perform well—such as getting into the most prestigious schools or getting the best scholarships.

School isn’t the only place where parents put pressure on kids. Parents might also put lofty expectations on their kids to perform well in sports, music, theater, or other activities.

"High-pressure parents" might insist that their kids practice constantly and perform well in competitions.

Parents have different opinions and approaches to encouraging their kids. While high expectations can be healthy, placing constant pressure on children can be harmful. When kids feel like each homework assignment is going to make or break their future or that each soccer game could determine if they get a college scholarship, that pressure can have negative consequences.

When It's Harmful

Kids who feel that they are under enormous pressure to do well from parents and adults can experience consequences in multiple areas of their life, from their mental health to their sleep. Here are just a few of the consequences of putting kids under too much pressure to perform.

• Higher rates of mental illness . Kids who feel like they’re under constant pressure can experience constant anxiety. High amounts of stress can also place children at a greater risk of developing depression or other mental health conditions.
• Higher risk of injuries . Athletes who feel a lot of pressure might continue to participate in sports despite injuries. Ignoring pain or returning to a sport before an injury has healed could lead to permanent damage.
• Increased likelihood of cheating . When the focus is on achievement rather than learning, kids are more likely to cheat. Whether it’s a young child catching a glimpse of a classmate's answer on a test, or a college student paying someone to write a term paper, cheating is common among kids who feel pressure to perform well.
• Refusing to participate . When kids feel the goal is to always “be the best,” they’re not likely to participate when they aren’t likely to shine. A child who isn’t the fastest runner might quit playing soccer and a child who isn’t the best singer in the group might stop performing with the choir. Unfortunately, that means kids won’t take opportunities to sharpen their skills .
• Self-esteem problems . Pushing kids to excel can damage their self-esteem. The constant stress to perform interferes with children’s identity formation and causes them to feel like they’re not good enough—or even that they will never be good enough.
• Sleep deprivation . Kids who feel constant pressure to do well in school might stay up late studying and struggle to get enough sleep.

What You Can Do

There are some things that you can do as a parent to help your child without placing too much pressure on them.

• Encourage your child to do their best. Focus on the process, rather than the end result.
• If you find yourself placing too much pressure on your child, ask yourself why their performance, test score, or success matters to you.
• Talk to your child about the sport/assignment/performance they are working on. Set aside your feelings to make room for your child to express theirs. Giving your child the space to be seen and heard will encourage them rather than make them feel they have disappointed you.

Pew Research Center. Americans say kids need more pressure in school, Chinese say less.

Rogers MA, Theule J, Ryan BA, Adams GR, Keating L. Parental Involvement and Children's School Achievement: Evidence for Mediating Processes .  Canadian Journal of School Psychology . 2009;24(1):34-57. 

By Amy Morin, LCSW Amy Morin, LCSW, is the Editor-in-Chief of Verywell Mind. She's also a psychotherapist, an international bestselling author of books on mental strength and host of The Verywell Mind Podcast. She delivered one of the most popular TEDx talks of all time.

Parental Pressure

Have You Mastered the Tricky Art of Parental Pressure?

Tools to transform parental pressure into positive, encouraging support. .

Posted July 20, 2021 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

• Parents who want the best for their kids may unintentionally pressure them in the wrong places, in the wrong way, and at the wrong times.
• Parental pressure can have serious consequences on children, such as an increase in anxiety and depression, and a reduction in motivation.
• Parental pressure helps children most when it's supportive rather than focusing on things like the event's importance or the parent's reputation.

Most parents prod their children to succeed in some way — athletically, academically, or artistically. Without meaning to, however, you may be putting your child into a pressure-cooker.

Some parents push lightly, many more forcefully, but almost always in the name of wanting the best for their children. Parents unintentionally go off-course and pressure in the wrong places, in the wrong way, and at the wrong times. If not guilty yourself, think about parents spewing direction from the sidelines or telling a child that it’s super important to hand in a perfect paper, get a good grade on a “big” test, or perform flawlessly. Parental pressure often gets tangled up in their own dreams.

Wanting the best starts early

Journalist Keith Gessen, a rabid ice hockey enthusiast and dad, desperately wanted his young son, Raffi, to follow his athletic lead. He began coaxing Raffi to kick a ball and skate from age two. Throughout Gessen’s entire life, from boyhood to grad school and long after, hockey, he says, was his “refuge and a solace.”

Gessen judged Raffi’s early exuberance and “desire to crash into things” as “the behavior of a person who wanted to learn how to play sports.” There were signs from ages two to six that Raffi might be interested in soccer, inline skating, or ice hockey, but they were fleeting glimmers.

This hockey-fanatic dad came to the realization that cheering his son on at the hockey rink may never happen. He wisely notes that “Children are their own people, yes, but they are also so much at our mercy — at the mercy of our moods, our insecurities, even our dreams.” And those dreams for our children can easily slip into parental pressure that defeats its intended outcome.

My own son was turned off by his father’s pressure to love the game of tennis and retired his racquet at age 15. He said “no” to his dad’s intensity and dream for him. Sadly, he was good and might have actually enjoyed the game if he hadn’t been strongly urged to take lessons, practice, and join the high school tennis team.

Parental pressure can have serious consequences that go far beyond abandoning an activity or receiving a poor test grade. In their book, The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure: A Positive Approach to Pushing Your Child to Be Their Best Self , psychologists Chris Thurber and Hendrie Weisinger write: “Around the world, loving parents have unintentionally made their children miserable by describing opportunities as scarce, competition as fierce, and perfection as vital … The result is a cohort of young people who are anxious , depressed , and unmotivated—precisely the opposite of what parents intend.”

Many children love or excel at what they focus their time and energy on, yet more and more high school and college students seek counseling help and an increasing number contemplate or commit suicide . Those facts should be enough to make any parent want to tamp down their well-meaning but detrimental pressure that in a parent’s mind is “helpful.” You can push a child, but there are positive steps to avoid all manner of pushback and prolonged negative fallout.

The fine art of supporting your children

Children don’t need a shelf full of sports trophies or to attend an elite college to succeed in life. There is an art to supporting children; that means converting parental pressure into parental support.

You may not be the obnoxious sports parent on the sidelines or the parent who demands academic excellence. Nonetheless, most of us have tripped up in the pressure department. Weisinger and Thurber provide hundreds of examples to help parents be supportive at the same time they prod their children to be their best selves.

Here are a few of their pointers when a child has to perform under pressure of any sort. They will keep you from derailing from your goal to be supportive:

Avoid high-stakes comments that focus on importance that can hinder performance, such as, “This is the most important test of your life” or “Your whole future depends on how you play.”

Instead say: “This could be a cool chance to show your stuff" or “Remember, it’s a concert, just like any other.”

Saying “Do you think you studied enough?” “Are you sure you rehearsed your lines enough?” only adds to a child or teen ’s uncertainty.

Instead say: “You have studied a lot for this final exam" or (days in advance), “The more you practice, the more ready you’ll feel.”

Focusing on reputation and responsibility can undermine a child’s ability to perform well. This includes saying things such as, “Make us proud kiddo. I want to post about this” or “It’s all up to you. Everyone is counting on you.”

Instead say: “We are behind you 100 percent, kiddo. You got this" or “You know how to bring the heat. Give it your best.”

And after a performance, stick with “praising your child’s participation and effort regardless of the outcome.”

Have you asked?

Have you asked your child what she wants for herself? It's probably not the ice hockey player that Gessen hoped for, the tennis lover my husband dreamed of, or the world-class pianist or scientist you may have wanted to be yourself.

“Just be certain that you customize your expectations for your child to their interests, abilities, and personality , not yours,” advise Thurber and Weisinger. “Supportive parents also have high expectations, but they want their children to do their best, not the best.”

Gessen, Keith. (2021). “Sports Meant So Much to Me. Why Wouldn’t My Son Play?” New York Times Magazine : March 16.

Thurber, Chris and Hendrie Weisinger. (2021). The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure: A Positive Approach to Pushing Your Child to Be Their Best Self . New York: Hachette Go

Susan Newman, Ph.D. , is a social psychologist and author. Her latest book is The Book of No: 365 Ways to Say it and Mean it—and Stop People-Pleasing Forever.

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Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development

Do you wonder how parents influence their child? Read our parents’ influence on a child essay example and learn about the parental impact on behavior and development.

Introduction

• Financial Resources
• Education Level

Unemployed Parents

• Involvement of Parents
• Support from Parents
• Understanding of the Child’s Future
• Motivation from Parents
• Parental Goal-Setting
• The Importance of Discipline

Parents are means of structuring their child’s future. They have a very crucial role to play in their child’s growth and his/her conduct. During the days when schooling was considered to be accessible only to the children of the opulent, those who were not privileged enough to go to school, remained at home and helped their parents in daily chores.

Such children used to emulate their parents in their deeds and conduct. “In large part, we as children are shaped by what we see our parents do and how we see them act. I know that I have tried to model after my parents in many ways because I think they have done many things right” (Enotes, 2010).

But during the years, owing to the numerous opportunities available, parents have started devoting more time towards their work. Moreover, education has been simplified and has easy access. Children have started going to schools and as such, both parents and their children don’t have enough time to spend with each other. But still there are parents who devote time towards their children and try and teach them.

It has been observed that children, who have their parents’ guidance and participation in their school activities, achieve more in life as compared to those who totally depend on their schools. “…is that when parents get involved in their children’s education, they offer not only information specific to the classroom, but likely help in giving children a broader level of academic information” (Jeynes, 2011).

There are a few factors related to parents that have a major role to play in the child’s upbringing and education. These are:

Financial resources of parents

Financial resources mean the income of the parents. If the income of parents is good, they can afford to provide extra study material to their child at home. There is a lot of referencing material required by children and as such parents earning better can provide their child with books, periodicals, magazines, etc. Technological devices like the computer play an important role in a child’s standard of education. Parents earning handsomely can provide their child with a computer at home so that he/she can complete online projects. “Poverty takes a toll on students’ school performance. Poor children are twice as likely as their more affluent counterparts to repeat a grade; to be suspended, expelled, or drop out of high school; and to be placed in special education classes” (Education).

Education level of the parents

If the parents are well educated, they ought to understand the importance of education and will encourage their child to study better and up to high levels. Uneducated or less educated parents will not be able to understand the importance of moulding their child’s career from the early school days. On the contrary, well educated parents will understand that for achieving success and objectives, the foundation of their child should be strong.

Unemployed parents are disgruntled and as such the atmosphere at home is not conducive for a child to study. Children find it suffocating at home and as such can’t concentrate on their studies even at their schools. Nicole Biedinger remarked that “…it is hypothesized that the home environment and family background are very important for the cognitive abilities and for their improvement” (Biedinger 2011). He further continues that “Previous research has shown that there exist developmental differences of children from different social classes” (Biedinger, 2011).

Involvement of parents

It will not be contradictory to state that parents and schools have an equal effect on the development of children. Both have an important role to play and are links to a child’s future. Even if one of the links is missing, it will have a negative impact on the child. Parents can get involved in their child’s upbringing by keeping a constant vigil on his/her school work. They can also visit his/her school on occasions such as parent-teacher meetings, annual days, sport events, social get-togethers, etc. All this will help in developing confidence in the child and also a sense of safety and protection.

Once a child is grown up, the parents can still contribute towards building their child’s confidence and identifying his/her qualities by talking to him/her on various career related issues.

Support from parents

Even if parents are not able to contribute financially by providing the essential tools for education, they can at least act as moral boosters for their child. They can inculcate, in their child, the habit of studying hard in order to attain success in life. Such children can defy all odds and prove to fulfil their parents’ aspirations. Alison Rich emphasized that “A cognitively stimulating home need not be one that is rich in material resources. Parents can simply discuss issues of importance with their children, talk to them about what they are doing in school, or spend time doing activities that will develop their skills and abilities” (Rich, 2000).

Parents’ understanding of their child’s future

Simply by getting involved in their child’s school activities, parents cannot guarantee their child’s success. Parents should be well acquainted with the ongoing educational process and various courses available. Information on when to go for any particular course is very crucial. As for example, parents must be aware of any courses that their child might require before going to the college. There are various pre-college courses that improve the grasping power of students. Further, a child will not be able to tell as to what he/she wants to achieve in life. But parents, by knowing his/her interests, can assess their child’s inclination and can further encourage him/her to pursue those interests.

Motivation from parents

Usually, parents tell bed-time stories to their children. These stories have a great impact on the way a child thinks and are instrumental to quite some extent in moulding his/her behaviour and conduct. So parents should tell such stories that have some moral values. The child will get inspired from them and behave accordingly. Stories of heroes and successful people will encourage the child to be like one of them. Parents can also motivate their children by doing good acts themselves.

Parents to set goals for their child

Achieving one’s goals in life is a very important factor of success. Success comes to those who achieve their aims and objectives. Even though there are no fixed parameters for achieving success, it solely depends on the hard work, enthusiasm and motivation of a person. These qualities don’t come instantly but have to be nurtured since childhood. So parents, who want their child to succeed, should start giving him/her small targets to be completed in a given time-frame. Gradually, the child will be habituated to achieve targets and this will be helpful to a great extent in his/her future life, may it be his/her education or career.

Inculcating the importance of discipline

Being disciplined is one of the most critical requirements of being successful. Similar to the habit of achieving targets, discipline also doesn’t come instantly. It has to be inculcated since childhood.

Parents can teach discipline to their child by following certain rules. They can have strict time frames for different activities of their child at home such as study hours, watching the television programmes, having supper and other meals, and going to bed. A sense of responsibility can also be imposed on the child by allocating to him/her certain house-hold tasks.

Having mentioned all the above factors, it can be concluded that parents have an ever-lasting impact on their child’s education. It has been observed that in cases where parents have involvement in their children’s education, the children portray the following virtues: better grades at school, better rates of graduation, fewer absentees from school, better inspiration and confidence, abstaining from drugs, smoking, alcohol and other sedatives, transparency, and being responsible.

Both parents and the school have to work in mutual co-operation to enhance the educational experience of a child and to mould his/her career. In fact, schools encourage parents to be more involved in their children’s activities because the school authorities know that parents’ involvement can bring about great positive changes in the students. That’s the reason schools invite parents to attend various school activities and functions.

Biedinger, N. (2011). The influence of education and home environment on the cognitive outcomes of preschool children in Germany . Web.

Education. (n.d.). Out-of-school influences and academic success-background, parental influence, family economic status, preparing for school, physical and mental health . Web.

Enotes. (2010). How do parents influence children in life? Web.

Jeynes, W. (2011). Parental involvement and academic success . New York: Routledge.

Rich, A. (2000). Beyond the classroom: How parents influence their children’s education . Web.

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IvyPanda . 2023. "Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development." February 13, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/.

1. IvyPanda . "Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development." February 13, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/.

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IvyPanda . "Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development." February 13, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/.

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Exploring Parental Pressure on Academic Performance among Adolescents

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Using thematic analysis in psychology

Sampling for qualitative research, parental involvement in children's education: why does it make a difference., theory and practice of group counseling, sampling issues in qualitative research., related papers (5), the relationship between adolescents’ attributional style and parenting, peers’ emotionality and children's academic achievement in second grade: testing the moderating role of children's behavioral self‐regulation, mediating influence of children’s academic self-concept on the relation between parenting style and children’s academic achievement, relationship between preschoolers' anxiety and parenting styles: a longitudinal study., parenting styles and adjustment in gifted children, trending questions (3).

Parental pressure, especially from authoritarian parenting styles, can negatively impact adolescents' mental health by causing stress due to high academic expectations, affecting their overall well-being.

Parental expectations can positively or negatively impact a child's academic performance and self-esteem. Supportive parenting enhances achievement, while high pressure may lead to stress and lower self-esteem.

Family pressure, particularly authoritarian parenting styles, can negatively impact students' academic performance by causing stress. Supportive parenting styles enhance academic achievement by reducing pressure and fostering positive development.

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Parental Support and Adolescents’ Coping with Academic Stressors: A Longitudinal Study of Parents’ Influence Beyond Academic Pressure and Achievement

Melanie j. zimmer-gembeck.

1 School of Applied Psychology and Griffith Centre for Mental Health, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD Australia

Ellen A. Skinner

2 Portland State University, Portland, OR USA

Riley A. Scott

3 School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD Australia

Katherine M. Ryan

Tanya hawes, alex a. gardner, amanda l. duffy.

Adolescents face many academic pressures that require good coping skills, but coping skills can also depend on social resources, such as parental support and fewer negative interactions. The aim of this study was to determine if parental support and parental negative interactions concurrently and longitudinally relate to adolescents’ ways of academic coping, above and beyond the impact of three types of academic stress, students’ achievement at school (i.e., grades in school), and age. Survey data were collected from 839 Australian students in grades 5 to 10 ( M age  = 12.2, SD  = 1.72; 50% girls). Students completed measures of support and negative interactions with parents; academic stress from workload, external pressure (teachers/parents) to achieve, and intrapsychic pressure for high achievement; and ways of academic coping that were grouped into two positive and two negative types. Hypothesized associations were tested concurrently and from one year to the next using path modeling. Beyond the numerous significant influences of academic stress and achievement on coping, and control for age and COVID-19 timing, adolescents with more parental support reported more use of engagement coping (e.g., strategizing) and comfort-seeking, whereas those who reported more negative interactions with parents reported more use of disengagement coping (e.g., concealment) and escape. In the longitudinal model, parental support predicted an increase in engagement and comfort-seeking and a decrease in disengagement coping, whereas negative interaction with parents predicted an increase in disengagement coping. Overall, the findings support the view that coping with academic stressors will continue to depend on parent-adolescent relationships even into the teen years.

Introduction

For adolescents around the world, academic workload and other school-related demands are stressors that prompt many coping responses (Raftery-Helmer & Grolnick, 2015 ). Without adequate coping, academic stressors can have a cumulative negative effect and substantially interfere with motivation, engagement, and optimal learning, change future opportunities (Skinner & Saxton, 2019 ), and contribute to personal distress and psychological disorders (Schönfeld et al., 2019 ). Furthermore, academic stressors can occur for many different reasons. Some adolescents report workloads that overwhelm their abilities and their time but, for others, stressors are more internal or intrapsychic and relate to high self-expectations of achievement and pressure to be the very best (Sun et al., 2011 ). Another source of stress can be external, with parents and teachers directly communicating that adolescents could and should do better academically. In fact, these are the three most common reasons for academic stress: a perceived high level of schoolwork ( workload pressure ), an internal drive for high achievement ( intrapsychic pressure ), and external pressure to achieve from parents or teachers ( external pressure ; Bjorkman, 2007 ). The recognition that adequate coping is needed to overcome these forms of academic stress, and that stressful events and coping can affect adolescents’ development and well-being, has led to a great deal of research identifying how teachers (Raftery & Grolnick, 2018 ) and the classroom environment (Shih, 2015 ) can support adolescents’ coping. Yet, parent-adolescent relationships have also been linked to adolescents’ academic ways of coping (Zimmer-Gembeck & Locke, 2007 ), but no previous research has considered how support and negative interactions with parents may uniquely account for adolescents’ ways of coping with the multitude of academic stressors they can encounter (Skinner & Saxton, 2019 ). To fill this gap, the roles of parental support and parent-adolescent negative interactions in adolescents’ engagement and disengagement ways of coping with workload, intrapsychic, and external sources of academic stress were investigated in the current study.

Academic Stressors and Ways of Coping: Engagement and Disengagement Coping

Regardless of the source of academic stress, adolescents rely on a range of ways of coping in response (Morales-Castillo, 2022 ). Academic coping includes the many ways that students respond when they face academic challenges, setbacks, and difficulties (Skinner et al., 2013 ). To develop a specific understanding of the different ways students can cope, scholars interested in academic coping have relied on the numerous categorizations of coping that have been developed across decades of research on stress and coping (e.g., Skinner & Saxton, 2019 ). One conceptualization that has been very useful for understanding child and adolescent achievement and well-being has been the differentiation of engagement from disengagement ways of coping (Conner-Smith et al., 2000 ). Engagement includes coping responses that orient towards the stressor to tackle it more directly or to engage others in providing support. Disengagement coping encompasses responses that involve turning away from active attempts to modify the stressful event or reduce distress – sometimes even prompting more distress through excessive worry or self-blame. Within an academic context, engagement coping has been shown to be most adaptive for promoting academic achievement, participation, and tenacity. Students who approach and engage with challenges to learn, achieve better grades, and are more behaviorally involved and emotionally positive about school (Skinner et al., 2020 ). For example, engagement forms of coping, such as strategizing and seeking information, have been found to reduce future stress and have been positively related to intrinsic interest in learning (Appelhans & Schmeck, 2002 ). Conversely, in this same study, disengagement ways of coping (e.g., concealing problems, ruminative thoughts about workload or achievement pressures, or minimizing the importance of schoolwork) were related to lower academic performance.

Engagement and disengagement ways of coping can follow from adolescents’ experiences of academic stress from workload, intrapsychic expectations for achievement, and/or external pressures (Morales-Castillo, 2022 ). Engagement ways of coping encompassed some of the most active approach responses appropriate for academic stressors, namely strategizing, help-seeking, comfort-seeking, self-encouragement, and commitment to the task or goal. Disengagement ways of coping, which align with avoidance or nonproductive forms of coping, were measured as confusion, concealment, self-pity, rumination, and escape. Taken together, these ways of coping with academic stressors capture the range of strategies that adolescents report relying on to manage their emotions and motivations related to academic pressures, to improve (or worsen) the stressful situation, and to put in place plans or solve problems in ways that can reduce (or worsen) the likelihood of academic stressors becoming chronic and impairing (Skinner et al., 2016 ).

Multiple strands of research provide evidence supporting the focus on this range of academic coping responses. In this past research, student well-being, motivation, participation, and achievement have been found to be associated with engagement coping (Shih, 2015 ; Wang & Eccles, 2012 ). Other past research identified concealment (possibly the antithesis of help-seeking) as blocking participation and learning (Ryan et al., 2005 ), and escape, withdrawal, helplessness, and rumination as indicators of avoidance of tackling academic challenges (Skinner et al., 2016 ; Vizoso et al., 2019 ). This research has found that these disengagement ways of coping make academic participation and achievement more difficult, and they relate to increased distress, burnout, and the likelihood of giving up. Although coping is sometimes considered to be an individual affair, many of these coping responses include the involvement of other people, for example, in providing opportunities for help and comfort when it is sought or in constraining opportunities for assistance that might make escape, withdrawal, and concealment more likely. This fits with decades of research indicating that the availability of social resources can impact stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 ). When it comes to schoolwork, some of the most important social resources for academic stressors can be found in relationships with parents.

Academic Coping as Related to Adolescents’ Perceived Parenting Experiences

Parents have been frequently described as a primary source of modeling and socialization of their children’s development of coping (e.g., see Skinner & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2016 for a review). The recognition of the role of family in learning about (and the development of) coping has led those with a developmental view of stress and coping to encourage a greater focus on identifying the social foundations of coping itself (Skinner and Edge 2002a ). For example, in a review, Compas et al. ( 2001 ) proposed that researchers “need to pay closer attention to the social context in which children encounter and try to cope with stress” (p. 122). Given the recognition of the importance of this topic, there has been research on the teacher-relationships and school contexts that assist adolescents to better cope with academic stress (Raftery-Helmer & Grolnick, 2018 ), but there not been much attention on parent-adolescent relationships. For example, in a recent review of studies of academic coping, only 16 of the 66 reviewed studies considered social antecedents, and, of these, most considered teachers and classroom contexts (Skinner & Saxton, 2019 ).

The idea that parent-adolescent relationships should be social foundations for adolescents’ academic coping is supported by self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985 ), which has suggested that when parents meet child and adolescent needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy, this encourages their engagement, and minimizes their disengagement, ways of coping with stressors (Ntoumanis et al., 2009 ; Skinner & Edge, 2002b ). Parents can support adolescents’ psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy through the provision of support and involvement, encouragement, and communication and feedback about progress in and outside of school, and by using autonomy supportive strategies to encourage choice, participation, and internalized motivation for success (Klootwijk et al., 2022 ). Central to an SDT-influenced motivational theory of the development of coping is the understanding that attachment (communication and trust in the parent-adolescent relationship), and, conversely, experiences of coercion and rejection in important social relationships will influence whether coping or patterns of action when facing stress will involve engagement or disengagement (Skinner & Wellborn, 1994 ). Thus, social environments that include relations that are connected and warm are expected to promote positive, active, and engaged coping behaviors. Social environments that include relationships with others that are hostile, rejecting, and coercive will yield unproductive, avoidant, and disengaged or helpless coping responses.

The theoretical ways that parents may influence their children’s coping are wide-ranging and include coaching and modeling, the quality of the parent-child relationship, the family environment, and family structure (Power, 2004 ). Of these influences, general parental support versus rejection and coercion are the aspects of parenting that may most directly spill over into academic stress and coping. For children and adolescents, good communication and trust in the support of a parent are closely connected to coping responses and, as outlined in detail in attachment theory (Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2017 ), adolescents’ and adults’ coping can be more productive when there is just the possibility that positive support is available (for example, the belief that talking to a parent is possible). Thus, by adolescence, perceived availability of parental support would be expected to be a resource for greater action and more engaged coping responses to academic stress. Conversely, if parents are perceived as unsupportive, rejecting, hostile, and coercive, this might translate to unproductive responses when adolescents are coping with academic stressors. In one of the only studies to examine these relations, cohesive, low conflict, communicative families were more likely to model active coping behaviors for children, and they had children who more frequently used active coping behaviors and exhibited fewer problematic responses when dealing with stressful events (Kliewer et al., 1996 ). In a second study, adolescents who reported more involved and autonomy supportive parents used more engagement (i.e., active) coping with problems at home and at school (Zimmer-Gembeck & Locke, 2007 ). Although no previous study was found that had examined whether parental support and negative interactions between parents and adolescents are associated with adolescents’ engagement and disengagement coping with academic stress, one study of 183 young adolescents reported that parental involvement was associated with more mastery academic coping (i.e., problem-solving, help-seeking, and support for feelings), but not associated with defensive coping (i.e., rumination and blame) after receiving a bad grade (Raftery-Helmer & Grolnick, 2018 ).

The early to middle adolescent years bring change in academics, relationships, stressors, and skills at coping. This age period is when parent-child relationships may become more negative in their interactions (Branje, 2018 ) as adolescents desire more autonomy and parents are adjusting to these changes (Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2011 ). In addition, from early to middle adolescence, academic demands and external pressures can increase (Seiffge-Krenke et al., 2009 ), and there is evidence that engagement may decrease and disengagement coping may increase with age (Ben-Eliyahu & Kaplan, 2015 ) alongside a general increase in school demands and decrease in connection to school (Skinner & Saxton, 2019 ). Thus, in general, age-related changes have been found in academic stress level, ways of coping, and negative interactions with parents across the early to middle adolescent years. All such adolescent (as well as family and school-related) changes suggest that age should be accounted for when studying relations between parent-adolescent relationships, academic stressors, and ways of academic coping.

Current Study

Parents are known to model, encourage, teach, and support adolescents’ ways of coping with stress. Yet, much of the research on social foundations of academic coping has concentrated on teachers and school, with very little research on the implications of parent-adolescent relationships for adolescents’ academic coping, especially when consider stress from workload, and intrapsychic and external pressure to achieve. The aim of this study was to test concurrent and longitudinal associations of parental support and adolescents’ reports of their negative interaction with their parents (i.e., experiences of rejection and coercion) with adolescents’ engagement and disengagement ways of coping with academic stress in the context of workload, as well as intrapsychic and external, pressures. There were two hypotheses. First, adolescents’ perceptions of parental support will relate to more engagement and less disengagement academic coping, both concurrently and by the next year, above and beyond the impacts of workload, intrapsychic and external stress, achievement, and age (Hypothesis 1). Second, negative interactions with parents will have the opposite associations, relating to less engagement and more disengagement academic coping, both concurrently and by the next year (Hypothesis 2). While testing these two hypotheses, the relations of three types of stressors, namely workload, intrapsychic, and external pressures, as well as adolescents’ achievement (measured as “usual” grades in school) and age, were considered as additional correlates of adolescents’ ways of coping. Finally, T1 data were collected before, during, and after a major stay-at-home order (SAHO) for COVID-19 in Australia. Thus, differences between these three groups of students were described and COVID-19 timing of data collection was included in the primary models.

Participants

The participants were 839 Australian students in grades 5 to 10 who participated in T1 of a 1-year longitudinal study (two waves of data collection). The number of students who attempted the survey at T1 was 882, but 22 participants were excluded because of patterned responding and 21 were excluded because they did not complete more than the first measure. Of the 839 remaining adolescent participants, 96% were aged 10 to 15 years (1% were age 9 and 3% were age 16 or 17; M age  = 12.2, SD  = 1.72), 49% reported boys, 50% girls, and 1% nonbinary/other. Adolescents could report race/ethnicity and/or Australia or New Zealand as their birth country; 47% reported White; 6% Asian; 4% Australian First Peoples, Torres Strait Islander or Pacific Islander; and 29% other (reporting more than 20 different backgrounds). The remaining 20% did not tick any race/ethnicity. More than one-half (56%) reported they were born in Australia and 6% were born in New Zealand.

Following approval of the study by the Griffith University human research ethics committee (Reference #2019/178) and the Queensland (Australia) state education department, local schools were provided information about the study via email and telephone. The first three consenting secondary schools were included in the study and, subsequently, their feeder primary schools were invited to participate, for a total of eight participating schools (in Queensland Australia, students attend primary school until grade 6 and then transition to secondary school for grades 7 to 12). The schools attracted students across all income brackets. Depending on the school, 14–29% of the student population was within the lowest income quartile, and 4–30% was within the highest income quartile.

To gather informed consent from parents, students took consent forms home for completion and returned them to the school. Across the schools, 52% of students returned consent forms to the school and, of these, 80% of parents gave informed consent for participation. All consent processes were conducted in the schools in 2019 and 2020, prior to a national COVID-19 pandemic SAHO that continued for about one month for primary and secondary schools. In 2019 prior to SAHO, T1 questionnaires were completed by 350 students in their regular classrooms. However, in 2020, data were collected from 240 students while under SAHO (but school continued online). The remaining 249 students completed the questionnaire online from home in 2020 after classroom teaching started again, but schools did not allow researchers to attend in person. These three groups of students were compared, and COVID-related timing of survey completion was included as a covariate in all analyses.

The portions of the survey included in this study were completed in approximately 20 min at each of T1 and one year later at T2. The entire survey was focused on relationships, stress, and student well-being. Other measures included in the survey but not analyzed here concerned additional stressful events and coping with these events (peer relationships and world or community crises), friendship support, and emotional problems. At T1, each student who participated at school prior to COVID-19 SAHO received a small gift for their participation, whereas others who completed the survey online from home or after SAHO received a $20 gift voucher. At T2, each student who completed the survey received a $20 gift voucher.

Academic Coping

At T1 and T2, 10 ways of coping with academic stressors were measured with two items each drawn from the measure of Coping Reactions to School Challenges (20 items total; Skinner et al., 2013 ). Five ways of engaged coping were measured, including strategizing (“I think of some things that will help me next time”, r  = 0.53), help-seeking (“I get some help on the parts I didn’t understand”, r  = 0.61), comfort-seeking (“I talk about it with someone who will make me feel better”, r  = 0.57), self-encouragement (“I tell myself I’ll do better next time”, r  = 0.53), and commitment (“I remind myself that it’s something I really want to do”, r  = 0.49). Five ways of disengaged coping were measured, including confusion (“It’s difficult for me to think”, r  = 0.45), rumination (“feel like you can’t get it out of your head”, r  = 0.57), concealment (“I try to hide it”, r  = 0.58), self-pity (“I say ‘This always happens to me’”, r  = 0.43), and escape (indicative of minimization of the stressor; e.g., “say it wasn’t important”, r  = 0.50). Prior to responding to coping items, students were asked “When something bad happens in your schoolwork (like not doing well on a test or not being able to answer an important question), or you are having trouble with a subject at school, how much do you…”. Responses for each coping item ranged from 1 ( I don’t do this at all or I do this a little ) to 4 ( So much! I do this almost all of the time ).

The ways of coping showed intercorrelations with each other that suggested broader composite scores would represent the coping responses, which was supported by exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factoring with varimax rotation). Using T1 measures, the factor analysis suggested three factors based on the criterion of an eigenvalue > 1 (eigenvalues = 2.71, 2.32, 1.07, 45% of the variance in the items). Yet, two items (comfort-seeking and escape) had high and similar strength loadings on all three factors. These two items were removed, and another factor analysis extracted two factors with eigenvalues > 1 (2.54, 2.03), and accounted for 43% of the variance in the items. Factor 1 had high loadings for rumination (0.81), self-pity (0.76), confusion (0.70), and concealment (0.49). Factor 2 had high loadings for strategizing (0.63), commitment (0.60), self-encouragement (0.57), and help-seeking (0.49). The items loading highly on Factor 1 were averaged to form an aggregate coping score referred to as disengagement coping (Cronbach’s α = 0.78 and 0.77 at T1 and T2, respectively). The items on Factor 2 were averaged to form an aggregate coping score referred to as engagement coping (Cronbach’s α = 0.66 and 0.60 at T1 and T2, respectively). Comfort-seeking and escape were maintained as separate ways of coping for the analysis. Thus, four ways of coping were considered in the analyses: engagement, disengagement, comfort-seeking, and escape.

T1 Parental Support and Parent-Child Negative Interaction

Parental support was measured with the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment-Revised (10 items; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987 ; “I can count on my parents when I need to talk about something important”, ‘My parents understand me”). Responses ranged from 1 ( No! Not at all true for me ) to 6 ( Yes! Totally true for me ). Responses to items were averaged to form a total score of parental support (Cronbach’s α = 0.87), with a higher score indicating more support.

Parent-child negative interaction (i.e., feelings of rejection and coercion) was measured with 9 items from the Parents as Social Context Questionnaire (Skinner et al., 2005 ; “My parents make me feel like I’m not wanted”). Responses ranged from 1 ( No! Not at all true for me ) to 6 ( Yes! Totally true for me ). Responses were averaged to form a total score of negative interactions with parents with a higher score indicating more negative interactions, Cronbach’s α = 0.90.

T1 External and Intrapsychic Academic Pressure and Workload

Twelve items from the Academic Stress Scale (Bjorkman, 2007 ) were used to measure external pressure from parents and teachers to perform well in school (4 items; “My parents pressure me to get good grades”, “My teachers pressure me to get good grades”), intrapsychic pressures for academic performance (3 items; “I take my schoolwork too seriously”), and workload pressures (5 items; “I have too much homework to do it all well”). Responses ranged from 1 ( No! Not at all true for me ) to 6 ( Yes! Totally true for me ). Responses to items on each subscale were averaged to form total scores for external pressure (Cronbach’s α = 0.83), intrapsychic pressure (Cronbach’s α = 0.74), and workload pressure (Cronbach’s α = 0.89), with higher scores indicating more pressure.

T1 Grades in School

Adolescents reported their usual grades in school (“What grades do you usually get at school?”) on a scale from Mostly A’s (1) to D’s and lower (6). This item was reversed so a higher score indicated higher achievement.

Data Analyses

After examining means, standard deviations, and correlations between all measures, model testing involved fitting a concurrent model with paths freed from all measures to concurrent (T1) measures of academic coping, and (separately) fitting a longitudinal model with paths freed from all measures (including T1 coping) to T2 coping. In addition, in both models, covariances were freed between the predictor variables and between the coping variables, but those with p  > 0.10 were trimmed to produce final models. Age and data collection timing (before, during, or after SAHO) were included as covariates in each model. Model fit was determined by the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and the comparative fit index (CFI). RMSEA values below 0.05 are considered good, values between 0.05 and 0.08 are considered indicative of fair fit, and values between 0.08 and 0.10 are considered an indication of mediocre fit (Kaplan, 2000 ). The CFI is more acceptable as values approach one; values over 0.95 are considered indication of very good model fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999 ). Chi-square (χ 2 ) and associated p -value are also reported. Critical ratios were used to determine significance of model paths ( t -test values above an absolute value of 1.96).

Missing Data and Comparisons of Students Retained or Not at T2

Overall, there were minimal missing data at T1, with 91 (11%) students missing 1 to 4 academic stress and/or coping items, and 50 (6%) missing 1 to 3 parenting items. Because there were so few missing items for any participant on any measure, T1 composite scores were formed for all students based on the completed items, providing T1 scores for all 839 students. One year later (T2), students were recontacted either via their schools, email and/or text to give them access to the second survey. In total, 743 students (89%) completed the T2 survey. Three differences were found when T1 measures were compared between students who were or were not retained at T2. Retained students reported slightly more engagement coping ( M  = 2.40, SD  = 0.57 vs. M  = 2.27, SD  = 0.50, t (1837) = −2.16, p  = 0.031), less workload pressure ( M  = 2.70, SD  = 1.29 vs. M  = 3.00, SD  = 1.30, t (1837) = 2.13, p  = 0.033), and better grades ( M  = 3.97, SD  = 1.25 vs. M  = 3.58, SD  = 1.29, t (1837) = 2.89, p  = 0.004). No significant differences were found for other measures, age, or proportion boy/girl. Also, Little MCAR’s test was not significant supporting the conclusion that missing data at T2 were completely at random, χ 2 (30) = 28.55, p  = 0.541. Nevertheless, instead of using listwise deletion, all 839 participants were maintained in all analyses using missing data estimation techniques of multiple imputation (in SPSS v.29) for descriptive statistics and correlations, and FIML for path models. Multiple imputation involved producing 20 imputed datasets, and pooled results for descriptive and correlational analyses are reported below.

Descriptive Statistics and COVID-Related Differences

Table ​ Table1 1 provides a summary of comparisons of the means ( M s) of all T1 variables among three groups based on data collection procedures at T1, namely, students who participated (1) pre-COVID, (2) during the first major SAHO in the area (slightly before and into April 2020), and (3) after returning to in-school learning. Notably, age differed between groups, with those participating after return to in-class learning significantly older than students in the other two groups. Other than age differences, there were eight differences with significance levels p  < 0.005 (0.05 adjusted for 11 comparisons) generally favoring students during SAHO, then pre-COVID, then returning to school: During SAHO, parental support and engagement coping were highest, and parent negative interactions, external pressure, workload pressure, and grades in school were lowest. Students who participated in-class (pre-COVID) were also higher in parental support and lower in external pressure, workload, and grades in school than students who participated after returning to in-school learning. Finally, those who participated after returning to in-class learning were lower in disengagement but higher in escape than the other two groups.

Comparison of Students in the Three T1 Data Collection Groups on all T1 Measures ( N  = 839)

Mean values with different superscripts are significantly different from each other, p  < 0.05

Adjusted p  < 0.005 (0.05/10)

Correlations between Measures

Pearson’s correlations between measures are detailed in Table ​ Table2. 2 . Most correlations between parenting and ways of coping were in the expected directions – students who experienced more parental support (and less parent negative interactions) also reported more engagement and less disengagement and escape coping, and more comfort-seeking. In addition, T1 ways of coping were associated with at least three of the four other measures at T1. Students experiencing higher workload and external pressure reported less engagement and more disengagement and escape coping; and students with higher grades in school also reported more engagement and less disengagement coping. Exceptions to these patterns were found for adolescents’ intrapsychic pressure, which was correlated with more coping of most kinds (engagement, disengagement, and comfort-seeking), but less escape. Similar correlations were found for T2 ways of coping with other measures, although they tended to be weaker and some were no longer significant. Correlations with age are also provided in Table ​ Table1. 1 . Older students reported less parental support, more negative interactions, and more external pressure for academic performance. They also reported more intrapsychic pressure, a higher workload, and better grades. For coping, older students reported less engagement coping and more escape.

Correlations between All Measures ( N  = 839)

All variables were assessed at Time 1, except those labeled as Time 2 (T2)

* p  < 0.05; ** p  < 0.01; *** p  < 0.001

Concurrent Model: Associations of Parents, Pressure, and Achievement on Ways of Coping

The results of the concurrent model linking parental support, parent negative interactions, pressures, and grades in school to the four ways of coping (adjusting for age and data collection timing) are shown in Table ​ Table3 3 and Fig. ​ Fig.1. 1 . This model had a good fit to the data, χ 2 (9) = 10.94, p  = 0.280, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = 0.016 (90% CI 0.000 to 0.044), p  = 0.982. Overall, the model accounted for 24% of the variance in academic engagement coping, 42% of disengagement coping, 6% of comfort-seeking, and 21% of escape. As expected, parental support and parent negative interactions were significantly associated with students’ academic coping, even after adjusting for academic pressures, grades in school, age, and data collection timing (before, during SAHO, or after). Parental support was associated with more engaged forms of coping only (β = 0.25 and β = 0.22 for engagement coping and comfort-seeking, respectively, both p  < 0.001), whereas parent negative interactions was associated with more disengaged forms of coping only (β = 0.23 and β = 0.13 for disengagement coping and escape, respectively, both p  < 0.001).

Results of Testing All Directional Paths to Academic Coping in the Concurrent Model ( N  = 839)

Neg int negative interactions, Before and After COVID = Dummy coded variables to account for timing of data collection (see Table ​ Table1). 1 ). Covariances among predictors and among coping outcomes were freed if significant at p  < 0.10. These covariances (and correlations) are not shown in this Table, but they were similar to the results shown in Table 1 and Table ​ Table2. 2 . Only significant direct paths from age and COVID variables to coping measures were freed

Model fit: χ 2 (9) = 10.94, p  = 0.280 CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = 0.016 (90% CI 0.000 to 0.044), p  = 0.982

An illustration of the significant path coefficients in the model of concurrent measures of parenting, academic stress, ways of academic coping, and grades. * p  < 0.05. ** p  < 0.01. *** p  < 0.001. Adolescent age and COVID-19 data collection timing are not shown here (see Table ​ Table3 3 for results)

As expected, ways of coping were also associated with measures of academic pressures as well as grades in school (see Table ​ Table3 3 and Fig. ​ Fig.1). 1 ). Students who perceived more external performance pressure from parents and teachers reported more escape (β = 0.09, p  < 0.05). Students who reported more workload pressure reported less engagement coping (β = −0.23, p  < 0.001)., and more disengagement and escape (β = 0.37 and β = 0.29, respectively, both p  < 0.001). Intrapsychic pressure had a more mixed pattern of associations with academic coping, with students reporting higher intrapsychic pressure concurrently reporting more engagement (β = 0.37, p  < 0.001), disengagement (β = 0.25, p  < 0.001), and comfort-seeking (β = 0.15, p  < 0.001), and less escape (β = −0.19, p  < 0.001) to cope with academic stress. Students who reported higher grades in school reported less disengagement coping (β = −0.10, p  < 0.05). Once all of these parent and academic factors were considered, age was associated with less disengagement coping (β = −0.11, p  < 0.001), and (consistent with the group comparisons in Table ​ Table1) 1 ) data collection timing was associated with all ways of coping except comfort-seeking.

Longitudinal Model: Associations with Change in Ways of Coping from T1 to T2

The results of the longitudinal model linking T1 parental support, parent negative interactions, pressures, and grades in school to the four ways of coping at T2 (adjusting for coping at T1, age, and data collection timing) are shown in Table ​ Table4 4 and Fig. ​ Fig.2. 2 . This model had a good fit to the data, χ 2 (36) = 114.39, p  < 0.001, CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.051 (90% CI 0.041 to 0.062), p  = 0.420. Overall, the longitudinal model accounted for less variance in each way of coping relative to the concurrent model: 18% of the variance in academic engagement coping, 21% of disengagement coping, 8% of comfort-seeking, and 12% of escape.

Results of Testing All Directional Paths to Academic Coping in the 1-Year Longitudinal Model ( N  = 839)

Neg int negative interactions, Ext external, Int intrapsychic. All covariances between T1 predictors, age, and data collection timing were freed if p  < 0.10. These covariances (and correlations) are not shown in this Table, but they were similar to the results shown in Tables ​ Tables1, 1 , ​ ,2, 2 , and ​ and3. 3 . Grades in school, age, and COVID-19 timing were not significantly associated with any T2 measures in the model, so are not shown here

Model fit: χ 2 (36) = 114.39, p  < 0.001, CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.051 (90% CI 0.041 to 0.062), p  = 0.420

An illustration of the significant standardized path coefficients in the model of T1 and T2 measures of parenting, academic stress, ways of academic coping, and grades. * p  < 0.05. ** p  < 0.01. *** p  < 0.001. Grades in school, age, and COVID-19 data collection timing were not significantly associated with any measure of T2 coping, so they are not shown here

In this model, with the exception of escape, parental support was associated with better academic coping by T2, including an increase in engagement coping (β = 0.12, p  < 0.01), a decrease in disengagement coping (β = −0.08, p  < 0.05), and an increase in comfort-seeking (β = 0.11, p  < 0.01; see Table ​ Table4 4 and Fig. ​ Fig.2). 2 ). Negative interactions with parents also played role, as this measure was associated with increases in disengagement coping by T2 (β = 0.10, p  < 0.05). In addition, there were some significant directional paths from intrapsychic pressure and workload pressure, with the former associated with increases in T2 disengagement coping (β = 0.09, p  < 0.05), and the latter associated with decreases in T2 engagement coping (β = −0.12, p  < 0.01).

Although suggested in numerous developmental and social theories of social relationships, stress, and coping (e.g., Skinner & Edge, 2002b ), there has been little investigation of whether adolescents’ experiences of parental support and negative parent-adolescent interactions relate to their engagement and disengagement ways of coping with academic stress. In general, the findings support the conclusion that more support from parents and fewer negative parent-child interactions are positive for adolescents’ concurrent and future reliance on more engagement and less disengagement ways of coping with academic stressors, before and after considering the significant contributions to coping found for academic pressures and achievement (i.e., grades in school), and controlling for age and COVID-19 data collection timing.

Parents, Academic Workload and External Pressures, and Coping

Past research has found that many adolescents respond to academic stress with what are usually constructive and useful coping responses, such as strategizing, problem-solving, and support- or help-seeking (e.g., Skinner & Saxton, 2019 ). Yet, the findings of the present study provide evidence that this may be shaped by parents, consistent with decades of research showing that parents and families play crucial roles in students’ academic well-being (see Barger et al., 2019 for a review). In a concurrent (T1) multivariate path model, adolescents who reported more parental support reported more engagement coping and comfort-seeking, whereas those who reported more negative interactions (experiences of rejection and coercion) with parents relied more on disengagement and escape to cope with academic stress. Interestingly, there was no evidence that support from parents was associated with a reduction in adolescents’ reliance on negative ways of coping (i.e., less disengagement and escape ways of coping), or that more negative interactions between adolescents and their parents undermined the use of positive ways of coping (i.e., less engagement and comfort-seeking ways of coping). In a parallel model examining one-year longitudinal changes in coping, parental support (relative to negative interactions) had slightly more far-reaching associations with coping – adolescents who reported more support increased in both constructive academic coping (i.e., an increase in engagement and comfort-seeking ways of coping) and also decreased in disengagement coping by T2. Conversely, adolescents who reported more negative interactions with parents showed higher levels of disengagement coping by T2. As suggested in SDT, the provision of support (and fewer experiences of rejection and coercion) by parents could be meeting adolescents’ needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy, while also providing a source of helpful advice and comfort for academic stress. By meeting adolescents’ needs, parents could be seen as a good source of support to deal with stress outside the home, while also helping adolescents feel engaged and autonomous in their choice of daily activities and competence in facing stressful events (Raftery-Helmer & Grolnick, 2015 ). They could also provide some respite from academic stress because supportive relationships are enjoyable and distracting (e.g., positive mood is associated with more academic engagement and motivation; Klootwijk et al., 2022 ).

The findings of the present study also indicate that academic stress, measured as pressures due to workload, external demands for better performance by parents and teachers, and intrapsychic desires for high achievement, also relate to how adolescents report they cope, both concurrently and (although less so) longitudinally, perhaps because academic pressures are more specific to the current year’s situation. First, regarding workload pressure, students who reported more pressure were found to concurrently report less reliance on positive ways of coping – they used fewer engagement strategies (e.g., strategizing and commitment/planning), used more disengagement (e.g., more concealment, self-pity, and rumination), and they engaged in more cognitive strategies to minimize the importance of academic outcomes as a way of dealing with their academic stress. In the longitudinal model, workload pressure also foreshadowed a decline in engagement coping by T2. Second, external pressure was also problematic for coping, given that it was significantly associated with more use of escape. Thus, although there are very few longitudinal (or intensive repeated measures) studies on the topic of academic stressors and coping over time, these findings and those of others (e.g., Iida et al., 2017 ) suggest that feelings of excessive workload pressures, and to a lesser extent external pressure for academic performance, covary with poorer ways of coping and (despite what could be the good intentions of parents and teachers who try to encourage achievement by applying some external pressure) can result in declines in engagement coping over time. Such interrelations reveal potential risk for a negative spiral of being overwhelmed by academic pressures, more external pressure, and poorer coping responses feeding into each other as they unfold over time.

Academic Intrapsychic Stress and Coping

Although there were modest positive correlations between academic workload pressure, external pressure to perform, and intrapsychic pressure, which were consistent with, but slightly weaker than, past research (Sun et al., 2011 ), the analyses in the present study revealed a few similarities and multiple differences between the findings for academic stress in the form of intrapsychic pressure compared to workload and external pressures. First, with regards to similarity with the findings for workload and external pressures, adolescents who reported more intrapsychic pressure to achieve reported more disengagement coping – they were more likely to ruminate, conceal, and engage in self-pity. Thus, as found for workload and external stress, higher self-expectations are indicative of some problem ways of coping.

Second, intrapsychic pressure, although stressful and associated with some coping concerns, seems to covary with signs of more behavioral engagement with academic work. Different to workload pressure, intrapsychic pressure was associated with more engagement coping, more comfort-seeking, and less escape. Thus, although good for active approach behaviors, intrapsychic stress can potentially come with emotional and cognitive costs (e.g., more rumination). It is likely that high stress due to intrapsychic pressure characterizes adolescents who highly value doing well at school and may need opportunities to “switch off” to keep their personal expectations from becoming detrimental to their emotional or academic well-being, which otherwise could lead to lower performance and/or burnout (Vizoso et al., 2019 ). In fact, the longitudinal analyses did show that adolescents who reported more intrapsychic pressure were higher in disengagement coping by T2. Thus, such stress due to intrapsychic pressure for high achievement may signal risk and this complex pattern of associations may be indicative of future problems. For example, in one 3-year longitudinal study, academic stress combined with high expectations in the early adolescent years was associated with lower academic performance three years later in high school (Kaplan et al., 2005 ). A similar pattern of effects has been seen in studies examining the effects on coping of internal pressure in the form of introjected self-regulation (Skinner & Saxton, 2019 ).

Associations with Age

There was mixed evidence for associations of age with parenting, academic pressures, and coping. In the zero-order correlations, older adolescents seemed to show signs of more problems at home and at school – they reported poorer relationships with parents, more academic stress, less engagement coping, and more escape. However, in the multivariate analyses, age only remained significantly correlated with one other measure, and in the opposite direction, showing that age was associated with less disengagement coping. The findings of this study are generally consistent with other research showing the increasing academic pressures that occur as adolescents get older (e.g., Pascoe et al., 2020 ), but the findings extend on this past research identifying that the associations of age with academic coping that have been reported (Ben-Eliyahu & Kaplan, 2015 ) may be reduced substantially after adjusting for parenting support and negative interactions and academic stressors, suggesting that these processes may account for some of the age differences or changes in coping.

Effects of COVID-19

Regarding COVID-19 and the timing of the study, data were collected during three periods: before the start of the first nationwide stay-at-home orders in the country, during the stay-at-home orders, and after return to in-class learning. Adolescents who completed surveys after returning to in-class learning (and who were the oldest on average) stood out as having both more problems and using a mixed pattern of coping; they reported the poorest relationships with parents, the highest levels of workload and external pressure, and the most escape to cope with stress, but also reported the best grades, the most engagement coping, and the least disengagement coping. It is also worth mentioning that parental support was highest, parental rejection was lowest, and workload and external pressures, grades in school, and engagement coping were lowest during stay-at-home orders. These findings are consistent with anecdotal reports from families in the region about the positive family relationships and the reduced academic workloads experienced during the lockdown. The main period of K-12 remote learning in the region was expected to be (and was) relatively short (about one month; Australian Institute for Teaching and Learning, 2021 ). At this time, there were few cases of COVID-19 circulating in Australia (especially in the region where this study was conducted), people were allowed outdoor time together in family units each day, and many families received federal financial support to help them adjust to staying at home. Yet, schools were impacted; they had to quickly move to online learning, which meant changing methods of direct instruction, less scaffolding of individual student learning, and changing assessment and feedback practices. These changes had flow-through effects into the rest of the 2020 school year (e.g., attendance of students declined; standardized achievement exams were canceled; Australian Institute for Teaching and Learning, 2021 ). This seems to have led to great variability in educational strategies during this time, but studies also suggest there was little overall impact on student achievement (but the engagement and achievement of the most disadvantaged students may have been adversely affected; Gore et al., 2021 ). However, in the present study, COVID-19 timing was confounded with survey format (in-person vs. online) and was associated with adolescents’ age. Thus, the analyses of COVID-19 timing were a way to control for this as a potential confound rather than directly addressing how COVID-19 lockdown may have impacted on parent-adolescent relationships or academic coping.

Study Strengths and Limitations

This study had multiple strengths including a large sample, and good gender and racial/ethnic diversity, measurement of three forms of academic stress and many of the most common ways of academic coping found among adolescents, and a focus on parents as social foundations and impediments to coping in an important adolescent functional domain of academics. Nevertheless, there are three limitations that could be addressed when designing future research. First, this was a convenience sample drawn from the first schools to express interest in study participation. Future research is needed to determine whether the findings are generalizable to other schools, regions or nations. Second, stress, coping, and relationships were measured using adolescent self-report. Although self-reports of stress and coping are likely some of the best tools for understanding these experiences for adolescents, it may be that the intensity of academic stress affects reports of perceived coping in other ways. Also, relationship qualities could be measured by drawing on parents’ reports to corroborate and extend on the current analyses. Self-report measures of relationship support and rejection do not always highly covary with reports from others (De Los Reyes et al., 2019 ).

Third, although the study design was longitudinal with a good retention rate, only two waves of data were collected. Given the support for the hypothesis that parenting predicts changes in adolescent coping, this paves the way for including more repeated assessments. A higher number of assessments would allow an analysis of patterns of change in stress and coping across multiple years. Repeated measures (or experimental) research, or even carefully designed intervention research (Frydenberg, 2018 ), could clarify some of the possibilities regarding directions of associations, pathways, and processes that unfold over time that could not be answered with the current study design. For example, adolescents’ level of academic stress and their ways of coping have the potential to change relationships with parents, alongside relationships having an impact on academic stress and coping; parents may become more supportive when they see their children struggling with academic workload, or parents may become more rejecting and coercive when their children conceal and engage in self-pity. Furthermore, family commitments and structure, such as work commitments, the presence of another caregiver, and the number of siblings, could be important to parents’ availability and to children’s coping and academic experiences. Also, as previously mentioned, coping can reduce or even exacerbate stress at the same time that different stress levels prompt particular ways of coping. All of these questions would be enriched by considering mediators and mechanisms that more precisely identify what it is about social resources or problems that explain adolescents’ ways of coping with academic stress. Studies that consider the developmental dynamics among these processes, including both feed-forward effects from parents to adolescent stress and coping as well as feedback effects from adolescent stress and coping to changes in parenting, would be especially useful (Skinner & Edge, 2002a ).

Implications for Future Research and Practice

In addition to the future research directions that were suggested in the previous section, there are two additional considerations from the current findings that yield future research ideas. First, some ways of coping can be constrained by the context and opportunities available to put in place coping actions – for example, comfort-seeking may only be possible when adolescents have parents who are more emotionally and physically available. Thus, there is more to do to understand the social foundation of coping. Second, coping was measured as if it was static and comes in independent units – instead coping with stress has been described as complex, time-varying, and dependent on the changing contextual demands (Skinner & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2016 ). It could be that the overall configuration of coping responses at any one time or the pattern of coping over time can be as (or more) important to capture than the use of any one way of coping (Masters et al., 2023 ). For example, low comfort-seeking coping may be an effective and beneficial way of coping with workload stress, but only when strategizing is high. Further, disengagement may be a nonproductive response to stress regardless of whether other ways of coping are used. Thus, the focus on each way of coping as separate from others in the present study may have missed important coping profiles or repertoires that could be even more strongly related to parent and peer relationships or with academic stress due to workload or self-expectations.

Regarding application of the findings to practice, school-based or other programs designed to help adolescents cope more productively with academic stressors, whether stress comes from perceived workload pressure or because of personal expectations of high achievement, should address how academic life can be supported by family life. In addition, not all academic stress yields the same pattern of coping, and this could be addressed more precisely in support programs (as well as in future research). Most notably, workload and external pressures were associated with less engaged and more disengaged ways of coping, consistent with what would be expected for possible uncontrollable forms of stress. In contrast, intrapsychic performance pressure had associations with positive, approach-type coping strategies but also was associated with more disengagement, that also increased over time. Overall, the most productive approach to assist a student to constructively cope with academic stress could depend on the type of pressure most prominent for that individual student. Those designing programs to help adolescents cope with academic stress should keep these differential patterns in mind in order to address such individual needs.

The environment parents provide, and their modeling and socialization of coping, are often described as foundations for the development of their children’s ways of coping with stress. This implies that parental support and negative interactions with parents should be social foundations for adolescents’ ways of coping with workload and other academic stressors they experience. However, this possibility had received little research attention, leaving a gap in knowledge of whether parent-adolescent relationships spill over into adolescents’ academic coping. The aim of this study was to determine if parental support and negative parent-adolescent interactions were associated with adolescents’ engagement and disengagement ways of coping with academic stress (concurrently and over one year), considering stress from workload, intrapsychic pressure, and external pressure to perform. The findings showed that, above and beyond the many ways that workload, intrapsychic, and external academic pressures and adolescents’ achievement related to ways of academic coping (as well as controlling for adolescents’ age and COVID-19 timing of the study), good parental relationships are positive for adolescents’ concurrent and future reliance on more engagement and less disengagement ways of coping with academic stressors. Adolescents who report more parental support report more use of engagement ways of coping, such as strategizing and help-seeking, and more comfort-seeking. Adolescents who report more negative interactions with their parents report more use of disengagement ways of coping, such as rumination and concealment, and escape. These findings confirm decades of research demonstrating that parents are connected to adolescents’ academic lives, but also expands on this past research to suggest that parents play a unique role in how their adolescents cope with a range of academic stressors.

Acknowledgements

We thank Kathryn Modecki, Allison Waters, Lara Farrell, and David Shum for advice during the early stages of the larger project from which these data were drawn. We also are so appreciative of the students and the schools for their willingness to participate during times of uncertainty and change. We gratefully acknowledge the important contributions from a huge group of N  = 24 research assistants who were critical to the data collection.

Biographies

is a professor in applied psychology at Griffith University, Australia. She is a developmental psychologist and conducts research on interpersonal relationships, stress and coping, gender, and emotional and behavioral disorders from childhood to early adulthood.

is a professor in psychology at Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA. Her research explores ways to promote students’ constructive coping, ongoing classroom engagement (marked by hard work, interest, and enthusiasm), and perseverance in the face of obstacles and setbacks.

is a lecturer in applied psychology at Griffith University, Australia. She conducts research in the areas of social and developmental psychology to understand risks and protective factors for youth well-being and development in the digital age.

is a research fellow in applied psychology at Griffith University, Australia. Her current research focuses on parenting behaviors and the short- and long-term effects on young children to emerging adults, including emotion and psychopathology.

, BA(Honors), is a clinical psychologist and research assistant in applied psychology at Griffith University, Australia. Her research interests are in the emotional, behavioral, and social well-being of children and adolescents.

is a lecturer in applied psychology at Griffith University, Australia, and a clinical psychologist. He concentrates his research on identifying social determinants of risk for emotional and mental health problems among young people.

is a senior lecturer in applied psychology at Griffith University, Australia. She concentrates her research on social groups and relationships amongst children, adolescents, and young adults.

Authors’ Contributions

MZG conceived of the study, led the design the study, conducted the primary analyses, managed the project, drafted and revised the manuscript, and acquired funding for the project; ES assisted in the design of the study, reviewed the manuscript, and acquired funding for the project; RS assisted with data collection and management, and with drafting and revising the manuscript; KR assisted with data collection and management, and with drafting and revising the manuscript; TH managed participant recruitment and data collection, assisted with data management and analysis, and assisted with drafting and revising the manuscript; AG assisted with study design, and with drafting and revising the manuscript; AD assisted in drafting and revising the manuscript, and acquired funding for the project. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP190101170). Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions.

Data Sharing Declaration

The dataset generated and analyzed for the current study is not publicly available but is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The study was approved by Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee (GU Ref No: 2019/178). The study was carried out in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Written informed consent was obtained from all parents of participants.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Essay about Parental Pressure: Why High School Students Should Stop

Parental Pressure within High School Students Should Stop. Back in High School, I had a best friend named Blen. We were very close. We were more like sisters. She used to tell me everything that happened in her life especially about her parents. I can say that her parents were very strict. The only person they need her to be with was just me. They used to tell her not to make a lot of friends. Even though Blen was a socializing person, she didn’t get a chance to make a lot of friends while she was in High School. She used to be really angry about those senseless rules of her Parents.

These students believe that their parents are motivators on every steps of their lives. While others, including myself consider this kind of pressure as a negative effect. I believe that one of the biggest stress of a student immerges from Parental Pressure. Parental Pressure gives motivation but at the same time a hard time to worry about. Yes, every parents want their children to succeed and be in a good position as they are growing up. Don’t get me wrong! I am not trying to say parents should stop telling us what to do or control us in some kind of way.

Parental Pressure Is Good Until It Is Bad Speech

Children who are constantly under pressure from their parents may start to feel overwhelmed and stressed. This can lead to them feeling anxious and depressed, and they may even start to rebel against their parents. In extreme cases, parental pressure can lead to self-harm or suicide.

It is therefore important for parents to find a balance. They should provide support and encouragement, but not put too much pressure on their children. If you are a parent, take the time to talk to your children and find out what they are interested in and what they want to achieve. Then help them to set realistic goals and provide the appropriate level of support.

If you are a child who is feeling overwhelmed by parental pressure, it is important to communicate with your parents. Let them know how you are feeling and why you think the pressure is too much. If they are receptive, they may be able to adjust their approach. If not, seek out support from other adults, such as teachers or counsellors. Remember that you always have the right to say no, and that you should never feel like you have to do something that makes you uncomfortable or puts you at risk.

Positive Effects Of Parental Pressure

Parental pressure can have a positive effect on children. It can motivate them to do their best and achieve their goals. Parental pressure can also help children learn how to cope with disappointment and setbacks. It can teach them how to persevere and work hard towards their goals.

Parental pressure can be a powerful motivator for children. It can push them to do their best and reach their potential. Parental pressure can also help children learn how to cope with disappointment and setbacks. It can teach them how to persevere and work hard towards their goals.

Parental pressure is not always easy to deal with, but it can be a positive force in a child’s life. It can help them learn how to set and achieve goals, and how to cope with disappointment and setbacks. Parental pressure can be a powerful motivator for children, so long as it is used in the right way.

Negative Effects Of Parental Pressure

Parental pressure can have many negative effects on children. It can cause them to feel anxious, stressed, and even depressed. Additionally, it can lead to behavioral problems and difficulty concentrating in school. If you are a parent, it is important to be aware of the potential risks of putting too much pressure on your child. Here are some of the negative effects of parental pressure:

1. Anxiety and stress: Parental pressure can cause children to feel anxious and stressed. This can lead to problems such as insomnia, headaches, and stomachaches. Additionally, it can make it difficult for children to concentrate in school or participate in other activities.

2. Depression: Parental pressure can also lead to depression in children. This may manifest as feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness. Additionally, children may lose interest in activities that they used to enjoy, withdraw from friends and family, or engage in self-destructive behaviors.

3. Behavioral problems: Parental pressure can cause children to act out in negative ways. They may become aggressive, disobedient, or defiant. Additionally, they may engage in risky behaviors such as drinking alcohol or using drugs.

4. Difficulty concentrating: Parental pressure can make it difficult for children to focus and concentrate in school. This can lead to lower grades and difficulty keeping up with their peers. Additionally, it may make it difficult for children to participate in extracurricular activities or pursue other interests.

My argument is that parents should be more lenient on their children rather than being strict or putting a whole lot of pressure on them. “Some parents see their children as extensions of themselves, rather than as separate people with their own hopes and dreams,” said study co-author Professor Brad Bushman, of Ohio State University (McDermott). Most parents, especially when it comes to going to college, being in any sport team that their parents used to play when they were in high school, and also what they are planning to major in college.

For example in my country, some parents think that the only way to be successful is being a doctor or going to any medical school. Which means if a student wants to go to a dance school, his/her parents are not going to be satisfactory with it. They are not going to allow him/her to do what they want to do based on their interest. So what they do next is put a whole lot of pressure to convince their children change their minds on what they will be majoring in. Students from these kind of parents usually change their mind because they respect their parents’ suggestions and they want to make their parents happy more than anything in this world.

In my country, most students choose their major in college based on their parents’ suggestion. Do you think this is fair? No. I understand that every parent wants the best for their children more than anything. Of course, parents have to tell their children what they want them to do. But this only has to work until they become a high schooler. Once a child becomes a high schooler, he/she has to learn how to take responsibilities and make an accurate decisions throughout their lives. High School has to be the place where you start to think and decide what is good or bad for you without letting your parents take part in it.

Almost all parents are strict about partying. They won’t allow their children to party. Their reason for this is usually because they think going out with friends will lead them not to good things but bad. This is the one thing that never made sense to me. Just because I went out partying, it doesn’t mean I am being a bad person or something. Rather than telling their children not to go out for a party, I feel like parents should be lenient about it and tell their children what to do while they are partying. Don’t get me wrong again!

I am not saying being a punk is a freedom and parents should not take part in our lives. What I am trying to prove is that parental pressure is not the best way to handle things. Parental pressure can cause depression. Jaime Budzienski emphasizes that “Researchers found that children of parents who put pressure on them by “over-managing” their lives at school ended up having higher levels of depression, decreased satisfaction with life and lower levels of autonomy and competence”(par 4). In my country, most parents force their children to stay home and study for their classes.

They don’t want them to have friends and socialize with different kind of people because they want them to concentrate on their studies. Having friends or socializing has nothing to do with your studies unless you are spending every single time them. Being a loner might cause depression. From this perspective, I can say that I am from a negative environment. I am from Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, Pressuring children is like a tradition. Back in the days, there was a strange tradition called Early Marriage. So basically teenage girls were obligated and pressured by their parents to marry a man who is so many years older than them.

What was worse was that these girls were supposed to marry before their eighteens birthday. They could not say no because it’s a tradition and they also don’t want to disrespect or disobey their parents. Can you imagine your twelve years daughter marrying a thirty years man? Parental pressure can also cause stress. Jaime Budzienski emphasizes that “Sleep deprivation, eating disorders, excessive worrying, cheating, burnout, loss of interest in hobbies or withdrawing from friends and family” can be significances of too much parental pressure (par. ). Whenever I talk about stress caused by Parental Pressure, I think about my neighbor who committed suicide because of his father’s pressure on him. So what happened was on his senior year of college, he didn’t have the credit he was supposed to have in order to graduate. He tried his best to earn his credits back. He studied day and night. He neither could sleep nor eat. He didn’t even think about explaining the situation to his dad because he was scared of him like hell. Even though he tried a lot, he couldn’t be able to graduate that year.

He hung himself after writing a letter saying that he was sorry for not making his dad proud. If his dad wasn’t being so strict to him, he could have been successful. My parents used to be very strict as well. When my oldest sister was in high school, my dad used to pressure her a lot. He was the one who drop and pick her up from school. She was not allowed to go to her friends’ birthday parties. She was not allowed to talk to boys for any kind of reason. Whenever she was caught talking to a boy at school, she used to get whipped. What was worse was that she was only allowed to use her phone on the weekends.

My sister, like myself and most high school students, doesn’t like doing what she doesn’t believe in doing. So usually not do what my dad wanted her to do. Whenever she wanted to party with her friends, she used to snick out. Watching my sister do what she is not supposed to do made my dad really mad and forced him to be more lenient on us rather than putting a whole lot of pressure on us. Although most parents are strict on their children, it is true that they have a positive effect on them. Sometimes parents should be ambitious on their children.

You as a Parent, do you think this way of treating your children really works? I don’t think so, because most children including myself don’t like doing what we are obligated to do. I believe that cultures and traditions are making most parents think backward. This should definitely stop. If parents don’t stop pressuring their children, they might rebel. Forcing children, which is against what they want to do, might also cause parental regrets. These regrets might be painful. Most parents may think that the pressure they put is just little, but there has to be a limit for everything.

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Parental Expectations and Children's Academic Performance in Sociocultural Context

• Review Article
• Open access
• Published: 04 March 2010
• Volume 22 , pages 189–214, ( 2010 )

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• Yoko Yamamoto 1 &
• Susan D. Holloway 2  

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In this paper, we review research on parental expectations and their effects on student achievement within and across diverse racial and ethnic groups. Our review suggests that the level of parental expectations varies by racial/ethnic group, and that students' previous academic performance is a less influential determinant of parental expectations among racial/ethnic minority parents than among European American parents. To explain this pattern, we identify three processes associated with race/ethnicity that moderate the relation between students' previous performance and parental expectations. Our review also indicates that the relation of parental expectations to concurrent or future student achievement outcomes is weaker for racial/ethnic minority families than for European American families. We describe four mediating processes by which high parental expectations may influence children's academic trajectories and show how these processes are associated with racial/ethnic status. The article concludes with a discussion of educational implications as well as suggestions for future research.

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The role of parental expectations in affecting children's academic progress has received substantial attention from psychologists and sociologists over the past half century. In general, parental expectations have been found to play a critical role in children's academic success. Students whose parents hold high expectations receive higher grades, achieve higher scores on standardized tests, and persist longer in school than do those whose parents hold relatively low expectations (Davis-Kean 2005 ; Pearce 2006 ; Vartanian et al. 2007 ). High parental expectations are also linked to student motivation to achieve in school, scholastic and social resilience, and aspirations to attend college (Hossler and Stage 1992 ; Peng and Wright 1994 ; Reynolds 1998 ). Furthermore, parents' academic expectations mediate the relation between family background and achievement, and high parental expectations also appear to buffer the influence of low teacher expectations on student achievement (Benner and Mistry 2007 ; Zhan 2005 ).

While most of the research conducted to date has been cross-sectional, a few longitudinal studies offer particularly powerful evidence that parental expectations are a causal determinant of student expectations and academic outcomes (Rutchick et al. 2009 ; Trusty et al. 2003 ). Additionally, two meta-analyses have found that parental expectations are the strongest family-level predictor of student achievement outcomes, exceeding the variance accounted for by other parental beliefs and behaviors by a substantial margin (Jeynes 2005 , 2007 ).

For the most part, scholarly inquiry on parental expectations has focused on European American, middle-class samples, and theoretical formulations have typically not attempted to account for the context of race or ethnicity in shaping parental expectations or the academic outcomes associated with them. Only within the last few decades have researchers attempted to include diverse ethnic and racial groups in their samples. In recent years, several large studies have included a measure of parental expectations including the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). As we will argue presently, these and other studies find significant racial/ethnic variation in (a) the level of parental expectations, (b) the role of students' academic performance in determining parental expectations, and (c) the effect of parental expectations on student outcomes. The goal of this review is to conduct a thorough review of these studies and take a fresh look at the way in which parental expectations are formed and communicated to children in a variety of sociocultural contexts.

Our analysis of racial and ethnic differences in the formation and effects of parental expectations draws from a sociocultural approach to parenting pioneered by anthropologists Beatrice and John Whiting, along with their colleagues and former students (e.g., Harkness and Super 2002 ; LeVine et al. 1994 ; Weisner 2002 ; Whiting and Edwards 1988 ; Whiting and Whiting 1975 ). Within this perspective, parents in a society are thought to develop goals and care strategies (i.e., cultural models) that maximize the likelihood that children will attain culturally valued skills and characteristics. Parents are seen as rational actors who use their shared knowledge of the world to adapt and make complex decisions in their local community. The likelihood of a particular parent adopting the norms that have been formulated within a cultural scene is dependent on individual characteristics of the parent (e.g., personality, health status) but parents are also viewed as existing within cultural scenes that include macro-structural elements and institutions (e.g., political and economic systems).

Although cultural models of child rearing and education are collectively constructed by members of a community, this does not mean that they necessarily emerge at the level of a national, ethnic, or racial group, nor do all members of a group necessarily agree with dominant cultural models (Gjerde 2004 ). To understand why a parent acts the way she does, it is essential to identify the models that are available to members of a certain community but also to acknowledge “individuals' self-consciousness, individuality, and ability to transcend their own culture” (Gjerde 2004 , p. 140).

The implications of this sociocultural perspective for our review of the extant literature are that we (a) will be alert to the likelihood that parents' expectations about their children's schooling will be partially dependent on their racial or ethnic heritage; (b) will examine the linkages of the social economic context to parental expectations; and (c) will explore the culturally based beliefs that parents have about their own role and the role of those in important institutions such as the schools. This perspective will also guide the questions we seek to explore in future work, which are discussed in the final section of this review.

Defining Parental Expectations

Although the term “parental expectations” has been defined in various ways in the literature, most researchers characterize parental expectations as realistic beliefs or judgments that parents have about their children's future achievement as reflected in course grades, highest level of schooling attained, or college attendance (e.g., Alexander et al. 1994 ; Glick and White 2004 ; Goldenberg et al. 2001 ). Parental expectations are based on an assessment of the child's academic capabilities as well as the available resources for supporting a given level of achievement. Most researchers operationalize parental expectations by asking parents “how far” they think their child will go in school or by asking them to forecast what grades a child will receive that year (see Table  1 ). Occasionally, researchers have also asked about student perceptions of parental expectations as a proxy for parental expectations themselves (e.g., Gill and Reynolds 1999 ).

Parental expectations can be contrasted with parental aspirations, which typically refer to desires, wishes or goals that parents have formed regarding their children's future attainment rather than what they realistically expect their children to achieve (Seginer 1983 ). To the extent that parental aspirations reflect the value parents place on education, they are based on parents' personal goals as well as community norms about schooling and its role in promoting professional and personal success (Astone and McLanahan 1991 ; Carpenter 2008 ). Researchers tend to measure parental aspirations by asking the year of schooling parents “want” or “hope” their children to achieve (Aldous 2006 ; Goldenberg et al. 2001 ).

Although parental aspirations and expectations are conceptually distinct, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably (e.g., Fan and Chen 2001 ; Juang and Silbereisen 2002 ; Mau 1995 ). On occasion, researchers assess parental aspirations and expectations separately but combine them into a single measure for analytic purposes (e.g., Bandura et al. 1996 ). In this review, we focus exclusively on studies that measured parental expectations about their children’s future academic achievement. In order to locate relevant work, we first conducted a computer-based literature search of the PsycINFO and ERIC databases using the key phrase “parent[al] expectation” and “achievement.” We restricted our search to peer-reviewed articles published in journals in or after 1990. We then took an “ancestry approach,” examining the references sections of relevant articles to identify relevant articles that had not emerged in the computer search. In the process of reviewing articles, we excluded studies that (a) measured parents' aspirations concerning their children's educational achievement rather than parental expectations, (b) examined children with cognitive disabilities, and (c) focused on parental expectations concerning students' non-academic outcomes such as occupational attainment.

This process resulted in the identification of 33 articles reporting on studies that assessed parental expectations concerning their children's academic achievement and two meta-analyses (see Table  1 for an overview). In 18 of these articles the authors contrasted the expectations of parents in two or more racial/ethnic groups or examined the relation between parental expectations and students' academic performance in two or more groups.

In this paper, we refer to race as well as to ethnicity, which can be defined as an individual's heritage based on nationality, language and/or culture (Betancourt and Lopez 1993 ). A variety of terms have been employed to denote racial/ethnic groups in the studies that we reviewed; for consistency, we use the following terms to refer to these groups within the USA: African American, Asian American, Latino, and European American.

Evidence of Racial/Ethnic Differences in Parental Expectations

We found 14 reports that contrasted the expectations of parents in two or more groups. Of the eight articles that contrasted Asian parents with those in other groups, seven found that Asian American parents tend to hold higher expectations than do parents in other racial groups (Glick and White 2004 ; Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998 ; Okagaki and Frensch 1998 ; Peng and Wright 1994 ; Suizzo and Stapleton 2007 ; Sy et al. 2005 ; Vartanian et al. 2007 ). For example, a study by Peng and Wright ( 1994 ) drawing upon the NELS data found that 80% of Asian American parents of eighth graders expected their children to attain at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 50% of Latino parents, 58% of African American parents, and 62% of European American parents. Four of these eight articles tested whether Asian parents' high expectations held up after controlling for parental socioeconomic status, and all of these found that they did (Glick and White 2004 ; Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998 ; Suizzo and Stapleton 2007 ; Sy et al. 2005 ).

Findings pertaining to the expectations of Latino and African Americans relative to other groups are somewhat inconsistent. In four studies, Latino parents expressed significantly lower expectations than one or more other groups (Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998 ; Okagaki and Frensch 1998 ; Peng and Wright 1994 ; Vartanian et al. 2007 ), but one recent analysis using the ECLS-K data found that Latinos had higher expectations for their kindergarteners than African American and European American parents after controlling for maternal education, family income and maternal depression (Suizzo and Stapleton 2007 ). Two articles found that African American parents held significantly higher expectations than European American parents after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) (Glick and White 2004 ; Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998 ), while one study reported no significant difference between the two groups after SES was controlled (Suizzo and Stapleton 2007 ).

In summary, it appears likely that Asian American parents hold higher expectations than do parents in other groups, but it is difficult to draw a definitive conclusion regarding the relative expectations of African American, Latino, and European American parents. As we will discuss presently, it is likely that these inconsistent findings are partially attributable to differences across studies in the child’s age at the time parental expectations were assessed, the way in which parental expectations were elicited, variability across racial/ethnic groups in family SES, and the tendency of most studies to compare large and heterogeneous categories (e.g., Latino) rather than more well-defined subgroups. We believe that, in addition to these methodological issues, it is also time to develop more nuanced theory pertaining to the factors predicting parental expectations as well as the processes by which parental expectations exert an effect on children's academic outcomes.

What Are the Predictors of Parental Expectations?

One of the central questions that theory needs to address is why there are racial/ethnic group differences with respect to parental expectations. In the past, theory and research on the determinants of parental expectations have not tended to focus on cultural explanations. Sociologists tend to rely on early theoretical work proposing that membership in a certain social class gives rise to a particular level of parental expectations which in turn affect students' educational and occupational attainment ( e.g. , Sewell et al. 1969 ). Psychologists, in contrast, more often draw from a comprehensive model developed by Seginer ( 1983 ) that pinpoints intra-individual and school factors contributing to the formation of parental expectations. In particular, Seginer underscores the importance of feedback from the school about previous academic performance in shaping parental expectations about their children's future, along with parental estimates of students' intellectual ability and parents' aspirations for children's achievement.

Recent findings of relatively strong ethnic/racial differences in parental expectations suggest that neither social class nor intra-individual factors offer a complete explanation for the formation of parental expectations. In particular, they cast doubt on the role of previous performance as a predictor of parental expectations for all racial/ethnic groups. For example, in a study of South African parents' expectations about the long-term attainment of their 11th grade children, parental expectations were related to literacy/numeracy scores in eighth grade for “Whites” but not for “Blacks,” after controlling for parents' education (Beutel and Anderson 2008 ). Similar findings emerged in the USA, where Hossler and Stage ( 1992 ) found that minority parents had higher educational expectations than European American parents even though the GPAs of their ninth graders were lower than those of European Americans.

The relation between previous school performance and parental expectations is not similar across SES groups either. In two studies, the gap between previous academic performance and parental expectations for marks was larger for lower income families than for their higher income counterparts (Alexander et al. 1994 ; Balboni and Pedrabissi 1998 ). For example, in their longitudinal study, Alexander and colleagues ( 1994 ) found that, while parents' expectations for their early elementary children's grades in reading and math were above the children's actual grades regardless of ethnicity and SES, the gap between actual grades and expected grades was larger for lower SES parents. The gap between parental expectations and children's grades was also larger for African American than European American parents.

To help explain these findings, we propose three factors that might dilute the power of past performance as a determinant of parental expectations: parents’ belief that effort rather than ability affects school performance; a lack of understanding or mistrust of feedback from the school about their children's performance; and low self-efficacy in supporting their children's future schoolwork (see Fig.  1 ). We suggest that these moderating factors are associated with membership in a particular racial/ethnic group. By pinpointing the explanatory factors, we are able to move beyond a “social address” comparison of racial/ethnic groups to develop a more process-oriented account of racial/ethnic differences (Bronfenbrenner 1986 ).

Moderators between students' previous performance and parental expectations

Parents' belief in effort as the primary determinant of school performance

Parental attributions about the causes of successful school performance are likely to affect the relation between students' prior performance and parents' expectations about future performance. Parents who attribute achievement outcomes primarily to ability or intelligence expect performance to be stable because ability tends to be viewed as a stable entity that is difficult for the individual to change (Weiner 2005 ). For parents with this belief system, past performance is likely to be seen as a reliable indicator of future attainment. Those who believe that students' effort—a more controllable and unstable commodity—is the primary cause of achievement are more likely to think that future performance can potentially be different from that of the past if the student changes the amount of effort they put into their schoolwork.

It has been clearly established that there are cultural differences in parents' views about the factors that contribute to high achievement. Asian American parents are particularly likely to view academic success as a function of motivation and hard work rather than innate ability (Okagaki and Frensch 1998 ). International comparisons have also highlighted the tendency of Asian parents to emphasize the effect of effort more than innate ability on academic learning (Holloway 1988 ; Stevenson and Stigler 1992 ). This tendency of Asian and Asian American parents to focus on effort may contribute to a weaker relation between past performance and parental academic expectations for these groups because they believe that their children can always improve their performance at school by putting forth more effort, regardless of their previous level of attainment.

Additionally, various sociocultural groups may differ in the way they conceptualize academic ability itself. On one hand, European American parents tend to view academic ability primarily as a composite of analytic and verbal abilities (Okagaki and Sternberg 1993 ). In contrast, racial/ethnic minority parents perceive other factors – including motivation, self-management, and social competence—as contributing to high achievement. For example, Mexican immigrant parents more often perceive that morals, social skills and academic attainment are inseparable, and Vietnamese and Filipino immigrant parents view motivation as an aspect of ability or intelligence (Delgado-Gaitan 1992 ; Goldenberg and Gallimore 1995 ; Okagaki and Sternberg 1993 ; Valdés 1996 ). And because motivational and personal qualities are somewhat more subject to the control of the individual than are more basic cognitive skills, parents to whom they are salient may feel more optimistic about the chance of improvement, whereas parents who focus solely on cognitive skills may be more likely to hypothesize that future performance will not depart strongly from past performance.

There is also some evidence that these variable definitions of the components of academic ability are associated with parents' educational experiences, with more highly educated parents more likely to view ability as independent of social skills and motivation to achieve. In a study of Finnish families, Räty and colleagues ( 2002 ) found that highly educated parents tended to form expectations for their 7-year olds based on the children's cognitive competence in literacy and other academic subjects as well as their analytic problem solving skills, whereas vocationally trained parents were more likely to form expectations based on their children’s creativity and social skills.

In sum, it appears likely that variability in how parents from different social class and sociocultural backgrounds interpret the causes of children’s performance may explain culturally specific patterns in the relation between prior academic performance and parental expectations. If future studies include parental attributions as a moderator of the relation between parental expectations and students' prior academic performance, we will gain a clearer understanding of the processes affecting student response to parental expectations in different racial/ethnic groups.

Parents' differential understanding and trust of school feedback

In order for students' past performance to figure into parental expectations about the future, parents must rely on feedback from the school in the form of grades, test results, and teachers' assessments (Goldenberg et al. 2001 ; Seginer 1983 ). However, parents' assessment of children's performance differs depending on the sociocultural group to which the parents belong. For example, Alexander et al. ( 1994 ) found racial and SES differences in parents’ attentiveness to performance feedback from the elementary school. They found that recall of previous year’s marks in reading and math was more accurate among European American than African American parents, as well as among high-SES parents rather than low-SES parents. As noted earlier, parental expectations for future marks were closer to actual marks among European American than African American, and were closer among high-SES parents than their low-SES counterparts. For example, while approximately 25% of European American and African American parents expected their children to receive excellent marks, 1.5% of African American children actually received marks of this caliber, as compared with 10.1% of European American children. These findings suggest that European American parents are more attuned to the feedback from school and take more account of previous performance in constructing their expectations than African American parents.

We argue that the degree to which parents recall and give weight to school feedback about a student's performance depends on the nature of the relationships that parents are able to construct with school staff. The relatively lower accuracy of grade recall among African American parents in the work of Alexander and colleagues ( 1994 ) may be a function of their relationship with teachers and other school staff. Due to the history of racial discrimination within the United States, African American parents are more likely to mistrust the intentions and doubt the fairness of teachers (Lareau and Horvat 1999 ; Ogbu 2003 ). If parents perceive teachers as biased or untrustworthy, they may be less likely to see teacher evaluation as a legitimate reflection of their child's potential. Mistrust may, therefore, attenuate the relation of past performance to future expectations for these parents. Conversely, parents who think teachers have accurately and fairly assessed their children's performance are more likely to use that evaluation as a basis for future predictions. For this reason, future research should include both teachers' and parents' assessment of student's performance, and, more importantly, should continue investigating the institutional as well as psychological and cultural factors that undermine or support the trust of parents from varied racial/ethnic groups.

Parents' variable self-efficacy regarding involvement in children's schooling

A third reason why prior performance may be a less potent predictor of school performance among racial/ethnic minority and lower SES parents is that these parents may lack a sense of efficacy in helping their children succeed in school in the future, particularly as the children move into the higher grades (Bandura 1982 , 1986 , 1997 ). Parents with limited education and fewer economic resources tend to feel less efficacious helping their children with school work than do more advantaged parents, and also feel less comfortable interacting with teachers and other education professionals (Coleman and Karraker 1997 ; Lareau 1989 ; Yamamoto 2007 ; Zhan 2005 ). These parents may develop low academic expectations for their children even when the children's previous school performance is relatively high if they worry that they will not be able to provide support in the future due to a lack of intellectual, cultural or material resources. Conversely, when parents believe that they are capable of helping their children succeed at school, they may retain high expectations concerning their academic performance (Bandura et al. 1996 ).

Parenting self-efficacy regarding the support of children's achievement is likely to be more strongly associated with a combination of ethnicity, immigrant status and SES than with race/ethnicity alone. Due to limited English proficiency, financial constraints, and limited experience with the educational system in the USA, immigrant parents often find it difficult to communicate and work with their children, and experience a lower parental sense of efficacy in helping children's schooling (Cooper et al. 1999 ; García Coll and Marks 2009 ; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco 2001 ). Immigrant Latino parents are particularly “at risk” for experiencing a lack of efficacy with respect to schooling. While Asian immigrant parents are often available to draw on educational and financial resources within their community, Latino immigrant parents are more often on their own when it comes to support their children’s schooling (Zhou and Kim 2006 ). In one early study, Stevenson et al. ( 1990 ) found that immigrant Latino mothers' sense of efficacy in helping their children with reading and mathematics in elementary school was significantly lower than that of European American and African American mothers. Non-immigrant Latino parents feel more confident about their children's chances for success than do those of the immigrant generation; for example, Hao and Bonstead-Burns ( 1998 ) found that immigrant Mexican parents had lower expectations for their eighth grader's future schooling than did Mexican-heritage parents born in the USA.

Cultural models of parenting may also contribute to parents' perception that they can do little to promote high achievement in the future. Specifically, some evidence suggests that Latino parents of adolescents endorse a “child-directed” view that accords more of the decision-making power to the adolescent than the parent in selecting an educational path (Stanton-Salazar 2001 ). The question of what parents believe they should do and what they believe they can do to support their children's schooling thus depends on the role demands, stresses, and supports afforded by their cultural and socioeconomic background. To date, little work has examined parents' sense of efficacy in supporting their children's education as a moderator of the relation between students' performance and parental expectations. Future work in this area is warranted in order to better understand how immigrant and ethnic minority parents construct their educational expectations.

Evidence of an Association Between Parental Expectations and Students' Academic Achievement

We identified 21 articles examining the relation of parental expectations to student achievement including two reporting meta-analyses. In eight of these articles, researchers tested and found strong and consistent evidence of a positive association or significant pathways between parental expectations and achievement for European American families (Davis-Kean 2005 ; Entwisle and Alexander 1990 ; Neuenschwander et al. 2007 ; Okagaki and Frensch 1998 ; Pearce 2006 ; Peng and Wright 1994 ; Phillipson and Phillipson 2007 ; Sy and Schulenberg 2005 ). None of the studies that examined the association between parental expectations of European American families and children’s achievement failed to find an association. However, the findings were not consistent for Asian Americans or African Americans. On one hand, Okagaki and Frensch ( 1998 ) found that when SES and other parental involvement variables were controlled, a measure of parental expectations was a significant predictor of fourth and fifth graders' grades for European American and Asian American students. Similarly, Sy and Schulenberg ( 2005 ) conducted path analyses using the ECLS-K data and found that the pathways from parental expectations to kindergartners' achievement outcomes were similar for European American and Asian Americans. However, more recent research conducted by Vartanian and colleagues ( 2007 ) with 9,494 participants showed that parental expectations was a significant predictor of college completion for the non-Asians but not for Asian Americans after controlling for 8th grade GPA and standardized test scores. Davis-Kean ( 2005 ) studied 8 to 12-year-old children and found similar patterns with African Americans; parental expectations had a direct significant effect on academic achievement for European American but not for African American students.

With regard to Latino families, none of the studies we reviewed found a significant relation between parental expectations and student performance. The Okagaki and Frensch study ( 1998 ) described earlier found no evidence of an association between parental expectations and student grades for Latino students nor did two more recent longitudinal studies focusing on Latino immigrant families. A study by Goldenberg and colleagues ( 2001 ) assessed Latino families' parental expectations and their children's academic performance each year from kindergarten to sixth grade. Analyses conducted with a small sample of 57 found no significant paths from early parental expectations to later school performance (as measured by teacher ratings) or to reading and math test scores. Similar results emerged from a large study of 1,050 Latino immigrant students and families, which found that parental expectations assessed when children were 10th graders were not related to children's math achievement at 12th grade (Carpenter 2008 ).

These inconsistent findings raise questions about the mechanisms through which parental expectations exert an effect on students' educational processes. It is possible that parental expectations influence student's academic outcomes through a variety of mechanisms, some of which are more powerful for a particular racial/ethnic group. We have identified four such mechanisms linked to high parental expectations: (a) child's internalization of parents’ valuation of achievement; (b) child’s higher competency beliefs; (c) more intensive and effective parental involvement; and (d) more optimistic and positive teacher perceptions of child's capabilities (see Fig.  2 ). We now turn to the evidence for each of these mechanisms, and discuss the reasons why a particular mechanism may function differently for racial/ethnic minority families than for European American families.

Mediators between parental expectations and students' academic outcomes

High parental expectations indicate that parents value achievement

Parental expectations can function as a form of communication that conveys to students the value their parents place on achievement. Students perceive this communicated value as a norm, which becomes internalized as a standard that students strive to attain. The concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy was introduced by early sociologists who argued that parents' prophecy—or expectations—about future achievement boosts their children's motivation and expectations, and in turn leads them to high achievement (Haller and Portes 1973 ; Reitzes and Mutran 1980 ; Rosenthal 1974 ). Dumais ( 2006 ) extended this notion by characterizing student perceptions of parental expectations as the internalization of a social structure that “forms one's worldview and serves as a guide throughout an individual’s life” (p.85). Psychologists have proposed a similar notion, describing parents as “expectancy socializers” (Eccles et al. 1982 ) and focusing on the ways in which parental expectations function as an “environmental press” that compels students to meet parental standards (Marjoribanks 1972 ).

To investigate the possible operation of this “internalization of norms” mechanism, we examined those studies that assessed the relation between parental expectations and students' own expectations or aspirations. This motivational function of parental expectations is supported by eight articles demonstrating a strong association between parental expectations and students' expectations or aspirations (Benner and Mistry 2007 ; Beutel and Anderson 2008 ; Carpenter 2008 ; Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998 ; Rutchick et al. 2009 ; Smith-Maddox 2000 ; Trusty 2002 ; Trusty et al. 2003 ). A recent longitudinal study of 884 children aged 6 to 13 years when the study began demonstrated the long-lasting effect of parental expectations on children's expectations. The authors found that parental expectations were closely related to students' expectations 5 years later even after controlling for demographic variables and children's previous achievement scores. Parental expectations also influenced their children’s later achievement scores via the mediating effect of children’s expectations (Rutchick et al. 2009 ).

In three of these studies, there was evidence that the strength of the linkage between parents' expectations and students' expectations differed across racial/ethnic groups (Beutel and Anderson 2008 ; Carpenter 2008 ; Hao and Bonstead-Burns 1998 ). Carpenter ( 2008 ) noted that correlations between parental expectations and expectations of 10th to 12th graders were weaker for Latino students with an immigrant parent compared with non-Latino students with an immigrant parents. Beutel and Anderson ( 2008 ) found that South African parents' expectations when their children were in the 8th grade was a significant predictor of students' educational expectations at 11th grade for Asian and mixed race students but not for Blacks after controlling for parents' education, previous literacy/numeracy scores, and whether or not the student was enrolled in school at the time of 11th grade.

What may account for this pattern of weaker relations between parental and student expectations for racial/ethnic minorities than for European American families? One explanation may be related to variability across families in the degree to which parents and children communicate about schooling. For immigrant families, it may be more difficult to communicate clearly about schooling because parents are less familiar with the US educational system. Additionally, relations between immigrant parents and their children can be affected by language difficulties and other elements of acculturative stress (García Coll and Marks 2009 ; Qin et al. 2008 ). Hao and Bonstead-Burns ( 1998 ) analyzed Asian and Mexican immigrant and native-born Mexican American, African American, and European American eighth graders' expectations in relation to their parents' expectations. They found high agreement between parents and children within Asian immigrant families, but not within Mexican immigrant families. In general, parents who participated in more frequent discussions with their children and were more involved in their children's educational activities were more likely to hold similar expectations to their children than those reporting less frequent interactions.

Parents in some racial/ethnic groups may be particularly explicit in their communication of academic expectations. One qualitative study of low-income ninth grade Asian American students found that parents of these students tended to articulate their educational expectations quite strongly and forcefully, leaving no doubt regarding the high value they placed on achievement (Li et al. 2008 ). In contrast, it appears that Mexican immigrant parents also view education as important but are less likely to communicate their views to their children in an emphatic manner. Early evidence regarding this distinction emerged in a study of Japanese and Mexican immigrant families conducted by Matute-Bianchi ( 1986 ), which found that Mexican parents were less likely than the Japanese parents to discuss their academic expectations with their children (see also Stanton-Salazar 2001 ).

High parental expectations boost student academic self-efficacy

Another way in which parental expectations may affect student achievement is by conveying messages about their child's abilities and capabilities which in turn enhance students’ competency beliefs and sense of efficacy about their academic trajectory (Eccles et al. 1982 ; Eccles et al. 1998 ). In general, students who perceive themselves as capable tend to obtain better grades and higher test scores than students with lower capability beliefs. For example, the mediating role of students' competency beliefs emerged in a comparative study of sixth and seventh grade students in the USA and Switzerland (Neuenschwander et al. 2007 ). Path analyses indicated that parental expectations influenced early adolescents' self-concept of ability which in turn affected their grades and standardized scores in math and native language.

Studies of students in racial/ethnic minority groups suggest that parental expectations also appear to be related to academic self-efficacy among African American and Latino students. A study conducted by Benner and Mistry ( 2007 ) tested the mediating role of student competency beliefs among 522 youth aged 9–16 years old, most of whom were African Americans and Latinos from low-income families. Path analyses demonstrated that maternal expectations were associated with students' perceptions of their academic skills and ability to learn new concepts in math and reading. These self-perceptions were in turn related to achievement test scores and parental ratings of academic performance (but not teacher evaluations of academic performance).

Evidence regarding the mediating role of academic self-efficacy among Asian American students is scarce, but a study by Eaton and Dembo ( 1997 ) found that, on average, Asian American ninth graders had lower academic self-efficacy beliefs but higher achievement behaviors compared to non-Asian American students, suggesting that academic self-efficacy may not be responsible for the high achievement of this group. Correlations indicated that fear of failure was significantly associated with academic achievement for the Asian American students, but that self-efficacy beliefs were not.

These findings are consistent with a cultural pattern of self-criticism that has been noted in Asian countries (e.g., Holloway 2010 ; Lewis 1995 ). To the extent that Asian American students are encouraged to remediate their weaknesses rather than dwell on their accomplishments, the mediating role of student competency beliefs would function differently for these students than for those in other groups. In the future, it would be of interest to conduct studies examining the mediating role of academic competency or self-efficacy beliefs among Asian American students. Such studies will increase our understanding of the pathway through which parental expectations increase students' academic outcomes for this group.

High parental expectations foster parental involvement in schooling

Another pathway by which parental expectations are thought to affect student achievement is by fostering greater parental involvement in children's academic activities. Parental involvement in children's education generally refers to the extent and quality of help with homework, communication with the teacher, participation in school activities, and facilitation of cognitively stimulating activities (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler 1997 ; Sy and Schulenberg 2005 ; Trusty 2002 ). The relation of parental involvement to children’s academic achievement is well documented (see Pomerantz et al. 2007 for a review). Additionally, parental involvement has been found to affect students’ achievement-related beliefs, including their perceived competence and aspirations regarding academic achievement (Grolnick and Slowiaczek 1994 ). Of particular relevance to this review is evidence suggesting that parents who placed higher value on education and have higher expectations about their child's educational attainment tend to be more engaged in achievement-related activities, including reading to their children, sending them to extracurricular lessons, and monitoring their academic progress (Halle et al. 1997 ; Sy et al. 2005 ).

Yet, several studies have found variability across different groups in terms of the ways in which parents become involved in their children's schooling. For example, Peng and Wright’s ( 1994 ) analysis of the NELS data demonstrated that Asian American students had significantly higher parental expectations and achievement scores than Latino, African American and European American students. Yet, the Asian American parents were significantly less likely to discuss their children's school experiences with them, nor did they assist their children with their school work as much as did African American or European American parents. Compared with African American and Latino parents, Asian American parents provided more learning opportunities in the form of after-school lessons and activities, and disciplined their children to spend longer hours doing homework than African American, Latino, or European American parents. Thus, it is also crucial to recognize that various ethnic groups differ in the extent to which they engage in particular kinds of parental involvement.

Studies also highlight the powerful role of parental involvement as a mediator between parental expectations and students' academic outcomes for European American parents, but not for Asian American parents. Research conducted to date suggests that parental help with children's homework yields little positive influence on Asian American and Asian immigrant students' academic achievement even though such involvement appears to boost European American students' educational performance. In their analysis of the ECLS-K data on 514 Asian American and 7,857 European American kindergartners, Sy and Schulenberg ( 2005 ) found that for Asian parents, low parental expectations appeared to trigger parental involvement in school activities while for European American parents, high expectations prompted parental involvement. Furthermore, while the authors found that parental expectations and involvement predicted child outcomes in both groups, there were some differences in the pattern of effects. Specifically, parents' school participation was not significantly associate with Asian American student's math and reading scores, even though it was for European American children. For both groups, parents' involvement in home literacy was associated with children's reading outcomes, and for European Americans but not Asian Americans it was associated with math outcomes.

There is little evidence regarding the association of parental expectations to parental involvement among Latino families. However, research conducted to date suggests that Latino parents are less likely than European Americans to become involved in certain kinds of supportive activities with their children. For example, Latino parents are significantly less likely to read to their young children than are European American parents (Bradley et al. 2001 ; Raikes et al. 2006 ). To a large extent, this pattern may be a function of language barriers, low levels of schooling, and lack of knowledge about American education among Latino immigrants (Cooper et al. 1999 ; García Coll et al. 2002 ). Culturally bounded beliefs about the parental role may also have an effect. Several studies have found that Latino parents with young children view their primary role as one of guiding their children's moral development and protecting them from negative peer influences rather than providing direct support of academic learning (Cooper 2002 ; Cooper et al. 1999 ; Holloway et al. 1997 ; Valdés 1996 ). If Latino parents are generally less likely to provide certain forms of support concerning achievement, then such support is unlikely to serve as a mediator linking parental expectations to student achievement. These factors all help explain why parental involvement is not a strong mediator between parental expectations and student achievement for all groups, but the evidence is sparse, particularly with respect to groups other than Asian Americans.

High parental expectations and involvement increase teachers' expectations of students

A final route through which parental expectations may increase students' academic success is by influencing teachers' perceptions and evaluations of the child. Teachers may find it motivating to pay particular attention to children whose parents hold high expectations and are clearly involved in their children's schooling because the teachers believe that their efforts in the classroom are being reinforced at home. Teachers who perceive parents as holding high expectations for their children may also raise their own expectations for those particular students and increase their educational commitment to them (Bandura et al. 1996 ).

Lareau ( 1989 ) provides a detailed view of the way in which parental expectations are perceived by teachers and used in making educational decisions about children. In her ethnographic study of working class and middle class families, she found that decisions to promote a child to the next grade depended on the teacher's perception of parental involvement. Low-achieving students whose parents appeared to be involved in their children's schooling were likely to be promoted, while similarly challenged students whose parents were not perceived as involved were required to repeat the year. While Lareau's study did not examine ethnic/racial differences, her work showed that teachers tended to view parents of lower SES as less involved than those of higher SES backgrounds. In a quantitative study of kindergarten children and their parents, Dumais ( 2006 ) found that lower SES parents tended to feel less welcome at the school than did higher SES parents, and these perceptions were in turn associated with lower teacher perceptions regarding their children's academic skills.

There is ample evidence that teachers treat students differently depending on their expectations of the students. When teachers hold high academic expectations for a student, they are likely to provide a more positive and challenging learning environment for that individual. In her qualitative study of elementary school students, Weinstein ( 2002 ) found that teachers were more likely to praise students of whom they held high expectations, ask them to lead classroom activities, and give them more academic choices. On the other hand, teachers provided negative feedback to students, of whom they held low expectations, giving them limited attention and recommending placement in low-track classes. Interviews conducted with the children revealed how they came to perceive their academic competence as it was reflected in the eyes of their teachers (see also Benner and Mistry 2007 ).

Even when parents are attempting to support their children's schooling, teachers may not realize that this is the case, or may view such effort as detrimental rather than supportive of student achievement. For example, in their qualitative study examining parental involvement in children's schooling, Lareau and Horvat ( 1999 ) found that teachers may discount or misinterpret the concerns of African American parents about racial discrimination in the classroom, thereby missing an opportunity to understand a potentially important explanation for a child’s failure to achieve. In short, “cultural mismatches” may cause teachers to de-value or misunderstand parental goals and actions, and may result in inaccurate expectations on the part of the teacher about the students’ potential. If this is the case, the relation between parental involvement and student achievement is not likely to be as strong for racial/ethnic minority parents as for their European American counterparts. At this point, evidence is only suggestive concerning the pathway from parental expectations and involvement to teacher expectations and involvement with students from various racial/ethnic groups, and the topic deserves further study.

Summary and Conclusions

The goal of this review was to examine the available evidence concerning the association between parental expectations and students' academic performance across diverse racial/ethnic groups. We found evidence that parental expectations are higher among Asian American families than other racial/ethnic groups. The evidence regarding educational expectations of Latino and African American families is somewhat mixed and merits further investigation. We also found that, while students’ prior academic performance is one of the strongest predictors of parental expectations among European American families, it is not a particularly strong predictor for racial/ethnic minority families.

To explain this pattern, we identified three factors that moderate the relation of previous performance to parental expectations about the future and that are likely to be associated with membership in a racial/ethnic minority group. We argued that parents who believe that effort is the key determinant of academic success are not likely to base their expectations on past performance because effort is relatively controllable and hence less stable over time. In contrast, those parents who believe that performance is a function of native ability, which is frequently perceived as relatively stable over time, are more likely to see past achievement as a reliable indicator of future performance. To the extent that Asian Americans are particularly likely to focus on the role of effort in achievement, the effects of past performance are likely to be less salient for them in predicting future performance than for other groups.

Second, parents' own experiences with school institutions and their perceptions of how school personnel treat members of their ethnic or cultural group affect the degree to which parents accept teachers' assessment of their children's school progress. Mistrust of teachers among minority or low-SES parents, especially among African American parents, may lessen parents' reliance on school feedback when evaluating their children's academic performance, and thus diminish its value in predicting how the child will do in the future. And third, parents' sense of self-efficacy in supporting their children's schooling is conditioned by available resources and sources of support. Parents with limited resources and support, especially low-SES and/or immigrant parents, may underestimate the likelihood of their children's future academic success even when past performance has been high because they do not feel personally capable of helping their children attain the required skills.

Our review also suggested that parental expectations are strongly related to student performance among European American families, but less so among minority families. To explain this pattern, we addressed four processes through which parental expectations influence children's academic trajectories: (a) raising student motivation; (b) instilling higher student competency beliefs; (c) stimulating greater parental involvement; and (d) increasing teachers' expectations of student promise. Our review suggests that these processes do not occur in the same way or to the same degree in all racial/ethnic groups. We showed how communication difficulties or other problems in the parent-child relationship, which is sometimes conditioned by ethnic background and immigrant status, may diminish the motivational effect of high parental expectations. Additionally, it appears that Asian American parents may more forcefully articulate their expectations, which may make it more likely that students will understand and internalize them.

We also suggested that for some groups, particularly Asian Americans, student beliefs about their academic competence may not be as strongly determinative of achievement as for other groups. As we noted, more studies examining students' competency beliefs across ethnic groups are necessary in order to compare the importance of this belief as a mediator between parental expectations and student outcomes. Regarding the association between parental expectations and their involvement in schooling, we reviewed work suggesting that for some groups, particularly Latinos, higher parental expectations did not necessarily translate into the type of parental involvement that is directly related to academic achievement. It is critical to have studies which investigate various types of parental involvement contributing to students’ academic achievement across diverse groups. And finally, we explored the possibility that teachers make academic decisions based on their perceptions of parental support, but may not always have a full understanding of the nature and effectiveness of that support. More quantitative research that includes teachers' perceptions about parental expectations and involvement in their children's schooling is necessary to test this model.

Directions for future research

In our review, we have tried to move beyond examination of ethnic and racial categories, which are at best proxies for complex and shifting sets of norms and social positions, by sketching out the interpersonal and intrapsychic processes by which parents in these various groups form and communicate their ideas. Consistent with a sociocultural perspective, we believe that this work should be extended in the future by conducting studies that take a nuanced view of cultural processes as shifting and contested responses to institutional structures and other features of the immediate context (Gjerde 2004 ). In so doing, researchers will obtain a deeper understanding of the dynamic processes by which family members interact with each other and with other actors in the home, school, and community (Weisner 2002 ).

We look forward to more studies that focus on the ways in which parental expectations emerge within the intertwined context of families' socio-economic position and their culturally constructed understandings. For example, to fill the gap in our knowledge about Latino families and schooling in the United States, it would be interesting to build from the pioneering work of Goldenberg et al. to explore the varied ways in which subgroups of Latino parents conceptualize their role and that of the teacher, and to learn how these culturally based perceptions play into their expectations about what their children can and will achieve in school (e.g., Goldenberg and Gallimore 1995 ; Goldenberg et al. 2001 ; Reese and Gallimore 2000 ). Additional qualitative work is needed to learn more about the ways Latino parents judge their ability to assist their children attain academic outcomes commensurate with their potential. We also need to learn more about whether and how parents reflect on the effects of their expectations on their children. What do they see, for example, as the motivational value of holding high expectations? Are they aware of or concerned about negative effects of inaccurate or unrealistic expectations? How do they balance their own perceptions of their children and those that they receive from teachers and other professionals? And finally, it will also be interesting to learn more about the ways that the mediators and moderators we have identified are related to each other within each racial/ethnic group and across groups. It is likely, for example, that parental involvement exerts an effect on academic achievement through more than one of the mediating processes we have identified. We have much more to learn about the ways that these various mechanisms may complement or even offset each other.

Additionally, we hope that a sociocultural approach can be applied more systematically across the age span. We were able to report on a number of studies involving 8th and 10th graders because of the availability of National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) data, but far fewer studies are available on children at other age periods. We found no studies that examined parental expectations of preschool children, for example. By conducting studies with parents of preschool-aged children we will be better able to identify when parents start to form their expectations, whether the relations between parental expectations and academic performance differ across ethnic groups at this young age, and if such patterns continue through adolescence.

More generally, we need additional longitudinal research that examines changes in parental expectations over time across and within ethnic groups. To date, the effects of parental expectations on children's academic achievement have typically been examined at a single point in time. This limits our understanding of the dynamic aspect of parental expectations, and their influence on their behavior and on their children’s educational trajectories. Careful study should focus on understanding what happens when students do not behave in accordance with parental expectations. What are the ways parents respond to unexpected developments and which are these associated with positive adaptation on the part of the children? Longitudinal study will also allow us to understand whether there are critical periods in which parental expectations are particularly likely to affect students' academic achievement.

There are a number of methodological concerns that deserve attention in future research. We have noted that sample size varies substantially across the studies conducted over the past two decades, with some earlier studies drawing from samples of fewer than 100 families to more recent large-scale studies with samples of 10,000 or more. Clearly, the small studies are somewhat hampered by low power to detect meaningful relationships. Even within larger data sets, the sample size often varies across ethnic groups, making it difficult to compare the strength of relations detected in within-group modeling exercises. As researchers increasingly turn their attention to inter-group comparisons, it is important that efforts are made to ensure a sample of adequate size for each focal group.

While the incorporation of parental expectations measures into large studies such as the NELS and ECLS-K certainly enables the researchers to engage in more powerful analyses, the cost of this practice is that such measures are typically quite short due to constraints of space and time. The compressed assessments possible in these very large data sets should be balanced with studies that delve more deeply into the assessment of parental expectations. At the least, researchers should consider measuring parents' grade expectations in addition to their expectations concerning their children's academic trajectory.

Although the number of studies including diverse racial/ethnic groups is growing, there is still a gap in our understanding of certain groups. As we have noted, the role of parental expectations in Latino families, especially in comparison with other racial/ethnic groups, is still poorly understood. To gain clarity with respect to these groups, future work should attend more carefully to the interactions among ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and immigrant status. While non-immigrant and immigrant families within the same ethnic group may share similar cultural beliefs, immigrant parents often face numerous challenges including limited English proficiency and a lack of knowledge about educational system in the USA due to their migration experiences. Studies that examine parental expectations from various socioeconomic strata or both immigrant and later-generation within the same ethnic group will help us understand whether the models we proposed are applicable to specific ethnic groups or are moderated by their socioeconomic or immigrant status. It would also be preferable to draw more focused samples in future studies rather than relying upon large and heterogeneous categories such as Asian and Latino.

Finally, it is necessary to note that a few studies suggest that academic pressure derived from high parent expectations can undermine children's psychological well-being and academic motivation (Agliata and Renk 2009 ; Luthar and Becker 2002 ). Academic pressure has been found to be a predictor of suicidal ideation and behavior among Asian adolescents (Ang and Huan 2006 ; Juon et al. 1994 ). As we have demonstrated, most studies focus on positive aspects of parental expectations on students’ educational processes rather than negative aspects. Understanding the processes through which expectations produce both positive and negative outcomes in diverse racial and ethnic groups will further extend our insight into the processes by which families serve as an important educational context for children.

Educational implications

It is possible to derive several implications for educational practice from the findings of this review. Our review suggests a need for teachers to obtain a clearer understanding of the beliefs that parents in various ethnic/racial groups hold concerning their children. For example, while many teachers may be aware of the high academic expectations held by Asian American parents, they may not understand how those expectations play out in terms of student performance. It is unlikely that teachers realize that parental expectations may be unrelated to students’ prior performance in this group, nor are they necessarily aware that parental expectations may not be linked to students' perception about their academic competence. Teachers who hold a clear and accurate understanding of the dynamic process by which parental expectations are formed and interpreted by children will be in a better position to assist their students in overcoming the effects of overly high or excessively low parental expectations.

Our review suggests that there is a great deal of variability in the academic expectations held by racial/ethnic minority parents other than Asian Americans. Currently, many teachers may have the erroneous impression that Latino and African American parents are uniformly less likely to value education or to hold high expectations for their children than do parents in other groups. Teachers can be discouraged from making assumptions about parental expectations based on their ethnic or racial background, and encouraged to become sensitive to cultural and ethnic values. Respecting parents’ heritage will also help teachers form trusting relationships with parents from racial/ethnic minority groups and work on communicating clearly with them about their children's academic performance. Pre-service or in-service teacher education programs can help teachers increase their understanding of cultural diversity.

Our reviews especially indicate the need for better communication between school personnel and racial/ethnic minority parents. Promoting open communication with parents and providing guidance about how to interpret grades and reports will help parents construct realistic expectations for their children and will raise their sense of self-efficacy in supporting them in school. Providing clear guidance to parents about how to support their children's academic progress at home will also increase their involvement in their children's education. As Hoover-Dempsey and her colleagues suggest (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler 1997 ; Hoover-Dempsey et al. 2005 ), teacher invitation is one of the critical elements that facilitates parents' decisions to be involved in their children's education.

Our findings also suggest implications for parent education. First, studies suggest that for some parents there is a gap between students' previous academic performance and parental expectations about the future. Parents with unrealistic expectations about their children's future performance may have difficulty knowing what they can do to maximize their children's academic potential. Our review also brought renewed attention to the fact that some ethnic minority parents mistrust their children's teachers or may have difficulty communicating with them due to cultural and economic differences. Accurate assessment of their child's school progress and academic progress is necessary for parents to form realistic expectations concerning their children's academic future. To address the difficulty that some parents have in assessing their children's potential, it may be beneficial for schools to offer parent seminars or peer-group interventions that illustrate strategies for initiating contact with their children's teachers and developing trusting and supportive relationships with them.

Lastly, parents' expectations have to be communicated to their children and accepted by them in order for them to have an effect on children's internal standards and self-perceptions. Schools and other supportive organizations may be able to help parents reflect on the importance of communicating clear expectations to their children and the effects of these communications on their children's perceptions of academic self-efficacy.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Melike Acar, Irenka Domínguez-Pareto, and Ayumi Nagase for their assistance with this project.

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Yamamoto, Y., Holloway, S.D. Parental Expectations and Children's Academic Performance in Sociocultural Context. Educ Psychol Rev 22 , 189–214 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-010-9121-z

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One Thing Parents Can Control

By Esau McCaulley

Contributing Opinion Writer

My father was a long-haul truck driver. He piloted one of those eighteen-wheelers that had a horn that could raise the dead. As a kid, I longed to join him on his journeys and discover something of the world beyond Huntsville, Ala., where we lived.

Despite his numerous promises, he never took me along. That failure, and the addictions of his that defined much of my childhood, gave me an education of a different sort. I learned that the world could be cruel and disappointing.

Now that I am a father, I struggle with how much of that hard world to reveal to my sons and daughters. I recognize the privilege in even considering this. Parents of children in Gaza and Ukraine do not have the luxury of deciding whether to tell their young ones of evils done and all the good left undone. Bombs descending from above indifferent to the innocence of youth have become their instructors.

I believe that we all have a moral duty not to turn away from such suffering. During dinner my family and I have talked and prayed about war, poverty, racism and injustice. My hope is that if we instill a sense of empathy in our children, they might create a better world than the one we have made.

It is not just the global upheaval that gives me pause. It is my own mistakes. Not one of us escapes those high-pressure early years of parenthood unscathed. There are always words that we wish that we could unsay, decisions made that we would reconsider if time ran backward. What unfulfilled promise will haunt my children? What will they have to forgive?

Childhood memories rush upon us, awakened by a smell or a song or certain times of year. The scent of fried chicken takes me back to my grandmother’s house. I can almost hear the crunch it made when I took a bite. Every time I pass an eighteen-wheeler on the Interstate, I remember my father. Fall reminds me of the anxiety I felt when I knew that I had to go back to school without any new outfits or shoes, hoping I wouldn’t be mocked. I am 44 years old, and I still remember the hard thumps in my chest.

Parents cannot shield their children from the world’s cruelty or our failures, but we can try to counter those things. We can provide moments that may become positive recollections to sit alongside harsher ones.

I have never understood people who complain about poor families buying a nice TV or shoes or taking their children out to eat. Is it all to be drudgery? Are struggling families not allowed to have dessert? I remember my mother buying us candy at the gas station, having decided that since we were already broke, we might as well take the happiness when we could get it.

Since December, my family and I have been abroad while I am on a research sabbatical in England. My 9-year-old son, Peter, a huge soccer fan, dreamed of seeing a Premier League match. He was persistent in the way only elementary school children can be. He arrived in Britain a Manchester City fan, but I couldn’t get tickets. When I managed to secure two Tottenham Hotspur seats, he immediately switched allegiances.

Watching Peter’s eyes widen as he approached the stadium, joy emanating from his tiny frame, was like that first ray of light after a downpour.

Son Heung-min is the Spurs’ star and captain and a standout on the South Korean national team. Our seats seemed to be in the part of the stadium filled with Koreans. The red, blue, white and black South Korean flag and the national pride it represented rippled in the wind beside Hotspur flags. The team itself was gloriously international, with players from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America all working together on the beautiful game. For a moment, sport had united us, and my son got to see the world as friendly and good.

Between the chants and songs , the crowd was kind to the cute, curly-haired American kid, making us feel as welcome as if we had been fans all our lives. After falling behind 1-0, the Spurs came rushing back to score three goals in the final 15 minutes to seal the victory. One fan said to Peter, “Now you have to come back every week to make sure we keep winning.” If he could, he would. If I had the power to make every day like that one, no price would be too high.

It is hard to predict the impact of these experiences. Parents can make only deposits of joy. We cannot control when our children will make the withdrawals. Did my mother know that I would always remember that one time she took us all to the (now defunct) Opryland U.S.A. theme park in Nashville? I am not sure what the Hotspur game will mean to my youngest son two decades from now. But that day he was happy, and knowing that will have to be enough.

Parenting is always an exercise in hope, a gift given to a future we cannot see to the end. At some point, if God is merciful, our children will continue forward without us, left with the memory of love shared and received.

We are entrusted with the awesome responsibility of introducing our children to the world and the world to our children. We cannot and should not shield them from all difficulty. But it’s also necessary, periodically, to be a bit irresponsible, to spend a little too much on a soccer game so they remember that alongside the darkness, sometimes there is light. Come on, you Spurs .

Esau McCaulley ( @esaumccaulley ) is a contributing Opinion writer and the author of “ How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South ” and the children’s book “ Andy Johnson and the March for Justice .” He is an associate professor of New Testament and public theology at Wheaton College.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Peer Pressure Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on peer pressure.

Peer pressure can be both negative and positive. Because if a person is a peer pressuring you for a good cause then it is motivation. Motivation is essential for the growth of a person. While peer pressure for a bad cause will always lead you to a disastrous situation.

Therefore it necessary for a person to not get influenced by the people around them. They should analyze the outcome of the deed in a strict manner. So that they no may commit anything harmful for themselves. As this world is full of bad people, so you need to be careful before trusting anybody.

Advantages of Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is advantageous in many ways. Most importantly it creates a sense of motivation in the person. Which further forces the person to cross the barrier and achieve something great. Furthermore, it boosts the confidence of a person. Because our brain considers people’s opinions and makes them a priority.

Many salesmen and Entrepreneurs use this technique to influence people to buy their products. Whenever we are in a social meet we always get various recommendations. Therefore when a person gets these recommendations the brain already starts liking it. Or it creates a better image of that thing. This forces the person to buy the product or at least consider it.

This peer pressure technique also works in creating a better character of a person. For instance, when we recommend someone for a particular job, the interviewer already gets a better image of that person. Because he is recommended by a person the interviewer trusts. Therefore there is a great chance of that person to get hired.

Above all the main advantage of peer pressure can be in youth. If a young person gets influenced by an individual or a group of people. He can achieve greater heights in his career.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Disadvantages of Peer Pressure

There are various disadvantages of peer pressure which can harm a person in many ways. If any person is not willing to perform a task then the peer pressure can be frustrating to him.

Furthermore, peer pressure should not be in an excessive manner. Because it lands a negative impact on the person. A person should be of the mindset of listening to himself first. While considering opinions in favor of him.

Peer pressure in youth from a bad company can lead a person to a nasty situation. Furthermore, it can also hamper a student’s career and studies if not averted. Youth these days are much influenced by the glamorous life of celebrities.

And since they follow them so much, these people become their peers. Thus they do such things that they should not. Drugs and smoking are major examples of this. Moreover most shocking is that the minors are even doing these things. This can have adverse effects on their growth and career.

It is necessary to judge the outcome of a deed before getting influenced by peers. Furthermore, peer pressure should always be secondary. Your own thoughts and wants should always have the first priority.

Q1. What is peer pressure?

A1 . Peer pressure is the influence on people by their peers. As a result, people start following their opinions and lifestyle. Furthermore, it is considering a person or his opinion above all and giving him the priority.

Q2. Which sector of the society is the peer pressure adversely affecting?

A2 . Peer pressure has adverse effects on the youth of society. Some false influencers are playing with the minds of the youngsters. As a result, the youth is going in the wrong direction and ruining their career opportunities.

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Key facts about moms in the U.S.

The experience of being a mom in the United States has changed over the last few decades as more women attend college , delay motherhood and stay in the labor force after their children are born . Still, working mothers typically take on more caregiving responsibilities at home than fathers do – and this was especially true during the coronavirus pandemic .

For Mother’s Day, here’s a snapshot of what motherhood looks like in the U.S. today, drawn from government data and Pew Research Center surveys.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis ahead of Mother’s Day 2023 to provide a snapshot of the demographics and experiences of mothers in the United States. The analysis is based on government data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey , as well as survey data from the Center. Links to the methodology and questions of Center surveys and analyses can be found in the text of the analysis.

White, Black and Asian adults include only those who are not Hispanic and identify as only one race. Hispanics are of any race.

Moms’ average age at first birth in the U.S. has ticked up steadily over the last decade. In 2021, the average woman gave birth for the first time at 27.3 years old, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This was up from 2011, when the average mom was 25.6 at the birth of her first child.

While mothers’ average age at first birth has risen across racial and ethnic groups, some differences exist among them. In 2021, Black and Hispanic moms, on average, were younger at the birth of their first child (25.5 years for both groups) than White (28.1) and Asian moms (31.2). American Indian or Alaska Native first-time mothers were the youngest, on average (23.9).

The number of children women in the U.S. have in their lifetime has declined over time, Census Bureau data shows. In the late 1970s, women at the end of their childbearing years (ages 40 to 44) had, on average, more than three children. In 2020, women had about two children on average – a number that has been fairly stable for more than two decades . Most of this decline occurred between 1976 and the mid-1990s.

Women with more education have fewer children on average in their lifetimes. For instance, between 1976 and 2022, women ages 40 to 44 with at least a bachelor’s degree had an average of 1.75 children, while women who do not have a high school diploma had, on average, 2.99 children.

Moms spend more time with their children than dads do – especially when their children are young, data from the 2021 American Time Use Survey shows . During waking hours, mothers with children under 6 spent 7.5 hours on child care per day on average, while dads spent 5.3 hours.

While with their young children, these moms spent 2.7 hours per day on caregiving tasks. Fathers spent 1.6 hours per day on caregiving activities.

Moms with children ages 6 to 12 reported spending an average of 5.7 hours per day on child care, while dads logged 4.2 hours. Mothers with teens ages 13 to 17 also spent more time doing this than fathers did (3.8 hours vs. 3 hours).

In opposite-sex couples, mothers report taking on more child care responsibilities than their spouse or partner does, while fathers are more likely to say these tasks are split about equally, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted fall 2022 .

Among moms who are married to or living with a partner, majorities with children under 18 say they do more when it comes to managing their children’s schedules and activities (78%) and providing comfort or emotional support to their children (58%). A majority (65%) of moms with school-age kids say they do more than their partner to help their children with homework or other school assignments. And 57% of moms with children under 5 say they do more to meet their children’s basic needs, such as feeding, bathing or changing diapers.

Consistent with  past surveys , perceptions of who takes on more child care responsibilities differ by gender among married and cohabiting parents in opposite-sex relationships.

Previous research has found that working mothers are more likely to  carry greater household  and  caregiving loads , and many of the duties mothers take on in family life became even more  difficult in the COVID-19 pandemic .

Moms are more likely than dads to say being a parent is harder than they expected, the fall 2022 survey found. Around two-thirds of mothers (66%) and a smaller majority of fathers (58%) say being a parent is a lot or somewhat harder than they thought it would be. That includes 30% of moms and 20% of dads who say it is a lot harder than they expected.

Larger shares of moms than dads also say they find being a parent tiring (47% vs. 34%) and stressful (33% vs. 24%) all or most of the time.

The vast majority of mothers find parenting enjoyable and rewarding, the same survey found. Overall, 83% of moms say that being a parent is enjoyable for them most (56%) or all of the time (27%). Eight-in-ten moms say being a parent is rewarding most or all of the time, with 37% saying this is the case all of the time.

Being a parent is a key part of most moms’ personal identity, according to the fall 2022 survey. The vast majority of mothers (88%) say that being a parent is the most or one of the most important aspects of who they are as a person, with about a third (35%) saying it is the most important aspect. While a similarly large share of fathers (85%) say that being a parent ranks among the most important aspects of who they are, they are less likely than mothers to say it is the most important: 24% say this.

Note: This is an update to a post originally published on May 8, 2019.

• Family & Relationships
• Household Structure & Family Roles
• Motherhood & Fatherhood

Katherine Schaeffer is a research analyst at Pew Research Center

Carolina Aragão is a research associate focusing on social and demographic trends at Pew Research Center

Few East Asian adults believe women have an obligation to society to have children

Among parents with young adult children, some dads feel less connected to their kids than moms do, how teens and parents approach screen time, most east asian adults say men and women should share financial and caregiving duties, among young adults without children, men are more likely than women to say they want to be parents someday, most popular.

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• School Education /

Essay on Peer Pressure: 100, 200, and 450 Word Samples in English

• Updated on  
• Mar 2, 2024

Have you ever done something just because your friends or peers have done it? Say, watched a movie or TV series, visited places, consumed any substance, or academic achievement. This is a classic example of peer pressure. It means you are influenced by your peers or people around you.

Peer pressure can be both positive and negative, but mostly, it has negative effects. Peer pressure often occurs during adolescence or teenage years when individuals are more susceptible to the opinions and actions of their peers. Sometimes, peer pressure can lead to serious consequences. Therefore, we must deal with peer pressure in a civilized and positive way. 

On this page, we will provide you with some samples of how to write an essay on peer pressure. Here are essay on peer pressure in 100, 200 and 450 words.

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Peer Pressure in 450 Words
• 2 Essay on Peer Pressure in 200 Words
• 3 Essay on Peer Pressure in 100 Words

Master the art of essay writing with our blog on How to Write an Essay in English .

Essay on Peer Pressure in 450 Words

‘Be true to who you are and proud of who you’re becoming. I have never met a critic who was doing better than me.’ – Jeff Moore

Why do we seek recognition? Why do we want to fit in? Why are we not accepting ourselves in just the way we are? The answer to these questions is almost the same; peer pressure. Peer pressure is the influence of our peers in such a way, that we wish and try to do things in the same way as others did. 

Negatives and Positive Peer Pressure

Peer pressure can have positive and negative effects. Positive peer pressure can result in better academic performance, personal growth and development, etc. We can be a source of inspiration to our friends or vice versa, which can result in better academic growth, adopting healthier lifestyles, and engaging in community service. For example, you are part of a group collaborating on a community project that demonstrates the constructive influence of peer interaction. This can encourage a sense of purpose and shared responsibility.

Negative Peer Pressure is the opposite of positive peer pressure. In such cases, we are influenced by the negative bad habits of our peers, which often result in disastrous consequences. Consider the scenario where one of your friends starts smoking simply to conform to the smoking habits of his peers, highlighting the potentially harmful consequences of succumbing to negative influences.

How to Deal With Peer Pressure?

Peer pressure can be dealt with in several ways. The first thing to do is to understand our own values and belief systems. Nobody wants to be controlled by others, and when we know what is important to us, it becomes easier to resist pressure that goes against our beliefs.

A person with self-esteem believes in his or her decisions. It creates a strong sense of self-worth and confidence. When you believe in yourself, you are more likely to make decisions based on your principles rather than succumbing to external influences.

Choosing your friends wisely can be another great way to avoid peer pressure. Positive peer influence can be a powerful tool against negative peer pressure.

Building the habit of saying ‘No’ and confidently facing pressure in uncomfortable situations can be a great way to resist peer pressure. So, it is important to assertively express your thoughts and feelings. 

Peer pressure can have different effects on our well-being. It can contribute to personal growth and development, and it can also negatively affect our mental and physical health. We can deal with peer pressure with the necessary skills, open communication, and a supportive environment. We must act and do things in responsible ways.

Also Read: Essay on Green Revolution in 100, 200 and 500 Words

Essay on Peer Pressure in 200 Words

‘A friend recently started smoking just because every guy in his class smokes, and when they hang out, he feels the pressure to conform and be accepted within the group. However, he is not aware of the potential health risks and personal consequences associated with the habit. 

This is one of the many negative examples of peer pressure. However, peer pressure can often take positive turns, resulting in better academic performance, and participation in social activities, and physical activities. 

Dealing with peer pressure requires a delicate balance and determination. Teenagers must have alternative positive options to resist negative influences. Developing a strong sense of self, understanding personal values, and building confidence are crucial components in navigating the challenges posed by peer pressure.

Learning to say ‘No’ assertively can be a great way to tackle peer pressure. You must understand your boundaries and be confident in your decisions. This way, you can resist pressure that contradicts your values. Also, having a plan in advance for potential pressure situations and seeking support from trusted friends or mentors can contribute to making informed and responsible choices.

‘It is our choice how we want to deal with peer pressure. We can make good and bad decisions, but in the end, we have to accept the fact that we were influenced by our peers and we were trying to fit in.’

Essay on Peer Pressure in 100 Words

‘Peer pressure refers to the influence of your peers. Peer pressure either be of positive or negative types. Positive peer pressure can encourage healthy habits like academic challenges, physical activities, or engaging in positive social activities. Negative peer pressure, on the other hand, can lead us to engage in risky behaviours, such as substance abuse, reckless driving, or skipping school, to fit in with our peers.’

‘There are many ways in which we can deal with peer pressure. Everyone has their personal beliefs and values. Therefore, they must believe in themselves and should not let other things distract them. When we are confident in ourselves, it becomes easier to stand up for what we believe in and make our own choices. Peer pressure can be dealt with by staying positive about yourself.’

Ans: ‘Peer pressure refers to the influence of your peers. Peer pressure either be of positive or negative types. Positive peer pressure can encourage healthy habits like academic challenges,, physical activities, or engaging in positive social activities. Negative peer pressure, on the other hand, can lead us to engage in risky behaviours, such as substance abuse, reckless driving, or skipping school, to fit in with our peers.’

Ans: Peer pressure refers to the influence of our peers or people around us. 

Ans: Peer pressure can have both positive and negative effects on school children. It can boost academic performance, encourage participation in social activities, adopt healthier lifestyles, etc. However, peer pressure often results in risky behaviours, such as substance abuse, unsafe activities, or other harmful behaviours.

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For more information on such interesting speech topics for your school, visit our speech writing page and follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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