The Associations of Child and Parent Educational Expectations, Academic Evaluation, and Depression: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model

Pan Fada; Chen Kaijun; Zhang Li

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240615

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (6) : 1433-1443. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240615

Social，Personality & Organizational Psychology

The Associations of Child and Parent Educational Expectations, Academic Evaluation, and Depression: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model

Pan Fada, Chen Kaijun, Zhang Li

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Abstract

Children's and parents' educational expectations play a significant role in predicting adolescent performance and depression, and depression in both adolescents and their parents can predict each other's depressive symptoms. The family systems theory posits that the family is a complex interactive system in which family members’ behaviour and emotions influence and regulate each other. As a key component of the family ecosystem, parents' educational expectations may influence the physical and mental development of adolescents through intergenerational transmission. Meanwhile, parental educational expectations can indirectly influence children's expectations for self-education. There was a significant difference between the father-son and mother-son relationships. However, the findings present inconsistencies regarding the relationship between educational expectations and adolescent depression. Further exploration of the relationship between educational expectations and depression is warranted. Therefore, this study explored how parents' and children's educational expectations influence their own (actor effects) and each other's (partner effects) depression, and analysed the mediating role of their respective academic evaluations in both actor effects and partner effects by using the actor-partner interdependence model.
The data were derived from the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS), which was conducted in 2018. This study selected a sample of children and their parents who had completed both individual and parental questionnaires as participants. A total of 2271 children participated in this study, each accompanied by either their father or mother. Among them, the demographic breakdown included 471 father-son pairs with a child average age of 12.58 years (SD = 1.68 years), 368 father-daughter pairs with a child average age of 12.42 years (SD = 1.74 years), 738 mother-son pairs with a child average age of 12.31 years (SD = 1.73 years), and 716 mother-daughter pairs with a child average age of 12.38 years (SD = 1.69 years). This study used a questionnaire survey method to measure levels of parental educational expectations, adolescent educational expectations, depression, and academic evaluation. The study first utilized SPSS 25.0 for descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, followed by Amos 24.0 to build the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) and the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model (APIMeM).
The findings of the study, based on the actor-partner interdependence model, indicated patterns between parental and adolescent education expectations and depression. Specifically, for father-son (father-daughter) relationships, a son's (daughter’s) educational expectations were found to be negatively associated with his own levels of depression, and intriguingly, a daughter's educational expectations were also negatively linked to her father's depressive symptoms. For the relationship between mother and son (daughter), the educational expectations of the son (daughter) and mother can negatively predict each other's depression. Meanwhile, in the actor-partner interdependence mediation model, the son's educational expectation affects both self and the mother's depression through his own and mother's academic evaluation, while the daughter's educational expectation affects both the self and the parent's depression through her own and the parent's academic evaluations. A father's educational expectations influence his daughter's depression through his own academic evaluation, while a mother's educational expectation influences daughter's depression through their own academic evaluations.
This study underscored the influence of parent-child roles on the relationship between parent-child educational expectations and depression. Specifically, it highlighted that children's depression was related to both child and parent educational expectations and academic evaluations, while the role of parents and children have different impacts. Meanwhile, the present study improved our understanding of the underlying mechanism of the relationship between the child and parent educational expectations and depression. This study highlighted the pivotal role of role identity and academic evaluation in mediating the relationship between educational expectations and depression. It not only provided a basis for enhancing parent-child relationships, but also offered targeted intervention strategies for families.

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educational expectation / depression / actor-partner interdependence model / academic evaluation

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Pan Fada, Chen Kaijun, Zhang Li. The Associations of Child and Parent Educational Expectations, Academic Evaluation, and Depression: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2024, 47(6): 1433-1443 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240615

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