Relationships between co-parenting patterns and achievement motives in Chinese junior high school adolescents: A latent profile analysis

Based on Maccoby and Martin’s (1983) two-dimensional model of parenting style, this study explored co-parenting patterns in Chinese families with junior high school adolescents. Additionally, it examined the relationships between co-parenting patterns and adolescents’ motives to approach success (Ms) and avoid failure (Mf). In total, 894 junior high school students participated in the survey and responded to scales measuring their perceived parental warmth, rejection, overprotection, and achievement motives. We used latent profile analysis and a regression mixed model approach to investigate the subgroups and their relationships with adolescents’ Mf and Ms. The results indicated that, based on the indicators of parental warmth, rejection, and overprotection, Chinese co-parenting can be divided into three subgroups: moderate overprotection, high warmth, and low rejection (MO-HW-LR; 48.43%); moderate overprotection, moderate warmth, and low rejection (MO-MW-LR; 34.68%); and high overprotection, moderate warmth, and moderate rejection (HO-MW-MR; 16.89%). Generally, adolescents from the HO-MW-MR group scored the highest on both Mf and Ms among the three subgroups, whereas no significant differences were found in Ms and Mf between adolescents from the MO-HW-LR and MO-MW-LR groups. The findings showed that “authoritarian” co-parenting was most conducive to facilitating the achievement motive in Chinese junior high school students in the Chinese context. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.