IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p15479-d980739.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Parental Educational Anxiety during Children’s Transition to Primary School in China

Author

Listed:
  • Qianqian Liu

    (Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Xiumin Hong

    (Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Mei Wang

    (Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

Abstract

Children’s transition from preschool to primary school has long been recognized as a particularly challenging period that can induce parental educational anxiety. As a true portraiture of Chinese parenting, educational anxiety during this transition has attracted considerable attention, given its detrimental effects on children’s development and education. This study was aimed at identifying the characteristics of parental educational anxiety and its influencing factors during children’s transition to primary school in China. We examined parental educational anxiety and parental educational experience through a questionnaire survey. The sample comprised 26,295 families with children in grade one distributed across nine cities in five provinces. The results indicate that (1) Chinese parents experience some degree of educational anxiety during their children’s transition to primary school and are more worried about their children’s learning and social adaptation processes than about how the curriculum is taught; (2) scores for parental educational anxiety varied significantly across different regions and urban/rural areas; (3) family socioeconomic status, parents’ educational concepts, preschools’ entrance preparation work, and primary school enrollment adaptation work are all important factors influencing parental educational anxiety during this transition. Our findings highlight the prevalence of parental educational anxiety in China and the need for effective measures to facilitate a smooth transition.

Suggested Citation

  • Qianqian Liu & Xiumin Hong & Mei Wang, 2022. "Parental Educational Anxiety during Children’s Transition to Primary School in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-13, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15479-:d:980739
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15479/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15479/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guo, Yumei & Song, Yang & Chen, Qianmiao, 2019. "Impacts of education policies on intergenerational education mobility in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 124-142.
    2. Lau, Eva Yi Hung & Power, Thomas G., 2018. "Parental involvement during the transition to primary school: Examining bidirectional relations with school adjustment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 257-266.
    3. Lingxin Hao & Wei-Jun Yeung, 2015. "Parental Spending on School-Age Children: Structural Stratification and Parental Expectation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 835-860, June.
    4. Demirtaş-Zorbaz, Selen & Ergene, Tuncay, 2019. "School adjustment of first-grade primary school students: Effects of family involvement, externalizing behavior, teacher and peer relations," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 307-316.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haiyang Lu & Peng Nie & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2021. "The Effect of Parental Educational Expectations on Adolescent Subjective Well-Being and the Moderating Role of Perceived Academic Pressure: Longitudinal Evidence for China," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(1), pages 117-137, February.
    2. Michelle Maroto, 2018. "Saving, Sharing, or Spending? The Wealth Consequences of Raising Children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2257-2282, December.
    3. Nam, Yunju, 2020. "Parents’ financial assistance for college and black-white disparities in post-secondary educational attainment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    4. Jingye Shi & Bing Xu & Yi Wei, 2020. "Life course and cohort effects on Chinese parents' investments in their children," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(8), pages 183-216.
    5. Zurab Abramishvili & William Appleman & Sergii Maksymovych, 2019. "Parental Gender Preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: Gender Bias or Differential Costs?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp643, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    6. Huang, Xiao & Huang, Shoujun & Shui, Ailun, 2021. "Government spending and intergenerational income mobility: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 387-414.
    7. Mark E. McGovern & Slawa Rokicki, 2023. "The Great Recession, Household Income, and Children's Test Scores," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(3), pages 555-580, September.
    8. Piracha, Matloob & Tani, Massimiliano & Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Zhang, Yu, 2022. "Higher education expansion and the rise of China in economics research," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming, 2022. "Kids eat free: School feeding and family spending on education," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 196-212.
    10. Duan, Yide & Zhang, Haotian & Wang, Wenfu & Ao, Xiaoyan, 2022. "The effects of China's higher education expansion on urban and rural intergenerational mobility," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    11. Zehui Zhan & Yuanmin Li & Hu Mei & Siyuan Lyu, 2023. "Key competencies acquired from STEM education: gender-differentiated parental expectations," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Rachel Karen, 2023. "Private Transfers to Young Adult Households in the United States and France," LIS Working papers 866, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    13. Cai, Xiqian & Fan, Qingliang & Yuan, Congying, 2022. "The impact of only child peers on students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell & Sun, Gong & Li, Jie & Wang, Wangshuai, 2022. "University education, homeownership and housing wealth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    15. Lau, Eva Yi Hung & Ng, Mei Lee, 2019. "Are they ready for home-school partnership? Perspectives of kindergarten principals, teachers and parents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 10-17.
    16. Serhii Maksymovych & William Appleman & Zurab Abramishvili, 2023. "Parental gender preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: gender bias or differential costs?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 1-48, December.
    17. Huang, Bin & Tani, Massimiliano & Wei, Yi & Zhu, Yu, 2022. "Returns to education in China: Evidence from the great higher education expansion," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Huang, Bin & Zhu, Yu, 2020. "Higher Education Expansion, the Hukou System, and Returns to Education in China," IZA Discussion Papers 12954, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Zhang, Zheyuan & Xu, Hui & Liu, Ruilin & Zhao, Zhong, 2024. "Free Education and the Intergenerational Transmission of Cognitive Skills in Rural China," IZA Discussion Papers 17314, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Elizabeth Cañas & Estefanía Estévez & Celeste León-Moreno & Gonzalo Musitu, 2020. "Loneliness, Family Communication, and School Adjustment in a Sample of Cybervictimized Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-13, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15479-:d:980739. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.