Impacts of family environment on adolescents’ academic achievement: The role of peer interaction quality and educational expectation gap

Enhancing academic self-efficacy on decreasing adolescents' unmonitored internet usage and depressive mood

Unmonitored internet use and depression are difficulties that adolescents experience. Efforts to promote healthy adolescent development tend to focus on reducing these two risk outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how three important school-related factors (teachers, peers, and academics) affect adolescents' levels of unmonitored internet use and depression. For this study, a cross-sectional data analysis was conducted. The sample included 9297 students who participated in two waves of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using LISREL 8.80 to analyze the data. Monte Carlo resampling was then performed using R to confirm the significance of the mediating effects. Teacher criticism and negative peers can increase unmonitored internet use and depression in adolescents, while academic stress can exacerbate depression. In contrast, teacher praise and positive peers can reduce those risk outcomes. Academic self-efficacy serves as a key mediator of the impacts of teachers, peers, and academics on adolescents' levels of unmonitored internet use and depression. We advocate that schools should establish a positive school climate, provide teacher feedback training and design physical activity programs to improve academic self-efficacy, thereby reducing the risk of unmonitored internet use and depression among adolescents, effectively preventing possible subsequent internet addiction and promoting the mental health of adolescents.

Peer factors and prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents from difficult families

Adolescents from difficult families (ADF) is a vulnerable group in China, and there have been few studies focused on them at present. To improve the welfare system for vulnerable groups and gain a better understanding of the situation regarding ADF, it is important to identify the association between peer factors, family functioning, and prosocial behavior among ADF. 1047 adolescents aged 10-15 from difficult families were selected from 21 counties in 7 provinces across China based on the multistage stratified sampling method. Regression analysis and moderation analyses were performed to identify the association of prosocial behavior with peer factors and family functioning. Lower peer quality and poorer family functioning were significantly associated with less prosocial behavior. The was no significant association between peer quantity and prosocial behavior. Family functioning moderated the relationship between peer quality and prosocial behavior. ADF with higher quality peers are more likely to show more prosocial behavior, and poor family functioning would weaken the association between peer quality and prosocial behavior. The protection of ADF can begin by improving family functioning and guiding ADF to form relationships with high-quality peers.

Socioeconomic status and problem behaviors in young Chinese children: A moderated mediation model of parenting styles and only children

Introduction

This study tested a moderated mediation model of child number (CN) and parenting styles (PS) in the relationships between family socioeconomic status (SES) and young children's problem behaviors (PB).

Methods

A sample of 1,101 children (M_age = 4.90 years, SD = 1.07) and their parents participated in this study. Parents reported on PS, SES, and children's PB.

Results and Discussion

The results show SES was positively related to authoritative parenting and negatively related to authoritarian parenting; problem behaviors were negatively related to authoritative parenting and positively related to authoritarian parenting; authoritative parenting and authoritarian parenting mediated the relationship between SES and PB; and singleton moderated the relationship between SES and PB. The combination of only children and low levels of SES could lead to high PB levels, while the combination of non-only children and high levels of SES could lead to high PB levels. At the same SES, only children had higher PB levels than non-only children.