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Chinese Parenting Styles and  

Child Academic Achievement

Yuntian Xie,
1,2

 Zifu Shi,
1
 Lin Yin,

1
 Luo Lan

1
 

 

1. Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan Province, 

Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, 

Hunan, China 

2. Department of Applied Psychology, Changsha Normal University, 

Changsha 410100, Hunan, China 

 

Abstract: This article aimed to examine the relationships between 

Chinese parenting styles and child academic achievement through a 
meta-analytical review. After literature screening, 54 studies and 793 

independent effect sizes that met the inclusion criteria were incorporated 

into the analysis (n = 24630). According to the results of the study, 
positive parenting styles like “emotional warmth and understanding” 

had prominent beneficial effects on child academic achievement, whilst 
negative ones such as “punishment and harshness”, “overinvolvement 

and overprotection”, “preference for the subject”, “rejection and 

denial”) were significantly unfavorable for child academic performance. 
In addition, the relation between parental overinvolvement and 

overprotection and child academic achievement was moderated by 

parental roles. Children’s ages could moderate the relationships 
between parenting styles (except for overinvolvement and 

overprotection) and child academic results. The connection between 
parental preference for the subject and child academic achievement was 

moderated by disciplines. The effects of parents’ emotional warmth and 

understanding as well as overinvolvement and overprotection were 
moderated by times. 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2022; 12(1):1589-1595. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.ab009 

How to Cite: Xie, Y., Shi, Z., Yin, L., & Lan, L. (2022). A meta-analysis of the 

relationships between Chinese parenting styles and child academic achievement. 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 12(1):1589-1595. 



Xie et al. (Hunan). Chinese Parenting Styles and Child Academic Achievement. 

BECE, Vol.12, No.1, 2022 1590 

Keywords: Parenting Style, Academic Achievement, Meta-analysis, EMBU 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Correspondence to: Zifu Shi, Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan Province, Department of 
Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China. E-mail: shizf@hunnu.edu.cn  

Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License 

(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of 

the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. 

mailto:shizf@hunnu.edu.cn
http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/


Xie et al. (Hunan). Chinese Parenting Styles and Child Academic Achievement. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1591 

Research Aims and Hypotheses 

The present study proposed two hypotheses. H1: Child academic achievement is closely 

correlated with parenting styles in China. H2: Parental roles, children’s ages, disciplines, 

and times can moderate the relation between parenting styles and child academic per-

formance. Additionally, given that parents and children’s understanding of parenting 

styles differ in varying cultural contexts, this study attempted to use meta-analysis to 

examine the relationships between parenting styles and child academic results as well as 

the factors influencing them against the backdrop of Chinese culture.  

Methodology 

Literature Retrieval 

The present study included literature published both in Chinese and English. Chinese 

terms for “parenting styles” and “academic achievement” were used to search for stud-

ies in CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) Journal, Doctoral Dissertations, 

and Masters’ Theses Databases, China Science and Technology Journal Database, and 

Wanfang Database. Studies in English were identified by searching under keywords 

“parenting style”, “academic achievement” (or “academic performance”), and “Chinese” 

(or “China”) in EBSCO, Science Direct, and Springer LINK. As Chinese version of 

EMBU (a parenting style assessment scale) was revised in 1993, we retrieved articles 

published between January 1993 and December 2018 from May the 26th of 2019 to 

June the 28th of 2019. 

Inclusion Criteria 

I. Studies included must be empirical research with complete data and specified 

sample sizes. 

II. Subjects are from China; Data related to Chinese parenting styles and student 

academic results must be provided if the sample is a mixture of Chinese and 

foreign subjects. 

III. The use of Chinese version of EMBU as a measurement tool must be clearly 

stated. 

IV. Academic achievement refers to results of Chinese, mathematics, English and 

other subjects. Studies using student academic achievement scales are excluded. 

V. Focusing on the relationships between parenting styles and child academic 

achievement, the study must report r value or F value, t value and X2 value that 

can be converted to r value. 

VI. As a result, 54 studies with 793 independent samples (n=24,630) were included 

in the meta-analysis. 

Coding of Literature Characteristics 

The basic information of included studies entailed authors, publication time, sample 

sizes, subjects’ education levels, subjects’ parents, disciplines, etc. Data from each ef-



Xie et al. (Hunan). Chinese Parenting Styles and Child Academic Achievement. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1592 

fect size was reported only once to ensure the independence of effect sizes. An inde-

pendent sample was coded only once; if a study contained more than one independent 

samples, then they would be coded separately. The majority of the studies employed the 

standard Chinese version of EMBU, although a few of them used the simplified version. 

In terms of the collection time of the research data, in case of not being reported in the 

study, it was assumed two years after the publication time of the study. Thus, this anal-

ysis covered a time range from 1997 to 2016, which was divided into two phases with 

phase one from 1997 to 2006 and phase two from 2007 to 2016, according to the two 

key points (1997 and 2007) in the Five-Year Plan of China Home Education Work. 

Processes of the Meta-Analysis 

First, effect sizes were calculated with Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient r 

meta-analysis method. r value was converted by Fisher Z and used to compute the 

weight of effect sizes and the 95% confidence interval. τ
2
 was treated as an indicator of 

the heterogeneity of effect sizes. The present study used Q-statistic to test the signifi-

cance of τ
2
. 

Second, whether to choose the fixed-effects or random-effects model depended 

on our projections of effect sizes of included studies and analytical aims. In current 

study, subjects included pre-school children, primary and secondary students, residing 

in urban or rural areas; the tools used to measure parenting styles were not identical. 

Hence, this study adopted the random-effects model to compute effect sizes while ap-

plied the fixed-effects model to the analysis of moderating variables. 

Lastly, the fail-safe number (Nfs), trim-and-fill method, and contour-enhanced 

funnel plot were employed to test the publication bias. The higher the Nfs, the less like-

lihood of publication bias. When Nfs is less than 5k + 10, the effect of publication bias 

is big enough to be attended to. 

Analysis Results 

The Test of Main Effects 

According to the test results of main effects of parenting styles on child academic 

achievement, there is a strong and positive correlation between parental emotional 

warmth and understanding and child academic performance (r = 0.18, 95% CI [0.17, 

0.20]); parental punishment and harshness were inversely connected to child academic 

results (r = -0.12, 95% CI [-0.14, -0.11]); parental overinvolvement and overprotection 

negatively predicted child academic performance (r= -0.05, 95% CI [-0.06, -0.04]); pa-

rental preference for the subject had a significant unfavorable influence on child aca-

demic achievement ( r = - 0.06, 95% CI [- 0.08, - 0.04]); parental rejection and denial 

had strong and negative impact on child academic performance (r = -0.12, 95% CI [-

0.13, -0.10]). In summary, positive parenting styles like emotional warmth and under-

standing are significantly beneficial for kid academic achievement, while negative ones 

such as parental punishment and harshness, overinvolvement and overprotection, pref-

erence for the subject, rejection and denial are detrimental to child academic results. 

 



Xie et al. (Hunan). Chinese Parenting Styles and Child Academic Achievement. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1593 

The Test of Moderating Effects 

Moderating Effects of Parental Roles 

Parental roles significantly moderated the relationship between overinvolvement and 

overprotection and kid academic achievement (Q- between = 4.00, df = 1, p < 0. 05), 

with the father’s effect being remarkably greater than the mothers. Nevertheless, paren-

tal roles did not display prominent moderating effects on the relationship between other 

parenting styles and child academic performance, with Q- between = 1.01, df = 1, p = 

0.32 for the relationship between emotional warmth and understanding and child aca-

demic results, Q- between = 0.03, df = 1, p = 0.86 for that between parental punishment 

and harshness and kid academic achievement, Q- between = 0.25, df = 1, p = 0.62 for 

that between parental preference for the subject and child academic results, and Q- be-

tween = 0.83, df = 1, p = 0.36 for that between parental rejection and denial and kid 

academic outcomes. 

The Moderating Effects of Children’ Ages 

Children’s ages imposed pronounced moderating effects on the relationships between 

parenting styles (except for overinvolvement and overprotection) and child academic 

achievement. Specifically, children’s ages significantly moderated the relationship be-

tween parental emotional warmth and understanding and child academic performance 

(Q-between = 55.24, df = 4, p < 0.001), and that between parental punishment and 

harshness  and kid academic results (Q- between = 96.74, d f = 4, p < 0.001), with the 

strongest effects at the kindergarten age, followed by primary and junior secondary 

school ages, and with the weakest effects at senior secondary and secondary school ages. 

The primary school age most powerfully moderated the relationship between parental 

preference for the subject and child academic performance (Q- between = 13.85, df = 4, 

p < 0.01), while the junior and senior secondary school ages had the slightest moderat-

ing effects. On the relationship between parental rejection and denial and kid academic 

achievement (Q- between = 90.49, df = 4, p< 0.001), the kindergarten age had the most 

significant moderating effect whilst the secondary school age had the weakest one.  

The Moderating Effects of Disciplines 

Disciplines significantly moderated the relationship between parental preference for the 

subject and child academic performance (Q- between = 8.57, df = 2, p < 0.05), with 

Chinese imposing the greatest effect, followed by mathematics and English. However, 

the moderating effects of disciplines on the relationships between other parenting styles 

and child academic achievement were not significant, with Q- between = 1.56, df = 2, 

p= 0.46 for the relationship between parental emotional warmth and understanding and 

child academic results, Q- between = 1.13, df = 2, p = 0.57 for the relationship between 

parental punishment and harshness and kid academic performance, Q-between = 0.84, 

df = 2, p = 0.66 for the relationship between parental overinvolvement and overprotec-

tion and child academic achievement, Q- between = 0.34, df = 2, p = 0.85 for the rela-

tionship between parental rejection and denial and kid academic results. 



Xie et al. (Hunan). Chinese Parenting Styles and Child Academic Achievement. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1594 

 

The Moderating Effects of Times 

The moderating effects of times were not significant on the relationships between pa-

rental punishment and harshness and child academic achievement (Q- between = 2.38, 

df = 1, p = 0.12), between parental preference for the subject and child academic per-

formance (Q- between = 1.54, df = 1, p = 0.22), and between parental rejection and de-

nial and kid academic results (Q- between = 0.76, df = 1, p = 0.39), whereas they were 

significant or marginally significant on those between the other two parenting styles and 

kid academic achievement. To be specific, the moderating effect of phase two was re-

markably stronger than that of phase one on the relationship between parental emotional 

warmth and understanding and child academic performance (Q- between = 9.89, df = 1, 

p < 0.01), and the positive correlation between them was strengthened in phase two. 

The moderating effect of phase one was substantially stronger than that of phase two on 

the relationship between parental overinvolvement and overprotection and kid academic 

results (Q- between = 2.82, df = 1, p = 0.09), and the negative correlation between them 

was weakened in the second phase. 

Conclusions and Discussion 

The Relationship between Parenting Styles and Child 

Academic Achievement 

Based on the existing 54 studies and 793 independent samples, this meta-analysis found 

that there were significant correlations between the five parenting styles and child aca-

demic achievement. This conclusion validates H1 and is consistent with the results of a 

previous literature review that analyzed 39 studies. In addition, different from another 

meta-analysis conducted by foreign scholars which focused on the relations between 

authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and neglectful parenting styles and academic 

achievement of subjects in Western countries, the present study drew on five parenting 

styles (emotional warmth and understanding, punishment and harshness, 

overinvolvement and overprotection, preference for the subject, rejection and denial) 

listed in EMBU to examine their relationships with child academic performance in the 

context of Chinese culture. There were differences in parenting styles cited and the cul-

tural backgrounds of samples between the two meta-analytical studies, but interestingly, 

both discovered that the degree of correlation between parenting styles and child aca-

demic achievement was not very high, with a correlation coefficient of -0.12 – 0.18 

found in the present study and a correlation coefficient of -0.16 – 0.17 in the other one. 

Different parenting styles yields distinct influences. The favorable effects of 

positive parenting styles and detrimental influences of negative ones on kid academic 

achievement found by the current study are aligned with the results of existent research 

and support the argument of the human ecology development theory. Moreover, it is 

discovered that parental emotional warmth and understanding has the most salient effect 

on child academic performance, which highlights the importance of emotional warmth 

and understanding to children’s growth. Besides, the coefficients of correlations be-



Xie et al. (Hunan). Chinese Parenting Styles and Child Academic Achievement. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1595 

tween child academic results and parental punishment and harshness as well as rejection 

and denial are relatively large. 

The Moderating Effects of Parental Roles, Children’s 

ages, Disciplines, and Times 

First off, as per the analysis results, parental roles cannot significantly moderate the 

relationships between most of the parenting styles and child academic achievement. 

However, on the relationship of parental overinvolvement and overprotection and child 

academic performance, the moderate effect of the father is considerably greater than 

that of the mother. Second, ages can effectively moderate the relationships between 

most of the parenting styles and child academic results. Parenting styles are more close-

ly related to child academic performance at the primary level, whilst less at the second-

ary level. Third, disciplines impose a significant moderating effect on the relationship 

between parental preference for the subject and kid academic achievement. Lastly, as 

times advance, the favorable effect of the positive parenting style (emotional warmth 

and understanding) on child academic performance strengthens, while the detrimental 

effect of negative parenting styles like overinvolvement and overprotection is mitigated. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Psychological Development and Educa-

tion,2022, 38(3):14. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE by 

the author(s) and the Chinese journal. 

 

谢云天, 史滋福, 尹霖, 兰洛. 中国父母教养方式与儿童学业成绩关系的元分析. 心理发展与教

育, 2022, 38(3):14. 

 

 

Received: 05 August 2022 

Revised: 14 August 2022 

Accepted: 28 August 2022 

 

 

 

 

 


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