The Current State and Characteristics of Parental Educational Anxiety and Contributing Factors Yadong Ding, 1 Haiping Xue 2 1. China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 211116, Jiangsu, China 2. Capital Normal University, Beijing 100089, China Abstract: This article employed descriptive statistics, regression analysis, and mediating effect analysis to study the current state and characteristics of parental educational anxiety as well as contributing factors. It was found that there was a 66.8% rate of educational anxiety among parents surveyed; that education policies were the primary factor in parental educational anxiety, with their relation being mainly mediated by school-related variables; that there was a significantly negative correlation between child academic performance and parents’ educational anxiety; and that mothers are more prone to educational anxiety than fathers. Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2023; 14(2):1771-1774. Doi: 10.15354/bece.23.ar078 How to Cite: Ding, Y., & Xue, H. (2023). The current state and characteristics of parental educational anxiety and contributing factors, Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 14(2):1771-1774. Keywords: Educational Anxiety; Academic Achievement; Educational Policy; Compulsory Education About the Authors: Yadong Ding, School of Public Policy and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 211116, Jiangsu, China. Haiping Xue, School of Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100089, China. E-mail: xuehaiping_416@163.com Correspondence to: Haiping Xue at Capital Normal University of China. Conflict of Interests: None. © 2023 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:xuehaiping_416@163.com http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Ding & Xue. (Beijing, China). Parental Educational Anxiety and Contributing Factors. BECE, Vol.14, No. 2, 2023 1772 Introduction HE study focused on the parents of compulsory education students in Shanghai city. Through a large-scale survey and subsequent data analysis, it aimed to the status quo and characteristics of educational anxiety among parents of compul- sory education students; analyze the factors in parental educational anxiety from the standpoints of educational policies, schools, families, and students; and propose rec- ommendations on improving the education policy system from the perspective of policy design. Analytical Framework and Data Analytical Framework The government, schools, parents, and students were chosen as the analytical dimen- sions of the educational setting to explore the causes of parental educational anxiety using variables such as parental understanding of educational policy, school education service quality, parental educational expectations, and student academic performance. The focus of analysis was on the impact of parental knowledge of educational policies, parental satisfaction with the quality of school education services, and student academic performance on parental educational anxiety. Data and Variables The research was based on the data from the Survey on Compulsory Education Students’ Needs to Participate in Off-campus Education by East China Normal University’s Na- tional Institute of Educational Policy Research. The survey adopted a convenience sam- pling method to select primary and middle schools from various administrative districts in Shanghai and include all students from the selected schools and their parents in the sample. A total of 68205 valid questionnaires were retrieved with 35,162 from parents and 33043 from students. Main variables were established from the aspects of the edu- cational policy, school, parent, and student. Data Analysis Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the current state and characteristics of parents’ educational anxiety. Subsequently, regression analysis was adopted to identify the influences of educational policy-, school-, family-, and student-related factors on parents’ educational anxiety. Furthermore, the mediation model was constructed to clar- ify the paths to the influences of all variables on parents’ educational anxiety and rele- vant mediating effects. T Ding & Xue. (Beijing, China). Parental Educational Anxiety and Contributing Factors. BECE, Vol.14, No. 2, 2023 1773 The Status Quo of Parental Educational Anxiety and its Characteristics High Prevalence of Parental Educational Anxiety Among parents surveyed, 66.8% felt extremely anxious about child education, with 14.4% feeling “very anxious” and 52.4% feeling “considerably anxious.” The overall parental educational anxiety was above the moderate level. The Wide Variety of Causes of Parental Educational Anxiety The issues that related to parents’ educational anxiety included child academic perfor- mance (79.3%), campus safety (54.5%), mobile phone addiction (54.3%), soft skill cul- tivation (50.7%), educational equity (44.8%), school choice (39.9%), foreign language learning (27.3%), puppy love (25.4%), educational investment (24.4%), off-campus training (24%), sex education (21.6%), school district-focused residence (10.7%), and overseas study (7%), among which, child academic performance remained the greatest source of parental educational anxiety. Factors Influencing Parental Educational Anxiety (i) Parents’ understanding of the policies on the senior secondary education entrance examination and “Double First-class” universities posed a salient impact on their educational anxiety. (ii) School service quality had a significant influence on parental educational anxiety, while school ownership was not related to it. (iii) Certain aspects of family capital had prominent impacts on parental educational anxiety. Parental education levels, parental occupational status, and home econom- ic status were positively related to parents’ educational anxiety. (iv) Child academic results exerted a substantial impact on parents’ educational anxiety. Parents’ low satisfaction with child school performance was a critical reason for their educational anxiety. Mediating Effects on the Generation of Parental Edu- cational Anxiety Educational policies are the primary factor influencing parental educational anxiety. In addition to their direct impact, they also indirectly affect parents’ educational anxiety via school-, family-, and student-related factors. As a result, a multi-channel mediation path arose, consisting of chains “educational policies – parental educational anxiety,” "educational policies – schools – parental educational anxiety,” “educational policies – Ding & Xue. (Beijing, China). Parental Educational Anxiety and Contributing Factors. BECE, Vol.14, No. 2, 2023 1774 families – parental educational anxiety”, and “educational policies – schools – students – parental educational anxiety.” Conclusions The research concluded that: (i) educational policies posed the strongest impact on pa- rental educational anxiety, and the mediating chain “educational policies – schools – parental educational anxiety” served to be the primary path; (ii) parents’ knowledge of educational policies were closely associated with their educational anxiety; (iii) Family capital significantly affected parents’ educational anxiety; (iv) Child academic perfor- mance was negatively related to parental educational anxiety; (v) the quality of school education service had significant influences on parents’ educational anxiety; (vi) Moth- ers were more prone to educational anxiety than fathers, and parents’ educational anxie- ty peaked at the junior secondary phase. The Chinese version of this article has been published in Journal of Capital Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), 2022(5):145-156. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE by the author(s) and the Chinese journal. 丁亚东, 薛海平. 家长教育焦虑的现状, 特征及影响因素—基于 35162 名家长的实证研究. 首都师 范大学学报 (社会科学版) 2022(5):145-156. Received: 11 June 2023 Revised: 29 June 2023 Accepted: 8 July 2023 OR-HaipingXue-BECE_TitleMay_2023 OR-HaipingXue-BECE_MaintextMay2023