BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.21, No.2, 2025, BECE 2047 

 

 

 

 

Parental and Child Educational Expectations and 

Adolescent Academic Burnout in Low-Income 

Families 

By Zhao, X. & Wang, S. 
Correspondence to: Xinhui Zhao, National Academy of Governance, China. E-

mail: editorial-office@bonoi.org   

HIS STUDY seeks to examine the effect of the alignment or 

misalignment between parental and child educational expectations on 

teenage children’s academic burnout in low-income families, with a sample 

of 3342 adolescents aged 8–16 from the database of 2018’s “Construction of 

the Policy Support System for Disadvantaged Families in China” Project, 

which was sponsored by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs. 

Research Findings: 

• Aligned low educational expectations between the parents 

and children significantly exacerbated academic burnout in the latter, while 

aligned high educational expectations between them or the children’s 

educational expectations exceeding those of their parents significantly 

alleviated academic burnout in the teenage children. This finding differs 

from the results of previous national studies, which suggest that only 

“aligned high educational expectations” are most beneficial for adolescent 

academic performance. It implies that with high educational aspirations, 

adolescents with disadvantaged backgrounds are still likely to achieve 

academic success. 

• The effect of the intergenerational alignment of educational 

expectations on child academic burnout was mediated by parental 

educational involvement. Parental educational involvement could intensify 

the negative effect of “aligned low educational expectations” and boost the 

positive effect of “aligned high educational expectations.” Yet, it had no 

mediation effect on the relationship between the “educational expectation 

divides” (no matter whose educational expectations were higher) and 

academic burnout in adolescents. This may be because parental educational 

involvement could be either inordinately high or low, unable to meet the 

children’s actual needs, as a result of parent-child discrepancies in 

educational expectations 

• Grandparenting could mitigate the exacerbating effect of 

“aligned low educational expectations” on adolescent academic burnout 

(playing the role of resource compensation) but also weakens the promotive 

effect of “aligned high educational expectations" on parental involvement 

T 

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Vol.21, No.2, 2025, BECE 2048 

(playing the role of resource substitutes). Given the adoption of 

grandparenting in 43.6% of the surveyed families, it is recommended to 

provide grandparents with home education guidance and social work services 

to help them update their educational notions and improve their quality of 

educational involvement. 

These findings can have theoretical and practical implications for 

policy making, school education, and home education by deepening the 

understanding of the mechanism influencing the effect of parent-child 

agreement or disagreement in educational expectations on adolescent 

academic burnout in low-income families. They underscore the necessity of 

supporting low-income teenagers in pursuing high educational aspirations 

with measures like increasing educational investment in low-income regions 

and offering scholarships and grants to those eligible to alleviate financial 

burdens on their families. In the meantime, it is important to establish a 

robust home education guidance system to provide parents with knowledge 

on scientific home education methods, including setting legitimate 

educational goals and ensuring effective educational involvement, to reduce 

academic burnout in their children. Additionally, the community can pool 

resources available, such as libraries and cultural centers, to organize 

activities like parent-child co-reading and handicraft making for families 

adopting grandparenting, in a bid to encourage parent-child emotional 

interaction, which can contribute to the mitigation of academic burnout of the 

adolescent children. 

 
Source: China Youth Study, 2025; 2025 (08):51-59.