The cumulative family risk may impede students’ academic achievement. However, previous studies have not adequately explored the mechanisms influencing cumulative family risk and the protective factors for adolescent academic achievement. Therefore, this research mainly discussed these two issues. A total of 1190 Chinese junior high school students (Mage = 13.450, SDage = 0.508, 52.4% girls) participated in the self-assessment questionnaire. First, we verified the negative association between cumulative family risk and academic achievement of junior high school students. Second, we demonstrated the mediating effect of basic psychological needs between cumulative family risk and academic achievement. Higher cumulative family risk implies lower basic psychological needs satisfaction among adolescents, making it more difficult for them to obtain academic achievement. Third, we found the protective effect of future orientation. The future orientation at a medium level buffers the negative impact of cumulative family risk on academic achievement, and this negative effect is no longer evident at the high level of future orientation. Implications for these findings and future directions are discussed.
