Reciprocal Relationships among the Educational Expectations of Fathers, Mothers, and Adolescents from Fourth Grade to Ninth Grade

Although reciprocal relationships among the educational expectations of fathers, mothers, and adolescents have been theoretically proposed, the dynamic, gender differential, and asymmetric nature of these reciprocal relationships within family systems across adolescence remains unclear. In the current study, a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) was used to examine the reciprocal relationships among the educational expectations of fathers, mothers, and adolescents from 4th grade to 9th grade and the moderating effect of adolescents’ gender was considered. A total of 3403 Chinese students (1628 girls; initial M_age = 9.85 years, SD_age = 0.37) and their fathers and mothers were followed from 4th to 9th grade across six waves at one-year intervals. The results indicated significant longitudinal reciprocal relationships among the educational expectations of fathers, mothers, and adolescents. The results of dynamic analysis indicated that father-to-adolescent and mother-to-father effects increased over time. In terms of asymmetries in parent-adolescent reciprocal effects, the results revealed that during the transition from 4th grade to 5th grade, adolescents’ predictive effect on their fathers’ educational expectations was significantly stronger than fathers’ predictive effect on adolescents’ educational expectations. The results of differences in parental-gender revealed that the predictive effect of mothers on adolescents’ educational expectations was significantly stronger than the predictive effect of fathers during the transition from 4th grade to 5th grade. In addition, an adolescent-gender difference was observed in the adolescent-to-parent effects from 4th grade to 9th grade, with daughters having a stronger predictive effect on their parents’ expectations than sons. This study reveals that within family systems, the educational expectations of fathers, mothers, and adolescents represent a dynamic process of mutual interaction, adaptation, and adjustment across different academic stages.