Impact of Adolescents’ Perceptions of Maternal Parenting on Academic Achievement Among Youth in China, India, and South Korea

Abstract

While it is widely accepted that parents play an important role in facilitating the academic achievement of their offspring through school involvement and homework assistance, less is known about how exactly parents, in general, contribute to adolescents’ academic achievement within and across non-Western cultures through their everyday parenting behaviors and parent–adolescent relationships. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between several Western constructs of maternal parenting behavior (e.g., support, involvement, reasoning, punitiveness, and parental knowledge), and aspects of the mother–adolescent relationship (e.g., autonomy, conformity, and familism) and adolescent academic achievement among families living in China, India, and South Korea. Self-reported data were collected from adolescents living in urban areas within Mainland China (n = 589), India (n = 463), and South Korea (274). Examination of the results from the reduced linear regression model indicated that maternal knowledge, familism, punitiveness, age of adolescent, and region were statistically significant predictors.

1. Introduction

Researchers, educators, parents, and others are keenly interested in the academic achievement of children and adolescents [1,2]. Academic achievement remains an important factor in the healthy and successful development of children and adolescents, regardless of culture [1,3,4]. While it is widely accepted that parents play a huge role in facilitating the academic achievement of their offspring, such as helping and monitoring homework [5], less is known about how exactly parents and families in general—compared to the large body of literature on direct assistance strategies such as help with homework and school involvement—contribute to adolescent’s academic achievement within and across non-Western cultures [6] through their everyday parenting behaviors and parent–adolescent relationships. Although many previous studies have examined the relationships between parenting and adolescent academic achievement in non-Western countries, few have explored these relationships across multiple Asian countries, and no previous studies that we are aware of have examined these specific variables within and across adolescents living in China, India, and South Korea within the same study.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between adolescents’ perceptions of several Western constructs of maternal parenting behavior and aspects of the mother-adolescent relationship (e.g., autonomy, conformity, and familism) and adolescent academic achievement among families living in China, India, and South Korea. The reason why we emphasize maternal parenting is that Asian mothers were found to have higher authoritative parenting than fathers [7], and studies have demonstrated that a mother’s own childhood experiences shape her parenting behaviors [8]. Another study also suggested that Chinese maternal authoritative parenting predicted perceived maternal support for both sons and daughters (as compared to fathers’ authoritative parenting affects the sons, not daughters’ academic exhaustion) [9]. In this study specifically, we examined the impact of the following maternal parenting behaviors: support, involvement, positive induction, parental knowledge (as a proxy for monitoring), guilt induction, love withdrawal, and punitiveness, as well as important aspects of mother–adolescent relationships (e.g., autonomy from mothers, familism, and conformity to mothers) on adolescents’ academic achievement (self-reported grade point average).

1.1. Academic Achievement

Adolescent academic achievement has been found to be significantly related to numerous important outcomes, including parent–adolescent relationships [1,4,10], peer relationships [11], emotional well-being [12,13,14], social networking [15], and social mobility in later life [16,17]. Definitions and operationalizations of academic achievement vary widely, including school grades (self-report and actual grades), standardized achievement tests, and various measures of academic motivation, academic self-efficacy, academic/school engagement, or academic competence [2,18,19]. In the current study, we focus on adolescent reports of grade point average, which has been found to be highly correlated with actual grades [20].

1.2. Parenting and Academic Achievement

Recent studies examining parenting within Asian cultures indicate the positive relationship between parental support, monitoring/firm behavioral control, and various academic outcomes, as well as the negative relationship between assessment of academic outcomes and measures of authoritarian-related parenting (e.g., punitiveness and psychological control [21,22,23]). A recent study with adolescents in India found that those who perceived their parents to have an authoritative parenting style (support, involvement, firm control, and flexibility) experienced higher levels of academic achievement motivation and higher levels of effective study habits compared to adolescents who reported other parenting styles [23]. However, the study by Thakre and Shet did not assess parenting behaviors individually or academic achievement, as examined in the present study [23]. Another study in India found that authoritarian parenting style (i.e., low on support and high on psychological control) was not significantly related to school engagement or state exam grades; rather, supportive parental responses to adolescents’ emotions were indirectly associated with state exam grades through school engagement [24].

In contrast, research in China has found mixed results, with some paralleling findings among Western samples and others suggesting that authoritarian parenting, rather than authoritative parenting, is more salient of positive outcomes. For example, Leung and colleagues found a positive correlation between authoritarian parenting and grades among Chinese adolescents [25]. In contrast, in a more recent study, Pong and colleagues found that while authoritarian parenting served as a negative predictor of school achievement in Taiwan, authoritative parenting (high on support and high on behavioral control) was positively related to school achievement [22]. Moreover, research has found that Chinese families, compared to European American families, use the authoritarian parenting style with the use of the permissive style. Parenting behaviors may be influenced by several factors, such as parental values, beliefs, socialization goals, and their child’s characteristics [26]. It is important for Chinese families to have structural involvement, such as with school and behavioral development. Chinese families also prefer to involve “child training” within their parenting practices. The socialization goals held by these Chinese families tend to be self-development, family honor, and respect, as well as being the top student at school [21].

Research within the Chinese population shows that the parenting dimensions of warmth and sensitivity are associated with a positive child adjustment [21]. Despite using authoritarian methods of discipline, this might not have the same negative outcomes in achievement as some used to believe [25]; parental control was found to be positively related to school performance [21]. However, when examining parenting styles rather than the specific parenting behavior or practices that compose styles, it is difficult to separate the impact of specific parenting behaviors and their interactions, such as the different and typical positive impact of firm behavioral control (e.g., monitoring) compared to the typical negative relationships found between psychologically controlling parenting behaviors (e.g., punitiveness, guilt induction, and love withdrawal) and adolescent academic achievement.

Few studies published in English have been conducted to examine the role of parenting and adolescent academic achievement in South Korea. However, there is some research in this area among Korean American samples. For example, Kim and Rohner explored the role of parenting and academic achievement among Korean American adolescents [27]. Their findings suggest that adolescents whose fathers had authoritative (i.e., support, involvement, firm control, and flexibility) and permissive parenting styles performed better academically than adolescents with parenting classified as authoritarian (e.g., high punitiveness and psychological control, low support/involvement). Additionally, these findings are consistent with a larger body of research connecting parental support to facilitating numerous adolescent outcomes, including academic achievement. Many Asian American parents use “child training” that focuses on parental control and monitoring their child’s behaviors while still providing involvement, concern, and support to their child. This training also focuses on obedience, self-discipline, and striving to be the best in school [28]. The socialization goals of Asian American families were found to be consistent with the interdependent and collectivist basis of Asian culture. For future research, scholars must examine and differentiate between various types of parental control, such as behavioral/firm control (e.g., monitoring/knowledge) and psychological control (e.g., guilt induction and love withdrawal), as performed in the present study, in order to better understand how various aspects of parental control are used and related to adolescent academic achievement within Asian cultures [29].

Additionally, a small body of research among South Korean adolescents published in English examined the role of parenting in predicting other adolescent outcomes. For example, Lim and Smith examined the role of parenting on creativity and loneliness [30]. They found that parental behavior characterized as accepting (e.g., support and involvement) was positively related to a measure of child creativity, while parental behavior characterized as lenient (e.g., permissiveness, guilt induction) was not related to creativity but was positively related to a measure of loneliness. These findings are consistent with a larger body of research connecting parental support to facilitating adolescent academic achievement.

1.3. Components of Parent–Adolescent Relationships

Parent–adolescent relationships play a huge role in adolescent development overall, especially through the balancing of adolescent autonomy and conformity in the context of a supportive relationship [4,31,32,33,34,35]. Moreover, components of parent–adolescent relationships have been found to contribute to the development of positive academic achievement [33,36]. In addition to autonomy and conformity, familism is another component of parent–adolescent relationships that is particularly salient within Latinx and Asian cultures. That is, values related to the importance of the family and one’s role in their family are socialized by parents across cultures, with many parents, especially those with collectivistic values, socializing familism. In turn, familism has been found to foster positive adolescent outcomes, including academic achievement [37,38,39].

1.4. Adolescent Autonomy

Autonomy from parents is a valued commodity among adolescents from most cultures. Consistent with self-determination theory and previous research, the need for autonomy development among adolescents is universal across cultures and critical for healthy psychosocial development [31,34,35]. Similarly, across cultures, adolescents have younger age expectations for autonomy than parents [34,35,40]. Despite this universality of autonomy development, the role of autonomy in adolescent development and parents’ value of adolescent autonomy can vary considerably across cultures. Increasingly, youth living in collectivistic societies expect and demand more autonomy [4,31,37,41,42].

Adolescent autonomy has been found to serve as a positive predictor of numerous outcomes, including academic achievement [33,43,44,45], life satisfaction [46], and self-esteem [31,47]. For example, with a Canadian sample, Ratelle et al. found that parental autonomy support served as a positive predictor of academic grades [33]. Similarly, within a sample of Chinese adolescents, Li and colleagues found that parental autonomy support was related to academic engagement [44]. Another study by Tan and colleagues found that both paternal and maternal autonomy supports are correlated with reciprocal filial piety, defined as gratitude towards parents, which resulted in higher life satisfaction among adolescents across three main ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese, and Indian) in Malaysia [46]. Cross-culturally, some studies have produced results where patterns of autonomy follow traditional paths of individualism and collectivism. For example, the results of Chun and MacDermind’s study show that autonomy (individuation) from parents served as a negative predictor of self-esteem among South Korean adolescents [48]. In contrast, Bush found that autonomy from parents was a positive predictor of self-esteem for both Mainland Chinese and European American adolescents [31]. A recent study testing components of self-determination theory found that autonomy support from teachers was important to the reading achievement of adolescents from both collectivistic (Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Shanghai, and South Korea) and individualistic (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and USA) countries [45].

1.5. Conformity to Parental Expectations

Conformity to parental expectations refers to the extent to which adolescents follow their parents’ expectations for behavior and values, including personal (e.g., dating/relationships), educational, career, and family goals. The extent to which conformity is socialized, valued, and predictive of positive outcomes is likely to vary both within and across cultures [31,32,49]. For example, within the US, Allen and colleagues reported that adolescent conformity to parental expectations was linked to lower peer acceptance and lower social competence [49]. However, other scholars suggest that moderate adolescent conformity to parental expectations is a fairly common expectation and associated with positive adolescent development [32,50]. Following notions of collectivism, Asian parents tend to value conformity and socialize their children to conform to their expectations [31,51,52,53]. As highlighted by Kim and Markus, individuals in East Asian countries desire to and actively conform to expectations to promote harmony and closeness to others rather than simply conforming because of social pressure or shame [51]. Moreover, East Asian socialization processes often emphasize internalizing parental expectations, thus taking parental expectations for conformity and making them their own [31,54,55]. For example, Tao and Hong found that Chinese youth who endorse social-oriented achievement motivation, or SOAM, viewed academic achievement as an obligation to parents; thus, following this, conformity to parents’ high expectations for academic achievement is seen as normative and serves to motivate youth [52]. Research using Chinese and US samples has found that conformity to parents was correlated with self-esteem, academic outcomes, and lower problem behaviors [31,56,57]. For example, cross-cultural research published in 2000 reported that conformity to parental expectations was positively related to self-esteem among European American adolescents and teens living in Mainland China [31]. These findings are consistent with more recent research with Chinese samples, where Shen found that adolescent conformity to parental expectations was positively correlated to academic motivation [56], and Wang et al. found that adolescent conformity to parental expectations was negatively correlated with substance abuse, thus potentially serving as a protective factor [57].

1.6. Familism

Most cultures place the family at the center of society and socialize their children to value families. The importance that adolescents place on their families has been found to be associated with several positive outcomes, including academic achievement and self-esteem [20,37,38,39,58]. The conceptualization and measurement of familism vary across ethnic and cultural groups [59,60]. Common definitions include placing family needs and interests over individual needs and interests, as well as family loyalty and filial piety. Instruments vary from single items assessing the importance of family, family relationships, family name, etc., to multiple scales assessing several dimensions, such as work by Yang and colleagues and Yeh and Yang [60,61] on the Familistic Cognition Scale, the Familistic Affection Scale, and the Familistic Intention Scale. In the present study, we used the basic five-item Bardis Familism Scale [62] and will thus follow the scale’s emphasis on placing family interests, needs, and goals over those of the individual as the definition for the current study.

Familism is especially important among particular cultural groups, including Latinx and Asian cultures [37,39]. For example, Bi and colleagues [37] reported that Chinese adolescents’ perceptions of family obligation values served as a direct predictor of three assessments of academic adjustment. This finding is consistent with research and theory related to cultural values among East Asians, where Confucian values are common and also place the family in high regard and socialize children to value and contribute to the family [59,60]. Overall, familism has been found to foster positive adolescent outcomes, including academic achievement among Chinese [37,56], Canadian [39], Korean [63], and Latino [38] adolescents, as well as psychological competence in China [64].

2. Methods

Extant data from the Cross-National Study of Adolescents (CNSA) were utilized. The CNSA is a large cross-sectional adolescent report survey conducted in 11 different countries between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. Although assessing parental behaviors directly from parents, and adolescent behaviors directly from adolescents, would be the ideal approach as this avoids the potential issue of common method variance, this was not possible because of budgetary constraints. One method of simplifying the study to make it feasible was to focus only on adolescents’ perceptions of their own behaviors (e.g., self-reported grades, autonomy and familism), as well as those of their parents (e.g., parenting behavior). A reasonable methodological assumption is to expect that aspects of teen’s self-perceptions would just as likely (if not perhaps even more likely) to be influenced by their own constructions of reality than would their parent’s conceptions of the same phenomenon [47].

For the purposes of the present study, we focused only on samples from Asian Countries, specifically Mainland China, India, and South Korea. All data were gathered from adolescents attending a range of public schools in large urban areas in each country. Large urban centers were targeted to help maintain a similar context in each country, given the wide variations in rural settings across countries. In all countries, data was collected during class time by trained teachers or research assistants after obtaining parental consent following the approved Institutional Review Board (IRB). The larger survey was slightly different in each country and consisted of additional scales not used in the present study, including assessments of self-efficacy (India), problem behavior, and depression (China and South Korea). However, all of the instruments and items used in the present study were consistent across all three countries, and the overall survey took participants approximately 30–45 min to complete.

The Chinese data were collected in the early 2000s in Hangzhou, China, which is a large urban area in southern China. Six hundred adolescents were invited to participate in the survey from the participating schools. The sample consisted of 589 adolescents (336 females, 224 males, and 29 who did not report their gender) ranging in age from 12 to 19 years. Participants ranged from 7th to 12th grade, with a mean of grade 10. The majority (74% or n = 440) of adolescents reported that their parents were married, with an average level of education being “some high school” for mothers and between “some high school” and “completed high school or “The General Education Development Diploma (GED)” (i.e., completed their country’s alternative to traditional high school graduation) for fathers. The highest parental education attained ranged from “some grade school” (4% of fathers; 6.6% of mothers) through to the completion of “graduate degree” (0.7% of fathers; and 0.2% of mothers).

The Indian data were collected in the late 1990s in Hyderabad, India. Hyderabad is the largest and the capital city in the state of Telangana and the capital of Andhra Pradesh, and the fourth largest city in India. Five hundred adolescents were invited to participate in the survey from the participating schools. The sample consisted of 463 adolescents (166 females, 296 males, and one who did not report their gender) ranging in age from 12 to 19 years. Participants ranged from 7th to 12th grade, with a mean of 10th grade. Most (97.5% or n = 430) of the adolescents reported that their parents were married. The mean level of education was between “completed high school” and “completed high school and technical training” for mothers. For paternal education levels, the mean was between “some college’ and “completed college.” The highest parental education attained ranged from “some grade school” (7.3%) to “completed graduate work (8.9%) for mothers and “some grade school (2.5%); through to completion of “college degree” (21.1%) for fathers.

The South Korean data were collected in the early 2000s within the Seoul metropolitan area. Three hundred adolescents were invited to participate in the survey from the participating schools. The sample consisted of 274 adolescents (117 females and 149 males) ranging in age from 14 to 17 years. All participants were in the 10th grade at the time of the survey. The majority (92% or n = 242) of adolescents reported that their parents were married, with a mean level of education being “completed high school or GED)” for mothers and between “completed high school or GED” and “completed high school and also some other training, but not college” for fathers. The highest parental education attained ranged from “some grade school” (0.4%) to “some graduate work (0.4%) for mothers and “completed grade school (3.5%); 6.6% through to completion of “graduate degree” (1.2%) for fathers.

The questionnaire for the CNSA consisted of items that assessed adolescent outcomes, as well as characteristics of the relationship between participating adolescents and their parents. All of the instruments used here have a long history of valid and reliable use [65]. The surveys were translated into Mandarin for the Chinese sample and into Korean for the South Korean sample by the method of back translation to ensure accurate and culturally appropriate translations. Because of the prevalence of English as the language of instruction, the participants in India were administered the English language version of the survey.

2.1. Measurement

The questionnaire for the study consisted of items that assessed characteristics of the relationship between the participating adolescents and their parents. For the purpose of the present study, adolescent’s reports of their mothers served as the focus. The participants responded to items for each of the independent variables (e.g., parenting behaviors, autonomy, conformity, and academic orientation) in terms of a four-point Likert scale that varies from “Strongly Agree” (4) to “Strongly Disagree” (1). Demographic items included age, gender, and parental education. The method of utilizing educational attainment as a measurement of socioeconomic status, which was used in this study, has been found to be a reliable predictor of social class [66].

2.2. Autonomy

A ten-item scale assessing the growth of adolescent self-direction in reference to parents [31,32,67] was used to assess adolescents’ perceptions of their autonomy in relation to their mothers or maternal figures. This adolescent autonomy scale has demonstrated good reliability and validity within culturally diverse samples [68]. For example, Supple and colleagues conducted a study in 2009 where they found this scale demonstrated strong factor loadings, item equivalence and functional equivalence across the four cultures examined (China, India, Mexico and the U.S.), as well as construct validity [68]. These items measure the extent to which adolescents perceive their mothers as allowing them to make their own decisions and engage in activities without excessive intrusion regarding choices about friendships, lifestyle preferences, clothing selection, educational goals, and career plans. The sample items from this scale include the following: “This parent allows me to choose my own friends without interfering too much” and “This parent allows me to decide what is right and wrong without interfering too much.” Cronbach alphas demonstrated adequate reliability within the present sample, with Cronbach’s alphas of 0.78.

2.3. Conformity

Adolescents’ reports of conformity to mothers were assessed by a nine-item scale measuring whether adolescents conformed to parental values, beliefs, and expectations about leisure time activities, friends, dating, education, and careers [31,32,67]. This parental conformity scale was developed based on theory and previous research [67,69] and has demonstrated good reliability and validity within culturally diverse samples [31,32,67]. For example, studies have examined factor analytical work [67] and construct validity, finding the conformity scale to be correlated with theoretically related constructs [31,32]. The sample items include the following: “If this parent wanted me to go around with a particular group of friends, then I would do what this parent wants me to do” and “Generally speaking, I believe that I do most things in the way that this parent wants me to.” Cronbach alphas were acceptable within the present sample, with 0.83 for conformity to mothers.

2.4. Adolescent Familism

The extent to which the adolescents perceived themselves as having a strong orientation toward the family was assessed with the five items based on previous scales, including the Bardis Familism Scale [62]. The familism scale used here focuses on the extent to which family interests take precedence over personal interests related to career, residence, and friendships. This particular scale has been used in culturally diverse samples and found to be reliable and demonstrate evidence of validity within a sample of adolescents in Mexico (e.g., positive correlation with parental authority [70]), and a sample of Armenian Adolescents in the US (e.g., positively correlated with conformity to parents within an Armenian American sample [71]). Sample items include “Family responsibility should be more important than my career plans in the future” and “Family ties are more important than friendships outside the family”. This scale demonstrated slightly lower than acceptable reliability (i.e., below 0.7) based on a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.64.

2.5. Parental Behaviors

The maternal parenting behaviors examined in this study were assessed with the Parent Behavior Measure (PBM), a 34-item self-report instrument used in previous studies that measure adolescents’ perceptions of several supportive and controlling dimensions of behavior that mothers and fathers use with adolescents [32,47,67,72]. Specific dimensions assessed in the present analyses include parental support, involvement, permissiveness, positive induction, knowledge/monitoring, guilt induction, love withdrawal, and punitiveness. Peterson and colleagues discuss the development of the PBM [67], including factor analytic studies, which began using items from existing instruments. Scales within this instrument have been found to demonstrate good reliability and validity among culturally diverse samples [65,73]. For example, Supple and colleagues conducted a study in 2004 examining the validity of several key scales from the PBM within a sample of adolescents from mainland China [65]. More specifically they found that parental support, monitoring (knowledge) and autonomy granting demonstrated a high level of construct validity through significant and large factor loadings, significant correlations with theoretically related criterion measures. On the other hand, punitive parenting and love withdrawal demonstrated only a few significant correlations for criterion measures, indicating that these subscales might not be as robust within a sample of Chinese adolescents. However, given that we are exploring parenting within three unique Asian cultures, we included parental punitiveness, love withdrawal, guild induction, permissiveness, involvement and positive induction (parental reasoning) to provide a broader scope of potential parenting behaviors.

2.6. Parental Support

The extent to which adolescents perceived their mothers as being supportive (e.g., accepting, warm, approving, nurturing) was assessed by four items for mothers. Items include the following: “This parent seems to approve of me and the things that I do” and “This parent has made me feel that he or she would be there if I needed him or her.” Cronbach’s alphas were within an acceptable range (0.71) across the Chinese, Indian, and South Korean samples.

2.7. Parental Involvement

The extent to which adolescents perceived their mothers as enjoying time and spending time with them was assessed by two items. Items include “This parent enjoys doing things with me” and “This parent shares many activities with me.” Examination of Cronbach’s alpha indicated that this scale was reliable (0.74) across the samples.

2.8. Parental Positive Induction

Adolescents’ perceptions of their mothers employing positive induction or reasoning were assessed using five items for mothers [70]. Example items include “This parent explains to me how I should feel when I do what is right” and “This parent tells me how good others feel when I do what is right.” Cronbach’s alphas were within an acceptable range (0.83) across the Chinese, Indian, and South Korean samples.

2.9. Parental Guilt Induction

The extent to which adolescents perceived their mothers as employing methods that induce guilt was assessed by three items [70]. Example items include “This parent tells me that I will be sorry that I wasn’t better behaved” and “This parent tells me about all of the things that he or she has done for me.” Cronbach’s alphas were 0.58 (below the acceptable range of 0.70) across the Chinese, Indian, and South Korean samples, respectively.

2.10. Parental Love Withdrawal

The extent to which adolescents perceived their mothers as employing methods that withdraw parental love/affection was assessed by three items. Example items include “This parent tells me that if I loved him or her, I would do what he or she wants me to do” and “This parent will not talk to me when I displease him or her.” Examination of Cronbach’s alpha indicated that this scale was not very reliable across the sample at 0.43.

2.11. Parental Permissiveness

The extent to which adolescents perceived their mothers as being permissive when it came to discipline/control was assessed by three items. Examples include “This parent usually lets me do anything I want to do” and “This parent allows me to be out on my own as often as it pleases me.” Examination of Cronbach’s alpha indicated that this scale has acceptable reliability (0.72) across the sample.

2.12. Parental Punitiveness

Parental punitiveness was assessed using eight items, measuring the perception that mothers use excessive and coercive control attempts. Examples include “This parent hits me when he or she thinks I am doing something wrong” and “This parent yells at me a lot without good reason.” This subscale showed adequate reliability (0.85) across the Chinese, Indian, and South Korean samples.

2.13. Parental Knowledge

As a proxy for monitoring, parental knowledge was measured by a six-items subscale from the Parent Behavior Scale [67] that was intended to capture the extent to which mothers were perceived as knowing the ways that adolescents spend their free time and money, and how they relate to their friends. Example items include “This parent knows where I am after school,” “I tell this parent who I am going to be with when I go out.” and “When I go out, this parent knows where I am.” This subscale showed adequate reliability for mothers (0.79) across the Chinese, Indian, and South Korean samples.

2.14. Self-Reported Grade Point Average (GPA)

Adolescents responded to the question, “Which of the following best describes the grades you are getting in school.” Responses ranged from “0” to “4” points and were coded as “4” points for the highest possible response (mostly A’s) and “0” points for the lowest possible response (mostly F’s). Previous studies have found adolescents’ reports of their grades highly correlated with their actual grades [20].

3. Analyses and Results

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for each response and parenting behavior by country.

Response	China		India		South Korea
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Self-Reported GPA	2.17	1.00	3.03	0.98	2.60	0.96
Predictors	China		India		South Korea
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Autonomy	2.99	0.46	3.08	0.49	2.95	0.55
Familism	2.71	0.52	3.06	0.56	2.78	0.54
Conformity	2.32	0.46	3.02	0.55	2.25	0.46
Positive Induction	2.95	0.56	3.30	0.58	2.51	0.68
Parental Support	2.85	0.56	3.28	0.57	2.79	0.63
Permissiveness	2.55	0.71	2.17	0.72	2.71	0.71
Punitiveness	2.00	0.62	2.19	0.79	1.94	0.55
Guilt Induction	2.38	0.70	2.25	0.70	2.41	0.67
Love Withdrawal	2.08	0.62	2.37	0.60	2.01	0.64
Parental Involvement	2.50	0.77	3.13	0.72	2.45	0.74
Parental Monitoring	2.76	0.60	3.20	0.57	2.60	0.56

provides the means and standard deviation for the outcome variable of academic achievement (self-reported GPA) and all candidate predictor variables grouped by country. Examination of the results indicates differences between countries; India has noticeably higher averages for conformity to parental expectations, parental support, and parental knowledge. Additionally, the level of positive parental induction differs across the three countries, with parents in India having the highest levels, followed by Chinese parents and South Korean Parents having the lowest levels.

A linear regression model was fit for the self-reported GPA response variable using parenting behaviors (e.g., parenting and components of parent-adolescent relationships), sociodemographic variables (e.g., adolescent age, grade, number of children in the family), and country as predictors. Three models were fit initially: a full model with all candidate variables as predictors, a reduced model with predictors chosen using a stepwise selection procedure using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) as the basis for selection, and an elastic net model with all predictors. Elastic net models combine LASSO and ridge regression to create one regression model that penalizes less useful predictors. Each model was cross-validated using root mean squared error (RMSE), R-square, and mean absolute error (MAE).

The stepwise selection model was chosen as it had the smallest RMSE (0.896) and MAE (0.729) and the largest R-square (0.282) among the three models. Moreover, this model is a significant holistic predictor of self-reported GPA (F = 5.243 on 50 and 778 DF, p-value: <0.0001, Adjusted R-square = 0.204).

Table 2. Final self-reported GPA regression model estimates.

Predictor	β Estimate	SE
(Intercept)	3.164	0.589
Familism	−0.192 *	0.066
Support	0.0126	0.065
Punitiveness	−0.198 *	0.059
Love withdrawal	−0.095	0.058
Parental knowledge	0.236 *	0.063
Age	−0.117 *	0.049
Region: China vs. India	0.873	0.557
Region: China vs. South Korea	0.533 *	0.108

* p < 0.05.

contains the final estimated regression coefficients for the selected independent variables in the self-reported GPA model. Familism, punitiveness, parental knowledge, age of adolescent, and region were statistically significant (p < 0.05) predictors within the self-reported GPA model. It was found that South Korea had significantly higher estimated self-reported GPAs than China (β = 0.533), adjusting for all other predictors. More specifically, adolescent familism, maternal punitive behavior, and age of adolescent were significant negative predictors of adolescent self-reported GPA, meaning that higher levels of familism and maternal punitiveness were associated with lower self-reported GPAs. Similarly, the age of adolescents was significantly negatively associated with adolescent self-reported GPA, meaning that older adolescents tended to have lower self-reported GPAs. On the other hand, maternal knowledge (an indicator of monitoring) was a positive predictor of adolescent self-reported GPA. See

Table 3. Comparison of full linear model, variable selected linear model, and Elastic net model for mother behaviors on adolescent’s self-reported GPA.

	Full Linear Model	Select Linear Model	Elastic Model
RMSE	0.8952756	0.8955400	0.9259322
R-squared	0.2858330	0.2815815	0.2322743
MAE	0.7296706	0.7289644	0.7527530

for comparison of fit indices across the three models.

4. Discussion

Although there are plenty of studies examining the role of parents in facilitating adolescent academic achievement, such as through school and homework involvement, the purpose of this study was to shed some light on a less researched area. That is, how parents in general—compared to direct assistance strategies such as help with homework and school involvement—contribute to adolescents’ academic achievement within and across non-Western cultures [6] through their everyday parenting behaviors and parent-adolescent relationships. Consistent with previous literature, there were various predictors of adolescent academic achievement [2,18,19]. The only positive predictors of academic achievement were parental knowledge (a proxy for monitoring) and region (South Korea compared to China). For maternal knowledge, this finding suggests that the knowledge of adolescents’ whereabouts, friends, activities, etc., that mothers gain from monitoring their adolescent’s behavior is a fairly robust predictor of adolescent achievement among the three Asian cultures. This finding is consistent with the established relationship between parental monitoring or parental knowledge and adolescents’ adjustment throughout the literature, including academic achievement [10,74]. This suggests that adolescents are overall more successful when their mothers are aware of their activities and friends.

We also found some interesting cultural differences, with the South Korean model being significantly higher than the Chinese model-related self-reported GPA. The mean level of self-reported GPA for the Indian sample was also higher compared to China; however, there was no statistically significant difference. Although several studies are comparing average academic achievement across countries, we could not locate any that included data from mainland China [75]. However, in an examination of the 2024 and 2025 rankings of educational systems internationally, the South Korean educational system was ranked 1, and China’s system was ranked 13th, which aligns with our findings. In contrast, India’s educational system was ranked 101 [76]. The educational systems of China and South Korea share some similarities, such as both being based on Confucianism; however, there are also many differences, such as China experiencing higher levels of disparities in education across regions/cities compared to South Korea [77].

There were also several negative predictors of adolescents’ self-reported grade point average, the extent to which mothers were viewed as being punitive in their discipline negatively impacted adolescents’ self-reported GPAs. This finding is consistent with expectations and findings from previous research where harsh and punitive parenting behaviors undermine adolescents’ positive outcomes, including self-reported GPA and other indicators of academic achievement [22,23]. The age of adolescents was also a significant negative predictor of self-reported GPA, which is consistent with previous research findings that improvement in academic achievement among adolescents slows during late adolescence [78].

A surprising finding is that adolescents’ sense of familism served as a significant negative predictor of adolescents’ self-reported GPA, which is the opposite of what we expected based on the literature in this area [37]. In this case, across all three cultural groups, the extent to which adolescents viewed their family as being more important than their individual goals, the lower their self-reported GPAs were. However, this is consistent with a recent study by Chun and Devall [79], where they found that “Familismo” served as a negative predictor of self-reported grades among a sample of Latinx high school students in the U.S. There are several possible explanations for this unexpected finding. A seemingly obvious explanation is that adolescents’ loyalty to their families decreases academic achievement (self-reported GPA) among adolescents. That is, a push toward the family may interfere with adolescents’ school performance [79]. Another possible explanation is that the Bardis [62] measure of familism used here is not nuanced enough to tap into the type of familism or familistic values that apply to these families living in collectivistic cultures. Another related explanation might be rooted in generational differences in cultural values. Previous research has found that the younger generation endorses both collectivistic and individualistic values [31,80] and has been found to have lower collectivistic values than their parents [80]. Perhaps, in this case, they are becoming more individualistic than their parents. Following this, the contrast in their parents or family’s cultural values compared to their own might be oriented as such that adolescents experience this narrow view of their family’s values as impeding their personal achievement.

Although selected in the analysis, maternal support and autonomy of mothers did not significantly predict adolescent academic achievement. Given previous research using Western measures within Asian cultures [47], it is not unheard of that these measures of support do not always work in non-Western cultures. For example, it is likely that support is more complex than measured here, such as including aspects of child training [54]. Similarly, although autonomy from parents has been found to be related to adolescent academic achievement [33,43,44,45], it was not a significant predictor here. One possible reason is that general behavioral autonomy, as measured here, is not associated with school achievement as much as emotional autonomy or autonomy support (not measured here).

5. Conclusions, Practical Implications, Limitations, and Direction for Future Research

In conclusion, our findings highlight both similarities and differences in how adolescents from China, South Korea, and India perceived maternal influence on their academic achievement. The extent to which adolescents perceived their mothers as being aware of their activities and whereabouts served to facilitate academic achievement across all three cultural groups. Similarly, the extent to which both adolescent endorsement of familistic values and maternal punitive parenting behavior were negatively correlated with academic achievement was found across all three groups. These findings provide more evidence for the importance of parental knowledge (monitoring) and the detrimental effects of parental punitive behaviors across Chinese, South Korean, and Indian parent-adolescent relationships. This study provides valuable empirical evidence from three Asian cultures (China, South Korea, and India), addressing a significant gap in academic achievement research that has been predominantly Western-focused. For example, it highlights similarities and differences across these three distinctively different Asian groups, including the importance of parental knowledge (monitoring) across groups. Although conceptualizations of parental support do not always work across cultures, parental knowledge (as a proxy for monitoring) seems to be a robust predictor across these three Asian groups, which is an important finding that has practical implication the design of intervention programs, etc. Lastly, the findings highlight the potential negative impact of familism (i.e., should these correlational findings be confirmed through longitudinal assessment), or at least components of familism (e.g., valuing one’s family over one’s own achievement), on the academic achievement of Chinese, South Korean, and Indian adolescents. This last finding highlights the importance of considering the multidimensionality of familism and how some of these components might interfere with individual achievement.

The findings of this study have several practical implications, particularly for parents, educators, and policymakers aiming to support adolescent academic achievement across diverse cultural contexts. One of the key takeaways is the importance of parental knowledge, particularly maternal knowledge, of adolescents’ daily activities, friendships, and whereabouts. This suggests that interventions aimed at fostering parental involvement should emphasize monitoring strategies that facilitate open communication and awareness rather than solely focusing on direct academic assistance. Parenting programs and school initiatives could include workshops that educate parents on effective ways to stay informed about their children’s lives without being overly intrusive. Given the cultural variations and regional differences in academic performances, policymakers should also consider addressing systemic disparities within educational systems to ensure more equitable access to quality education.

Another practical implication is the negative impact of punitive discipline and an intense sense of familism in relation to academic achievement. Harsh disciplinary practices negatively impacting self-reported GPA suggest the need for parental education on alternative and supportive discipline strategies that encourage academic success. Schools and community organizations could offer training programs on positive discipline techniques that balance structure with emotional support. Additionally, the negative relationship between familism and self-reported GPA suggests a need to reconsider how cultural values intersect with academic motivation. Future research and educational initiatives should explore how to balance family loyalty with personal academic goals, potentially by integrating culturally responsive teaching approaches that help adolescents navigate these dual expectations. The findings in this paper also highlight the importance of culturally specific research and interventions tailored to the unique social and educational contexts of different regions.

This study is not without its limitations. First, the cross-sectional nature of the data forgo the ability to assess causality. Additionally, although the data were collected from multiple public schools within selected regions of each country, without the use of probability sampling, we have less confidence in the representativeness and generalizability. All of the measures we used in the current study were created within Western (U.S.) samples. Thus, we cannot be sure that these are the best measures for capturing these complex constructs within other cultural groups, and we must be cautious when generalizing the findings. However, the current findings provide some initial support that most of the instruments were reliable within the current sample, although certainly not all. More specifically, the familism scale was not very reliable within the present sample (i.e., familism = 0.64). Additionally, two of the PBM subscales (guilt induction = 0.58 and love withdrawal = 0.43) were also not very reliable, which likely impacted the results.

Additionally, the age range of our sample was broad (12–19), but with fewer participants in the higher and lower age/grade ranges, and some differences in range across countries (e.g., South Korea’s range was only 14–17 with all being sophomores). Thus the negative relationship we found between adolescent age and self-reported GPA likely reflect these discrepancies rather than a developmental age difference in self-reported GPA, which is beyond the scope of this paper. Lastly, these data were gathered in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, and society has certainly experienced many changes that likely influence parent–adolescent relationships. Since these data were collected, the accessibility and reliance on the internet and related technology have increased dramatically. Over the years, access to and use of smartphones, social media, video games, and related technology have been added to parent–adolescent relationships, and parents and teens have had to adjust their relationships to accommodate these new technological advances [81]. Thus, although the parent–adolescent relationships are still very relevant, specific strategies and related expectations have likely changed over time, especially related to technological advances (e.g., the availability of electronic monitoring through cell phones and related devices). Considering these limitations and the role of familism, we encourage future researchers to examine these relationships via longitudinal probability samples using indigenous measures of the constructs (e.g., such as including child training), as well as assessment of adherence to cultural values, rather than assuming this connection through the country of origin. Additionally, we recommend that future researchers include an assessment of parental school involvement and homework help (as well as other direct influences) to allow for the assessment of the role of general parenting over and above that of direct parental involvement in adolescents’ academic achievement.