AUTHOR=Zhao Lie , Zhao Wenlong 

TITLE=Impacts of family environment on adolescents’ academic achievement: The role of peer interaction quality and educational expectation gap

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911959

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911959

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=The current study draws on a two-wave longitudinal survey, this study explores the influence mechanism of family environment on adolescents' academic achievement, family environment is measured by parents and children’s reports, including family atmosphere, parent-child interaction and family rules, to reveal the mediating effect of adolescents' positive or negative peers between family environment and academic achievement, and whether the gap between self and parental educational expectation plays a moderating effect. This study uses the data of the China Education Panel Study (CEPS), the survey samples include 9,449 eighth-grade students (Mage = 13.55 years, SD = 0.70), establishing a Multilevel Moderated Mediating Effect Model. The results showed: (1) Family environment and peer interaction quality can positively predict adolescents' academic achievement. (2) Using the KHB test, peer interaction quality plays a partial mediating role in the process of family environment positively affecting academic achievement, and the mediating ratio is 17.9%. (3) Educational expectation gap moderates the effect of family environment on academic achievement, and also moderates the effect of family environment on peer interaction quality. Therefore, from the perspective of environment and important others, to correctly grasp the academic achievement of junior high school students in the process of socialization, it is necessary to recognize that family environment, peer interaction quality and educational expectation gap play an important role.