ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1683211
The influence of parental educational expectations on primary school students' social-emotional competence: the chain mediation effect of peer relationships and academic self-efficacy
Provisionally accepted
- Lishui University, Lishui, China
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Purpose: In the context of deepening educational reform and emphasizing comprehensive development, social-emotional competence is crucial to the growth of primary school students. Parental educational expectations are a core element of the family micro-system, but their influence mechanism has yet to be explored in depth. Based on the ecosystem theory, this study examines the influence of parental educational expectations on primary school students' social-emotional competence, as well as the chain mediation effect of peer relationships and academic self-efficacy. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted on 1,653 primary school students in grades 3 to 5 in Zhejiang Province using an adapted parental educational expectations questionnaire, a primary school students' social-emotional competence questionnaire, a peer relationships questionnaire, and an academic self-efficacy questionnaire. AMOS 28.0 was used to construct and test a chain mediation effect model. Results: The analysis found that parental educational expectations could directly and positively predict primary school students' social-emotional competence (β=0.22, p=0.001, accounting for 28.0%); peer relationships partially mediated the relationship between parental educational expectations and social-emotional competence (β=0.26, p<0.001, accounting for 34.0%); academic self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between parental educational expectations and social-emotional competence (β = 0.19, p < 0.001, accounting for 24.1%); parental educational expectations indirectly affect social-emotional competence through the chain mediation effect of "peer relationships → academic self-efficacy" (β = 0.11, p< 0.001, accounting for 13.9%). Conclusion: Parental educational expectations not only directly promote primary school students' social-emotional competence, but also have an indirect influence through peer relationships, the independent mediating effect of academic self-efficacy, and the chain mediation effect of the two. This study reveals the mechanism of the synergistic effects of family, peers, and individual psychological resources, providing inspiration for educational practice.
Keywords: Primary school students, Parental educational expectations, social-emotionalcompetence, peer relationships, Academic self-efficacy, chain mediation effect
Received: 10 Aug 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Chen, Ma and Lei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Suling Ma, masuling@lsu.edu.cn
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