A Longitudinal Person-Centered Perspective on Academic Self-Concept Among Chinese Migrant Children: Links to Parenting Styles and Achievement

• In Event: Social and Cultural Contexts of Education and Mental Health: Chinese Migrant Families and Immigrant Families

Abstract

The formation of academic self-concept (ASC) is influenced by a variety of sources, such as input from important socializers, and dimensional comparisons (Wan et al., 2021). Dimensional comparisons across the math and verbal domains lead students with a high ability to view themselves as a “math-type” or a “verbal-type” (Franzen et al., 2022). But it's not clear whether the findings can be generalized to disadvantaged students. In China, millions of migrant children who moved to urban cities from rural areas experience various educational inequalities, suggesting unsatisfactory academic performance (Li et al., 2016; Ma et al., 2018). As one of the essential factors influencing academic achievement (Marsh et al., 2005), little is known about what ASC profiles emerge and change among Chinese migrant children. Given the important role that parenting styles play in predicting the ASC profiles, the current study, with a longitudinal person-centered approach, aimed to explore migrant children’s ASC profiles and how the profiles were related to their parenting styles and academic achievement.
Adopting a three-time longitudinal research design, the current study investigate 771 4th grade migrant children in Nanjing and Shanghai within a year. Parents reported their parenting styles at time one, and migrant children repeatedly reported their ASC in math and Chinese in class at each of the three timeslots. Students’ final examination scores in the subjects of Chinese and mathematics were obtained from school records at each time point. Latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis were used to explore the possible subtypes of migrant children's ASC and the transitions between different subtypes over three time points. Multiple logistic regressions and variance analysis were used to examine how different ASC subtypes were related to parenting styles and their math and Chinese achievement.
The results showed that a) migrant children had three different subgroups of ASC, namely, low mathematics ASC group, high mathematics ASC group, and generally-moderate ASC group. b) The three groups were relatively stable as time passed. Specifically, from time 1 to time 2, 63.4% of the migrant children remained in the same ASC profiles; from time 2 to time 3, 75.9% of the migrant children remained in the same ASC profiles. c) Only authoritative parenting predicted migrant children’s memberships in more desirable ASC profiles, such as high mathematics ASC group and/or generally-moderate ASC group. d) Membership in the high mathematics ASC group showed the highest math achievement. Membership in the generally-moderate ASC group showed the middle level of math and Chinese achievement. In contrast, low mathematics ASC group membership demonstrated the lowest math and Chinese achievement.
To sum up, this study revealed the heterogeneity of migrant children’s ASC, especially in the mathematics domain. Migrant children with authoritative parenting were more likely to stay in the high mathematics and/or generally-moderate ASC groups. These children are more likely to show better math and Chinese achievement.

Authors

• Lina Geng, Nanjing XiaoZhuang University
  Presenting Author

• Chen Chen, Nanjing Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author