Meaningful Changes Matter: Latent Transitions of Parental Involvement and their Effects on Adolescents’ Mental Health

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Unforgetting Family Wisdom: Immigrant Journeys, Engagement, and Educational Futures

Abstract

Both families and schools critically shape adolescent development, making home-school collaboration vital. Analyzing longitudinal data from 1702 Chinese parents (4th-8th graders) via latent transition analysis, this study identified five parental involvement profiles in home-school collaboration: distant, average, supportive, decision-focused, and comprehensive. Low/moderate involvement profiles exhibited greater stability than high-involvement ones, with all groups most likely transitioning to the average profile. Adolescents with stable high-quality parental involvement showed optimal mental health. Notably, the minimal mental health gap between improved group and stable high-quality group suggested that enhancing parental engagement quality—regardless of initial levels—positively impacts adolescents. These findings highlight the importance of examining dynamic heterogeneity in parental involvement patterns and their evolving influence on youth mental health development.

Authors

• Yiwen Tang, Beijing Normal University

• Linyuan Deng, Beijing Normal University

• Xiaomei Yu, Panzhihua Experimental School, Sichuan Province, China

• xiaohang luo, Chengdu Normal University