Given the competitive nature of China’s education system, Chinese parents may experience educational anxiety, which can affect their parental involvement—a key factor in student success. From the perspective of parents of middle school students, this study aimed to investigate the relationships between parent-perceived parental educational anxiety and two types of parent-perceived parental involvement: parental daily involvement and parent–child communication. In addition, the study examined the moderating effects of parent-perceived teacher emotional support, parent-perceived academic burden, and parents’ intention to participate in shadow education. Understanding these relationships is crucial for clarifying how parental educational anxiety shapes parental involvement, thereby offering insights into promoting better parent–child interactions and healthier family-school dynamics within competitive academic environments. Utilizing Wenjuanxing, an online survey platform, this study collected cross-sectional data from 2,219 students in Grades 7 to 9 (predominantly aged 12 to 14 years; 52.3% female and 47.7% male) and their parents (71.5% mothers and 28.5% fathers) across nine middle schools in eastern China. To address the research questions, both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were employed. To account for school-level heterogeneity, school fixed effects were incorporated into the regression models. Results indicated that parent-perceived parental educational anxiety was inversely related to parent-perceived parental involvement (parental daily involvement: B = -0.079, p < 0.05; parent-child communication: B = -0.232, p < 0.05). Parent-perceived teacher emotional support was positively associated with parent-perceived parental involvement (parental daily involvement: B = 0.386, p < 0.05; parent-child communication: B = 0.337, p < 0.05). In contrast, parent-perceived academic burden was not related to parent-perceived parental involvement, whereas parents’ intention to participate in shadow education was negatively related to parent-perceived parental involvement (parental daily involvement: B = -0.121, p < 0.05; parent-child communication: B = -0.098, p < 0.05). Moreover, the negative relationships between parental educational anxiety and parental involvement were weaker among parents with a stronger intention to participate in shadow education (parental daily involvement: B = 0.117, p < 0.05; parent-child communication: B = 0.105, p < 0.05). This study advances understanding of the relationship between parent-perceived parental educational anxiety and parent-perceived parental involvement, while underscoring the roles of parent-perceived teacher emotional support, parent-perceived academic burden, and parents’ intention to participate in shadow education. The findings highlight the importance of mitigating parental educational anxiety and enhancing teacher-parent collaboration. In line with China’s “Double Reduction” policy, fostering supportive educational environments may promote parents’ psychological well-being and, in turn, contribute to students’ success.
Liu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.