Linking Maternal Educational Involvement to Early Adolescent Academic Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Maternal Authoritativeness

This cross-sectional study examined the association of maternal educational involvement with early adolescent academic adjustment and tested maternal authoritativeness as a moderator. Participants were 665 senior elementary school students (52% were boys; mean age = 10.54 years; age range = 9.08–14.83) from Hong Kong, China. Using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, students rated their mothers’ home-based involvement (i.e., support and encouragement, expectations and attitudes, and rules and monitoring) and school-based involvement (i.e., communication with teachers and participation in school events) as well as their mothers’ overall authoritativeness. Students also rated their own academic adjustment (i.e., motivation, skills, and competence). Hierarchical regressions indicated that maternal support and encouragement were uniquely linked to early adolescent academic skills, whereas maternal rules and monitoring were uniquely linked to early adolescent academic motivation and competence. Moreover, especially for students with authoritative mothers, maternal expectations and attitudes were uniquely linked to academic motivation, skills, and competence, and maternal communication with teachers was uniquely linked to early adolescent academic skills and competence. Findings highlighted the importance of conceptualizing parental educational involvement and adolescent academic adjustment as multidimensional constructs and differentiating between parenting practices versus parenting styles. Practically, interventionists and policy makers may consider targeting both maternal educational involvement and maternal authoritativeness as possible ways to promote early adolescent academic adjustment.