Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310085, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 13;20(4):3279. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20043279.
Although educational development of youths can profoundly affect their other domains of health and well-being across later life trajectories, little research has investigated the prolonged effects of family and individual contexts of youths in middle-school years, a most critical developmental and formative stage, on their educational achievement in middle-aged adulthood. The current study employed data of a nationwide representative sample of middle-school youth students in the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) to examine how grade-7 parental support for college education, family SES, and educational expectations of youths contribute to their educational achievement in adulthood of mid-thirties through their development of grade-8 academic commitment and grade-9 educational performance in terms of English, mathematics, science, and social studies grade scores. Results based on structural equation modeling of longitudinal relationship found that grade-7 parental support for college education, family SES, and educational expectations of youths had significant and direct effects on youths' higher educational achievement in adulthood, and youths' grade-8 academic commitment and grade-9 educational performance significantly mediated the effects of grade-7 family SES, parental support for college education, and educational expectations of youths on their educational achievement in adulthood respectively and/or concurrently. Furthermore, interaction analysis supported the promotive but not buffering effects of grade-7 educational expectations of youths by family SES on their grade-9 educational performance and educational achievement in adulthood. Implications related to the important findings of the current study pertaining to educational development of youths are discussed.
虽然青少年的教育发展可以深刻影响他们在以后生活轨迹中的其他健康和福祉领域，但很少有研究调查青少年中学时期的家庭和个人背景对他们中年时期教育成就的长期影响，这是一个至关重要的发展和形成阶段。本研究利用美国青年纵向研究（LSAY）中全国代表性的中学青年学生数据，考察了七年级时父母对大学教育的支持、家庭社会经济地位（SES）以及青少年的教育期望如何通过他们在八年级的学业承诺和九年级的英语、数学、科学和社会研究成绩来促进他们在中年时期的教育成就。基于纵向关系的结构方程模型的结果表明，七年级时父母对大学教育的支持、家庭 SES 和青少年的教育期望对他们成年后的高等教育成就有显著的直接影响，而青少年在八年级的学业承诺和九年级的教育表现分别和/或同时显著中介了七年级家庭 SES、父母对大学教育的支持和青少年的教育期望对他们成年后教育成就的影响。此外，交互分析支持了青少年的教育期望通过家庭 SES 对他们在九年级的教育表现和成年后的教育成就的促进作用，而不是缓冲作用。本研究的重要发现与青少年教育发展相关，讨论了与之相关的意义。
