Development and validation of the adolescents' perceptions of parental involvement scale in China.

INTRODUCTION

Given the increasing academic pressures associated with intensified social competition, the role of parental involvement in education has emerged as a pivotal research area, especially within the context of Chinese culture. However, there remains a need to further delineate the characteristic dimensions of parental involvement and to develop appropriate measurement tools to quantify such involvements. By the perspective from adolescents' reports, this study proposed a psychometric and theoretical framework for understanding Chinese adolescents' perceptions to their parental involvement.

METHODS

We adopted a mixed-methods approach across three studies. In Study 1, we conducted structural interviews with adolescents aged 12 to 18, applying grounded theory to analyze their perceptions of parental involvement. Study 2 involved the creation and refinement of a measurement questionnaire through exploratory factor analysis. Study 3 validated these dimensions through confirmatory factor analysis and criterion-related validity tests on national samples.

RESULTS

Study 1 identified four preliminary characteristic dimensions of perceived parental involvement: emotional involvement, academic involvement, life involvement, and social involvement. In Study 2, we developed a four-dimensional 21-item questionnaire showing high conceptional validity. Study 3 demonstrated strong reliability and construct validity for this questionnaire across different samples.

DISCUSSION

This research provides a new understanding of the characteristic dimensions of adolescents' perceptions of parental involvement and introduces an effective measurement tool.