Mothers’ filial piety and children’s academic achievement: the indirect effect via mother-child discrepancy in perceived parental expectations

In the present study, we investigated the relationships among mothers' filial piety, mother-child discrepancy in perceived parental expectations, and children's academic achievement in 823 Chinese families. The results indicated that mothers' authoritarian filial piety hindered children's academic achievement, whereas reciprocal filial piety had no such effect. Compared to children whose reports of parental expectations were identical with their mothers, children whose reports were higher than their mothers had lower achievement. Mothers' reciprocal filial piety increased the odds of child-reported parental expectations that were lower than mother-reported parental expectations, while authoritarian filial piety increased the odds of child-reported parental expectations that were higher than mother-reported parental expectations. Furthermore, the indirect effect of authoritarian filial piety, via mother-child discrepancy, on academic achievement was significant. These findings highlight the importance of mothers' filial piety and mother-child discrepancy in perceived parental expectations in identifying culture-specific factors that influence academic achievement in China.