A Meta-analysis of the Relationships between Chinese Parenting Styles and Child Academic Achievement

Abstract

This article aimed to examine the relationships between Chinese parenting styles and child academic achievement through a meta-analytical review. After literature screening, 54 studies and 793 independent effect sizes that met the inclusion criteria were incorporated into the analysis (n = 24630). According to the results of the study, positive parenting styles like “emotional warmth and understanding” had prominent beneficial effects on child academic achievement, whilst negative ones such as “punishment and harshness”, “overinvolvement and overprotection”, “preference for the subject”, “rejection and denial”) were significantly unfavorable for child academic performance. In addition, the relation between parental overinvolvement and overprotection and child academic achievement was moderated by parental roles. Children’s ages could moderate the relationships between parenting styles (except for overinvolvement and overprotection) and child academic results. The connection between parental preference for the subject and child academic achievement was moderated by disciplines. The effects of parents’ emotional warmth and understanding as well as overinvolvement and overprotection were moderated by times.