Relation of Academic Support From Parents, Teachers, and Peers to Hong Kong Adolescents' Academic Achievement: The Mediating Role of Academic Engagement

Abstract

The author tested a model hypothesizing that students' self-perceived academic support (from parents, teachers, and peers) is related to their achievement directly and indirectly through their own perceived academic engagement. The participants were 270 adolescents (M age = 15.41 years, range = 14-20 years) from 3 grade levels (Forms 3-5, equivalent to Grades 9-11 in the United States) in a Hong Kong secondary school. The school principal and teachers helped to collect data based on these adolescents' responses to a self-report questionnaire, consisting of a demographic profile and 4 scales assessing their self-perceptions of the extent of parental, teacher, and peer support, and their own academic engagement. Academic achievement was measured by self-reported grades in math, English, and Chinese. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that adolescents' perceived parental, teacher, and peer support were all indirectly related to their academic achievement mediated by their own perceived academic engagement. The strength of the relationships, however, varied by support system, with perceived teacher support to achievement being the strongest, followed closely by perceived parental support, and then perceived peer support. In addition, both perceived parental support and perceived teacher support were directly related to academic achievement. However, perceived teacher support made the most total (direct and indirect) contribution to student achievement. Perceived peer support had the smallest, nonetheless significant, indirect relationship to academic achievement. However, the negative, direct influence of perceived peer support canceled out its positive, indirect influence on academic achievement.

Do girls and boys perceive themselves as equally engaged in school? The results of an international study from 12 countries

“…However, few studies have examined all the three supports in a single study. Chen (2005) is a rare exception in this respect. Examining data from 270 Hong Kong adolescents, Chen found that the effects of these three contextual factors on academic achievement were mediated partially by student engagement.…”

“…That is, student engagement was the mediator in the relations between the three contextual factors and academic achievement. However, gender differences were not examined in Chen (2005). To increase educators' understanding of the gender gap in academic achievement, it is important to explore whether this partial mediation model could be replicated for both genders across countries.…”

“…The need for connectedness and belonging is universal across cultures, and the fulfillment of this need provides students with the required emotional security for active engagement in school. A cursory reading of the literature shows that support from teachers, parents, and peers facilitates student engagement in school (e.g., Chen, 2005;Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1997;Skinner & Belmont, 1993;Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992;Wentzel, 1998).…”

“…The other one examined gender as a moderator for the relation between contextual supports and academic performance. Fourth, to investigate whether teacher, parent, and peer support have similar or different indirect effects on student engagement for boys and girls, multiple-group structural equation modeling was performed to examine whether the partial mediation model proposed by Chen (2005) applied equally well to both genders. The answer for the first question can be hypothesized from the existing literature.…”

“…To test if the partial mediation model proposed by Chen (2005) fits equally well for girls and boys, LISREL 8.8 (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 2007) was used to perform a multiple-group structural equation modeling analysis with the specifications that all the paths in Fig. 2 were equivalent across both gender groups.…”