Parent-Child Communication About Educational Aspirations: Experiences of Adolescents in Rural China.

RURAL conditions; FATHERS; INTERVIEWING; EXPERIENCE; ACADEMIC achievement; QUALITATIVE research; COMMUNICATION; SCHOOLS; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; PARENT-child relationships; THEMATIC analysis; GOAL (Psychology); PARENTS; EDUCATIONAL attainment; ADOLESCENCE

The importance of parents in the transmission of educational aspirations to children is well-established. However, little is known about the quality of parent-child communication about educational aspirations and how this communication relates to children's educational aspirations in socioeconomically disadvantaged families in rural China. In this study, we sought to gain insight into parent-child communication around educational aspirations from the perspective of Chinese rural adolescents. Twenty-three grade-9 students were recruited from middle schools in Songzi, a poor rural county in central China. Participants comprised 12 boys and 11 girls aged 14 to 16 years (M = 14.65 years, SD = 0.59). Students completed one-to-one qualitative interviews about parent-child communication and their educational aspirations in June 2020. Thematic analysis revealed that adolescents' educational aspirations were strongly influenced by their parents' beliefs and aspirations for them, with fulfilling parental aspirations and achieving economic success being important influences on rural adolescents' educational aspirations. However, parent-child communication quality was undermined when parents had an authoritarian communication style and when parents were absent due to rural-urban migration, in which case adolescents reported stress and perceived lack of support in achieving their goals. In addition, mothers were viewed as playing a more vital role in communication than fathers. The implications of the findings for school and community-based interventions promoting rural parents' ability to communicate effectively with their children about academic concerns are discussed. Highlights: This is the first qualitative study to explore parent-child communication around educational aspirations in Chinese rural families. Adolescents identified fulfilling parental aspirations and achieving economic success as the main influences on their aspirations. An authoritarian parenting style and/or parental absence were related to poor quality parent-child communication. Most rural adolescents reported being stressed and lacking support in achieving their educational goals. Caregivers with an authoritarian style need support to improve their communication skills to positively motivate rural youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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