Development and Validation of the Academic Parenting Scale for Chinese Parents of Primary School Students

This study aimed to develop and validate the Academic Parenting Scale (APS) to measure parents' academic parenting behaviors in Chinese cultural context. Two samples of participants were recruited to complete a set of questionnaires, including 1400 parents and 347 students in grades 4-6 from one primary school in Fuzhou as well as 362 parents from different areas of China. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and correlation analysis were primarily used to analyze the data. The CFA showed that the APS had good factorial validity with a four-factor structure. Moreover, the high level of Cronbach's alphas indicated the acceptable internal consistency of the APS. We obtained the significant correlations between APS's four factors and relevant parenting behaviors in general domain. Also, Parental Warmth, Behavioral Control and Autonomy Support were positively associated with parental academic involvement, children's academic mastery-oriented behaviors and academic performance, as well as academic autonomous motivation, while Parental Psychological Control was negatively related to the variables as expected. In conclusion, this study provided support for the APS as an effective tool for assessing parents' academic parenting behaviors in the Chinese culture.