Parental involvement, adolescents' self-determined learning and academic achievement in Urban China

Self-determined learning is essential to academic success. The motivational resources development model argues that parents promote academic success in their children indirectly by nurturing self-determined learner. In this study, applying a structural equation modelling and using data collected from 8th graders in Zhuhai, China (n=1009) in 2012, we aim to answer 2 research questions: (a) What forms of parental involvement are highly correlated with self-determined learning and (b) Can self-determined learning fully mediate the relationship between parental involvement and students' academic performance? We find that parental leisure involvement is positively and significantly associated with the development of self-determined learning, which in turn is significantly and positively correlated with academic achievement. Parental provision of structure or parental academic assistance is not significantly associated with students' self-regulation and students' academic achievement.