Parental Academic Socialization: Exploring Its Association with Adolescent Learning Engagement

Learning disengagement among middle and high school students is a significant concern, with far-reaching implications for individual development. Grounded in the Development-in-Sociocultural-Context (DISC) Model, this study investigates the complex nature of school engagement as a multidimensional construct, encompassing behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement. It focuses on the influence of parental academic socialization on each engagement dimension, employing a multi-informant methodology. This study further examines the role of parental emotion socialization in moderating the relationships between academic socialization and student engagement. The sample included 172 adolescents and their parents, predominantly Black/African Americans (94%), with females representing 55% of the young participants. The findings highlighted that while student perceptions of academic socialization significantly predicted all three dimensions of engagement, parental reports were significant in predicting behavioral and cognitive engagement but not emotional engagement. In addition, adolescents' perceptions contributing more substantially to variations in school engagement. However, while parental emotion socialization was a notable predictor across all engagement dimensions, its moderating effect on the academic socialization-engagement relationship was not confirmed in this study. These results underscore the critical role of appropriate parental socialization in children's education to promote learning engagement and mitigate potential negative consequences.