Work–family conflict, educational involvement, and adolescent academic engagement during COVID‐19: An investigation of developmental differences

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Xinyi Wang,Sihan Liu,Xinchun Wu,Yizhen Ren,Shengqi Zou
• Date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12852

RESEARCH

Work–family conflict, educational involvement, and

adolescent academic engagement during COVID-19:

An investigation of developmental differences

Xinyi Wang

1,2

|Sihan Liu

1

|Xinchun Wu

1,3

|Yizhen Ren

1

|

Shengqi Zou

4

1

Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied

Experimental Psychology, National

Demonstration Center for Experimental

Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology,

Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

2

Department of Humanities & Social Sciences,

Minjiang Teachers College, Fuzhou, Fujian,

China

3

School of Applied Psychology, Beijing

Normal University at Zhuhai, Guangdong,

China

4

Center for Mind & Brain Science, Cognition

and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of

Human Province, Department of Psychology,

Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China

Correspondence Xinchun Wu, Faculty of

Psychology, Beijing Normal University,

No. 19 Xinjiekouwai St., Haidian District,

Beijing 100875, China.

Email: xcwu@bnu.edu.cn

Abstract

Objective: In this research, we examine the mediating effect

of educational involvement between parental work–family

conflict and adolescent academic engagement during

COVID-19, as well as the differences amongdevelopmental

stages.

Background: Online learning during the COVID-19 lock-

down created challenges for adolescent academic engage-

ment. One of the toughest challenges was that parents

experienced increased work–family conflict, making it diffi-

cult for them to be involved in adolescent education. In this

context, it is essential to understand the impact of parental

work–family conflict on adolescent academic engagement.

Method: A total of 886 dual-income families participated

in the study. Mothers and fathers completed the question-

naire, including questions regarding work–family conflict

and educational involvement. Adolescents completed an

academic engagement scale.

Results: The structural equation model in the total sample

showed that parental educational involvement mediated

the effect of maternal work–family conflict on adolescent

academic engagement. In addition, paternal educational

involvement mediated the effect of paternal work–family

conflict on adolescent academic engagement. Multigroup

analysis indicated the impact of work–family conflict only

existed in middle and late adolescence, and mother played

a more important role in late adolescence.

Conclusion: The study results confirmed the mediating role

of parental educational involvement between the relationship

of paternal work–family conflict and adolescent academic

engagement. Furthermore, this relationship may vary for

families with an adolescent at different developmental stages.

Received: 2 December 2021Revised: 12 December 2022Accepted: 30 December 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12852

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:1491–1510. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 1491

KEYWORDS

academic engagement, adolescence, developmental differences, parental

educational involvement, work–family conflict

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic broke out in December 2019 and then spread

rapidly across the world. Governments worldwide responded to the outbreak with public health

emergency interventions, including restrictions on leaving home and school closures. In China,

the government launched an emergency policy initiative called “Suspending Classes Without

Stopping Learning,”which led to the mainstreaming of online distance learning (Zhang

et al., 2020). As a result, approximately 200 million primary and secondary school students

across the country learned at home through online classes beginning in February 2020

(Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2020).

However, the academic outcomes of online learning did not appear to be satisfactory. Many

students complained that they could not adapt to online learning. They were often distracted

and struggled to engage in their studies (Naddeo et al., 2021). Moreover, previous research has

shown that many students perform poorly on subsequent academic tests (Engzell et al., 2020).

In the post-pandemic era, combining online and offline learning will become a trend. Therefore,

in the post-pandemic era, it has become urgent to explore factors that influence online academic

adjustment and how to intervene in the academic adjustment of adolescents who study online.

PARENTAL WORK–FAMILY CONFLICT AND ADOLESCENT

ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT

Academic engagement is a persistent, positive, and complete emotional and cognitive state

associated with learning and working (Schaufeli et al., 2002). Individuals with high academic

engagement usually show strong motivation, are less likely to be distracted from their studies,

and have good willpower when encountering learning difficulties. Academic engagement is one

of the critical indicators of adolescent development and adjustment. It is not only closely related

to adolescent future academic achievements but can also further predict adolescent psychologi-

cal well-being and adaptive capacity (Wang & Fredricks, 2014). Studies related to online learn-

ing during the COVID-19 lockdown have also included adolescent academic engagement as an

important variable (e.g., Chiu, 2021). Therefore, this study selected academic engagement as an

indicator of adolescent academic adjustment during the pandemic and further explored its

influencing factors.

Family is one of the primary environments in which adolescents live, and parents have a tre-

mendous and irreplaceable influence on their children (Minuchin, 1985). The sudden outbreak

of COVID-19 changed the life patterns of adolescents and their parents. In China, due to quar-

antine policies, most industries combined online and offline environments for workers during

the COVID-19 lockdown. Specifically, parents were required to take on both work duties and

child education responsibilities at home. They were not only faced with the pressures of working

online but also had to supervise their children due to school closures. These new demands fur-

ther blurred the lines between work and family roles, making it more difficult for parents to bal-

ance work and family life (Giurge & Bohns, 2020).

Therefore, work–family conflict became a focused social phenomenon during the

COVID-19 lockdown. Work–family conflict is caused by the competition between two domains,

work and family, over the resources of the same individual (Netemeyer et al., 1996). In previous

studies, work–family conflict has generally been divided into twodimensions: work-to-family con-

flict and family-to-work conflict (Netemeyer et al., 1996). Studies in the field of organizational

1492 FAMILY RELATIONS