# The influence of parental educational involvement on learning engagement among first-year college students: the mediating effects of academic self-efficacy and professional identity

## TL;DR

This study explores how parents' involvement in education affects college students' learning engagement, with academic self-efficacy and professional identity playing key roles.

## Contribution

The study identifies the mediating effects of academic self-efficacy and professional identity in the relationship between parental involvement and student engagement.

## Key findings

- Parental educational involvement positively predicts learning engagement among first-year college students.
- Academic self-efficacy and professional identity partially mediate the relationship between parental involvement and student engagement.

## Abstract

This study examined how parental educational involvement influences learning engagement among first-year college students and tested the mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and professional identity. Using cluster sampling, survey data were collected from 803 first-year undergraduates (228 male, 575 female, with average of 18 years). Serial mediation was tested using PROCESS Model 6 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Parental educational involvement positively predicted learning engagement, and the direct effect remained significant after including the mediators (β = 0.14, p < 0.001), indicating partial mediation. The overall regression model explained substantial variance in learning engagement (R2 = 0.37; F = 155.46, p < 0.001), and the total indirect effect accounted for 57.54% of the total effect. These findings suggest that parental educational involvement continues to shape students’ engagement in the first year of university, primarily through strengthening students’ competence beliefs and professional identification.