In the present study, we investigated the relationships among mothers’ filial piety, mother-child discrepancy in perceived parental expectations, and children’s academic achievement in 823 Chinese families. The results indicated that mothers’ authoritarian filial piety hindered children’s academic achievement, whereas reciprocal filial piety had no such effect. Compared to children whose reports of parental expectations were identical with their mothers, children whose reports were higher than their mothers had lower achievement. Mothers’ reciprocal filial piety increased the odds of child-reported parental expectations that were lower than mother-reported parental expectations, while authoritarian filial piety increased the odds of child-reported parental expectations that were higher than mother-reported parental expectations. Furthermore, the indirect effect of authoritarian filial piety, via mother-child discrepancy, on academic achievement was significant. These findings highlight the importance of mothers’ filial piety and mother-child discrepancy in perceived parental expectations in identifying culture-specific factors that influence academic achievement in China.

Parental self-efficacy beliefs develop over time. Most research, however, has focused mainly on the trajectories and predictors of trajectories of maternal self-efficacy, while little is known about those of paternal self-efficacy. This study examined the change in paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement during children's elementary school period, analyzing whether the change is influenced by fathers' long working hours (i.e., work hours on workdays and work hours on nonworkdays) and fathers' perceptions of time and energy. Data from 1,684 Chinese fathers of fourth grade children were collected every half year for two-and-a-half consecutive years. The results of a latent growth curve analysis revealed that paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement increased over the elementary school period. Fathers' working hours on nonworkdays were negatively associated with the initial level of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement, but this negative effect was nonsignificant after fathers' perceived time and energy were added to the final model. Fathers' perceived time and energy were positively associated with the initial level of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement and negatively associated with the growth rate of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement. The findings advance the theory of parental self-efficacy, underlining the need to consider fathers' perceived time and energy to understand changes in paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement.