Academic procrastination is a prevalent issue among children, often linked to poorer developmental outcomes. Prior research has uncovered cognitive, motivational, and dispositional antecedents of procrastination, yet its emotional correlates remain underexplored. Given the central role parenting plays in children’s emotional development, examining the emotional pathways through which parenting influences academic procrastination may deepen the understanding of emotional processes underlying academic development. Grounded in the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions, the present study examined the extent to which emotional resilience and school emotional engagement mediate, both individually and sequentially, the relationship between perceived positive parenting styles and academic procrastination in children. Drawing on three waves of data, this study employed structural equation modeling to assess a chain mediation model. The sample comprised 728 primary school students (Mage = 9.84, SD = 0.77, 49.22% female, range = 8 to 12 years) from Guangzhou, China. Participants completed the assessment at three time points (i.e., November 2021, May 2022, May 2023). The results reveal that perceived positive parenting styles significantly predict lower levels of academic procrastination. Both emotional resilience and school emotional engagement independently mediate the relationship between positive parenting style and academic procrastination. Moreover, this relationship is sequentially mediated by emotional resilience and school emotional engagement. While the mediation effect sizes were relatively small, the study identifies the emotional mechanism through which the perceived positive parenting influences children’s academic procrastination. The preliminary findings contribute to a richer understanding of the emotional underpinnings of academic procrastination and propose potential directions for future research and intervention.

Background: A positive school climate benefits adolescents in multiple developmental dimensions. However, theoretical frameworks suggest that detrimental parenting practices can trigger adolescents’ negative emotional states, which may skew their perceptions of school climate. Although self-consciousness, a critical intrapersonal trait, may mitigate these adverse effects, limited research has empirically explored its moderating role in the context where negative parenting influences adolescents’ mental health and school-related outcomes. Thereby, this study investigates how parental negative control influences adolescents’ perceived school climate via depression, with self-consciousness moderating the link between parental negative control and depression. Methods: A short-term longitudinal design was employed, with the data collected from a sample of Chinese adolescents (N_T1 = 733, N_T2=711). Self-reports were used to measure parental negative control, depressive symptoms, self-consciousness, and perceived school climate. Structural equation modeling was conducted to assess the mediating effect of depression and the moderating effect of self-consciousness. Results: The findings show that depression mediates the relationship between parental negative control and perceived school climate. Adolescents experiencing higher levels of negative control reported more depressive symptoms, which were associated with lower perceptions of school climate. Self-consciousness moderates the link between parental negative control and depression, with adolescents exhibiting higher self-consciousness showing less vulnerability to the adverse effects of negative control. Conclusions: This study reveals the detrimental impact of parental negative control and depression on adolescents’ perceived school climate while highlighting the protective role of self-consciousness. Interventions can target families engaged in maladaptive parenting practices and adolescents with psychopathological symptoms, focusing on enhancing family dynamics and adolescents’ self-processes.