Parental emotional support and adolescent well-being
A cross-national examination of socio-economic and gender gaps based on PISA 2018
surveys
Parental emotional support, alongside material and temporal support, is an important
determinant of children's subjective well-being and academic success. However, not
all children benefit from the same level of parental support, and there are major
differences depending on families' socio-economic status and child gender. Using the
PISA 2018 surveys, this paper examines differences in parental support reported by
15-year-olds both within countries according to social status and between girls and
boys, and between countries. We show that differences in parental emotional support
by parents' education level and child gender are substantial. Some of these differences
are (largely) explained by other characteristics such as family wealth, country of
origin, and school urbanicity and private/public status. Greater parental emotional
support is also found to be associated with higher PISA test scores and greater subjective
wellbeing, with little variation by parental education. On the whole, our findings
suggest that a significant enhancement in parental support and related child outcomes,
especially in countries with lower average levels of parental emotional support, can
be attained through a combined effort on several fronts: by addressing monetary and
material poverty within families, by facilitating parents in balancing work and taking
care of their children, by promoting greater parental involvement in their children's
school life, and by offering appropriate services to assist families with special
needs and facing greater challenges.
Available from January 25, 2024
In series:OECD Papers on Well-being and Inequalitiesview more titles