Parent involvement in schools as ecological assets, prosocial behaviors and problem behaviors among Chinese middle school students: Mediating role of positive coping

Relational developmental systems (RDS) theory and ample evidence suggests that parent involvement in schools enhances middle-school age students’ social development, including increased prosocial behaviors and reduced problem behaviors. However, the mechanism of the relationships is unclear, especially in Chinese context. The current study aimed to examine the mediating role of positive coping in the relationship of parent involvement in school and prosocial behaviors, problem behaviors among Chinese middle school students. Moreover, this study explored the correlations between prosocial and problem behaviors. A total of 1062 Chinese adolescents (M age = 11.73, 41% boys; 59% girls) completed the Parent Involvement in Schools Scale of Chinese Version (PISS-C), the Coping Style Scale of the Chinese Version (CSS-C), the Prosocial Behaviors Questionnaire of the Chinese Version (PBQ-C), and the Youth Self-Report Chinese Version (YSR-C). The results showed that positive coping mediated relationships between parent involvement in schools and prosocial behaviors, problem behaviors. Specifically, parent involvement in schools was positively related to positive coping. In turn, positive coping was positively associated with prosocial behaviors and negatively related to problem behaviors. Another finding revealed that prosocial behaviors was negatively correlated with problem behaviors. Limitations, future directions, and implications were discussed.