Ecological systems theory posits that the family functions as a microsystem that directly and profoundly influences individual development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). A positive family environment fosters individual development, whereas a detrimental environment has the opposite effect. Previous studies indicate that supportive parenting fosters emotional intelligence and adaptability in children, while also enhancing academic achievement by creating a learning environment characterized by open communication, encouragement, and shared decision-making. This, in turn, helps break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and promotes sustainable development (Ali et al., 2023; Tripon, 2024). Parental burnout, a family environmental factor that reflects negative emotions or attitudes related to parenting (Wang and Su, 2021), has been negatively correlated with children’s academic achievement (Hong et al., 2022). Parental burnout can result in a lack of parental fulfillment and self-doubt regarding parenting abilities (Mikolajczak et al., 2018), making it difficult to create an ideal family atmosphere. However, the family environment plays a more significant role than teacher-student relationships or classroom atmosphere in influencing adolescents’ academic achievement (Lei et al., 2012). Conversely, parents experiencing burnout are more likely to neglect or reject their children’s physiological and emotional needs (Roskam et al., 2017), and even increase the frequency of violent behaviors toward their children (Mikolajczak et al., 2018). Such negative and punitive parenting behaviors increase the risk of academic burnout in children (Luo et al., 2016), ultimately leading to a decline in academic performance. Moreover, parents severely affected by burnout find it difficult to provide not only basic parenting services but also additional resources for child-rearing, which may decrease their involvement in their children’s education. Negative parental involvement in education can also reduce children’s motivation to learn, thereby hindering their academic achievement (Yin et al., 2022). However, it is important to note that previous studies have primarily focused on elementary school students, while the rapid changes in the physical and psychological development of middle school students place higher demands on parental behavior (Wang et al., 2021b). Therefore, this study examines the impact of parental burnout on the academic achievement of middle school students.

Social cognitive theory posits that both environmental factors and individual characteristics (such as beliefs about one’s ability to complete specific tasks) jointly influence behavioral outcomes (Bandura, 1997). According to this theory, parental burnout, as an environmental factor, may affect middle school students’ academic achievement by influencing their academic self-efficacy. Academic self-efficacy refers to an individual’s judgment and confidence in their ability to complete academic tasks (Wang et al., 2016). As a specific manifestation of self-efficacy in the academic domain (Xiao and Liu, 2017), children’s academic self-efficacy is closely related to parental upbringing styles (Tang et al., 2014). Parenting style is a comprehensive concept that encompasses parents’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in child-rearing (Zhang and Chen, 2013). Parenting styles are generally categorized into positive parenting (e.g., emotional warmth) and negative parenting (e.g., neglect or rejection), based on their impact on children’s positive development (Liu et al., 2021). Positive parenting creates a warm, supportive family environment and offers encouraging verbal persuasion, fostering higher levels of academic self-efficacy in children (Anna et al., 2017). Conversely, negative parenting often results in increased negative emotional arousal and experiences of failure, hindering the development of academic self-efficacy in children (Zhang and Ke, 2021). Research indicates that parents experiencing burnout often lose the patience necessary for effective child-rearing, attempt to evade their parental responsibilities, and neglect or reject their children’s requests for care (Cheng et al., 2021). Such neglect and rejection lower children’s self-confidence and impair their recognition of their own abilities (Fan and Williams, 2010). Moreover, parental burnout may affect children’s academic self-efficacy. Additionally, academic self-efficacy is a sensitive predictor of students’ academic performance (Lei et al., 2015). Yi et al. (2017) conducted a qualitative review and directional analysis of previous literature using meta-integration techniques, finding that among six factors (motivation, academic self-efficacy, achievement goal orientation, parenting style, teacher-student relationships, peer relationships), academic self-efficacy showed the highest correlation with students’ academic performance. Therefore, based on the above, academic self-efficacy may serve as a bridge between parental burnout and middle school students’ academic achievement.

Resource dilution theory posits that as parenting stress increases, parents may become more cautious in allocating limited time, energy, and other resources (Blake, 1981). Consequently, parents who experience burnout due to excessive exposure to parenting stress may be able to provide only limited support and resources for their children. Additionally, patriarchal cultural norms contribute to a phenomenon known as “son preference” in China (Wu et al., 2013). Consequently, when resources are scarce, parents experiencing burnout may be more likely to favor their sons over their daughters, sacrificing the well-being of their daughters (Hannum et al., 2009). This results in less educational support, lower educational expectations, and reduced educational involvement for daughters (Liu et al., 2022), which is closely related to their academic self-efficacy (Zhou et al., 2023). On the other hand, girls exhibit higher empathy than boys (Zhang et al., 2020), making them more likely to detect their parents’ burnout early (e.g., low efficacy in parenting activities, disappointment in the parental role, emotional distance from children) and thus more affected by this imbalanced state. Research shows that individuals who grow up in environments characterized by parental neglect or indifference are less likely to recognize their own abilities (Zhang, 2022). Thus, the impact of parental burnout on middle school students’ academic self-efficacy may vary depending on the gender of the students. Furthermore, studies have shown that, compared to fathers, mothers are the primary caregivers in child-rearing activities (Cheng et al., 2021). Mothers tend to invest more energy in parenting and experience higher levels of parenting burnout (Norberg, 2010). As burnout increases, parents are more likely to exhibit negative parenting behaviors, such as neglect, rejection, or violence (Mikolajczak et al., 2018; Mikolajczak et al., 2019), which, in turn, affects their children’s academic self-efficacy (Tang et al., 2014). Therefore, the effect of parental burnout on middle school students’ academic self-efficacy may also differ based on the parent’s gender.

Building on previous research and relevant theories, the present study aims to construct a moderated mediation model (see Figure 1) to examine the impact of parental burnout on middle school students’ academic achievement, as well as the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and the moderating effects of middle school students’ gender and parental gender. The specific hypotheses of this study are as follows:

Participants in this study included students and their parents (i.e., either the father or mother) from a secondary school in Hunan, China. This investigation received the approval from the authors’ University Ethics Committee. Prior to data collection, the examiners (i.e., the head teacher of class who had undergone rigorous training in advance) introduced the instructions to participants and explained the principle of confidentiality. Participants were also informed that completing the survey was optional and that they could withdraw the investigation at any time. Once informed consent was obtained, participants were invited to fill out the questionnaires. Parents completed questionnaires during the parent-teacher meeting, while students completed theirs during the self-study class on the same day.

Based on Guo and Huang (2022), the sample size was calculated using the following formula N = Z 2 × P × 1 − P E 2 (N = sample size, Z = statistical value, E = margin of error, P = probability value). In this study, Z = 1.96 (95% confidence level), E = 5%, P = 12.20% (based on previous research indicating that the incidence of parental burnout in China ranges from 10.44 to 13.95%; Wang et al., 2021b). The minimum required sample size for this study was therefore determined to be 165. The collected data were first matched based on the names, classes, and genders of both parents’ reports on their children and the students’ self-reports. Only the matched data were retained. Subsequently, questionnaires with missing answers or those exhibiting patterned responses were further excluded. Ultimately, we obtained valid paired data for 738 parent–child dyads, indicating a sufficient sample size for the study. Among the parent data, 184 were fathers (24.9%) and 554 were mothers (75.1%), with an average age of 43.21 ± 4.37 years. The sample included 310 single-child families (42.0%), 389 two-child families (52.7%), 35 three-child families (4.7%), and 4 four-child families (0.5%). Among the children, there were 239 males (32.4%) and 499 females (67.6%), with 309 attending junior high school (41.9%) and 429 attending senior high school (58.1%), and an average age of 14.87 ± 1.47 years.

Given that this study utilized a questionnaire method, there was a potential risk of common method bias. To mitigate the influence of this bias on the research outcomes, procedural controls were implemented, including the use of highly reliable and valid measurement tools and emphasizing confidentiality. Statistically, Harman’s single-factor test was employed to assess common method bias. The results indicated that there were 8 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1, and the variance explained by the first factor was 25.51%, which is below the critical value of 40%. This suggests that the issue of common method bias in this study is not severe (Podsakoff et al., 2003).

Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlation coefficients for the variables. The Pearson correlation analysis revealed that parental burnout was significantly negatively correlated with academic self-efficacy (r = −0.19, p < 0.001) and academic achievement (r = −0.15, p < 0.001). Academic self-efficacy was positively correlated with academic achievement (r = 0.26, p < 0.001). Additionally, the gender of middle school students was positively correlated with parental burnout (r = 0.09, p < 0.05) and academic self-efficacy (r = 0.12, p < 0.01), but negatively correlated with academic achievement (r = −0.08, p < 0.05). However, neither the gender of parents nor the number of children exhibited significant correlations with these variables (r = −0.04 ~ 0.05, p > 0.05).

Testing a moderated mediation model involves two steps: first, examining a simple mediation model, and second, examining a moderated mediation model (Wen and Ye, 2014). For this study, bias-corrected non-parametric percentile Bootstrap was used for testing, with 5,000 resamples to compute the 95% confidence interval. Before conducting the mediation and moderated mediation analyses, all variables were standardized.

The study found that parental burnout significantly negatively predicts middle school students’ academic achievement, consistent with findings from studies involving elementary school students (Hong et al., 2022). Parents experiencing burnout often lack emotional engagement with their children and may resort to punitive parenting behaviors (Mikolajczak et al., 2018). When middle school students face academic challenges, burned-out parents may either ignore their requests for help or resort to punitive discipline. Both of these negative parenting practices can undermine students’ motivation for academic progress and adversely affect their academic performance (Wang et al., 2020; Yin et al., 2022). Therefore, parents should recognize that an imbalanced parenting state is closely linked to negative academic outcomes for middle school students. While parental stress is entirely normal, it is crucial for parents to manage and alleviate this stress, keeping it within manageable limits to create a supportive environment for their children’s development (Yu, 2021).

Furthermore, the study found that academic self-efficacy plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between parental burnout and middle school students’ academic performance. This result supports the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997). As the level of parental burnout increases, parents’ interest and motivation in their children’s education decline (Yu, 2021), leading to reduced parental involvement. When parents cease to assist with homework or fail to communicate their educational expectations, this directly lowers children’s academic self-efficacy (Cross et al., 2019; Williams et al., 2017). Additionally, academic self-efficacy, as a specific manifestation of general self-efficacy in the academic domain (Xiao and Liu, 2017), indicates that students with low academic self-efficacy tend to view academic tasks, difficulties, and setbacks as obstacles and are less likely to adopt problem-focused coping strategies when faced with academic pressure (Denovan and Macaskill, 2017). Consequently, they are less likely to perform well on exams (Lei et al., 2015). Thus, maintaining a balanced parenting state can provide stronger support for children’s academic success. Positive educational interactions can help children recognize their learning abilities, leading to better academic outcomes.

The study also found that the gender of middle school students moderates the first half of the mediating effect of academic self-efficacy in the relationship between parental burnout and academic performance. Specifically, in female middle school students, increased parental burnout leads to a decrease in academic self-efficacy, which in turn hinders their academic performance; this indirect effect is not observed in male middle school students. Parents experiencing burnout often reduce the parenting resources available to their children (Roskam et al., 2017), particularly the educational support that children expect. Moreover, compared to boys, parents may assign lower educational expectations and involvement to girls due to the perceived lower returns on educational investment for girls in the labor market (Liu et al., 2022). Girls who perceive a reduction in parental educational involvement may experience a decrease in their recognition of their own learning behaviors and capabilities (Liu et al., 2018), which can negatively influence their academic performance. It is also important to note that the insignificant negative predictive effect of parental burnout on academic self-efficacy in male middle school students does not necessarily imply that this effect is absent in this group. There may be cumulative effects, and future research should employ longitudinal designs to further validate these findings. Additionally, the study found that parental burnout’s effect on students’ academic self-efficacy was not moderated by parental gender. This could be related to changes in family division of labor. As societal norms evolve, the traditional “male breadwinner, female homemaker” model is gradually diminishing, with more women entering the workforce and more men participating in parenting activities (Gao et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2021a). This shared parenting responsibility may have balanced parental burnout between fathers and mothers (Delvecchio et al., 2015), rendering the effect of parental burnout on students’ academic self-efficacy independent of parental gender.

This study constructed a moderated mediation model to explore the relationship between parental burnout and the academic achievement of secondary school students, along with the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and the moderating roles of student and parental gender. The findings provide theoretical guidance and empirical support for enhancing secondary school students’ academic achievement. On one hand, intervening in parental burnout is a crucial starting point. Some researchers suggest that strengthening mutual support and cooperation among family members can effectively alleviate parental burnout (Yu, 2021). This includes shared family parenting responsibilities (Lin et al., 2023), joint parenting by grandparents and parents (Yu, 2021), and fostering children’s self-management abilities to reduce dependence on their parents (Li et al., 2024). Additionally, schools and communities could offer training to improve parents’ time management skills, guide them in setting realistic parenting goals, developing scientific parenting plans, prioritizing tasks, and reflecting on their parenting behaviors (Huang and Zhang, 2001), which could enhance the quality of family parenting and reduce parental burnout. Moreover, establishing a family-school-community collaborative education mechanism, optimizing national parental welfare policies, and encouraging companies to develop family-friendly policies (Ann and Harrington, 2007) can also reduce workplace stress and parental burnout. On the other hand, for students experiencing parental burnout, schools should focus on enhancing their academic self-efficacy, particularly among female students. Strategies such as providing opportunities for students to experience success, promoting role models, offering timely positive feedback, focusing on study skills, creating a supportive learning environment, implementing rational attribution training, and encouraging extracurricular physical activities (Bandura, 1997; Mcauley et al., 2000; Olivier et al., 2019; Zhu, 2012) can all boost students’ academic confidence.

At the same time, this study has some limitations. First, the cross-sectional design limits the ability to make causal inferences. Future studies could explore this relationship through longitudinal tracking designs. Second, the data used in this study were all self-reported by the participants, which may have introduced response biases. For the variable of parental burnout, future research could benefit from incorporating both parent and child reports to mitigate response bias and improve the stability of the measurements (Song, 2023). Third, the participants selected for this study were only middle school students and their parents from a specific region, without involving other areas. Future studies should examine middle school students and their parents from a broader geographic range. Forth, this study only considered the number of children as a control variable, while factors such as family socioeconomic status and family structure are also important influences on parental burnout (Baxter et al., 2014). Finally, this study only explored a limited set of mediating and moderating variables in the relationship between parental burnout and students’ academic achievement. Future research could further examine other potential mediators and moderators, such as parental involvement, teacher support, and students’ emotions and motivation.