An Exploration of Longitudinal Changes in Parental Educational Enthusiasm

This study aims to categorize the patterns of change in parents' educational enthusiasm and explore student- and parent-level predictors for each group. For this purpose, data from the 3rd to 8th waves of the Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2013 (KELS 2013) were analyzed, focusing on the parents of students who transitioned from middle school to high school. Using Growth Mixture Modeling(GMM), changes in parents' educational expectations and shadow education expenditures were examined. First, distinct subgroups of parents were identified in terms of educational enthusiasm. Changes in educational expectations were categorized into low expectation maintenance group, decreasing expectation group, and high expectation maintenance group, while changes in shadow education expenditures were classified as increasing expenditure group, medium expenditure maintenance group, and high expenditure maintenance group. Second, the predictors of educational enthusiasm included student gender, academic performance in the first year of middle school, parental education, occupational characteristics, and average monthly income. Based on these findings, this study recommends higher education policies that consider parental demands, the expansion of various public education services, and educational programs targeted at parents with low socioeconomic status.