Why can’t family support facilitate the sustainable development of students’ home-based online learning: a mixed-methods study from western China households

At present, education systems in China are continuously attempting to integrate online education. However, parents face significant challenges in providing home-based learning support—including insufficient knowledge reserves, skills gaps, and time constraints—while students struggle with cognitive limitations, inadequate resources, and communication barriers. Addressing this urgent challenge necessitates establishing effective family support mechanisms. Therefore, it is crucial to explore the dilemmas and potential breakthrough paths regarding family support of students, as well as to comprehend the impact of large-scale online teaching on family education. Adopting a mixed research methodology combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study involved administering a questionnaire survey to 508 parents of students, and interviews were conducted with 28 parents, teachers, and students. The results show the following: (1) Parents’ reflections on online learning quality reveal concerns and expectations; (2) Parents’ negative emotions require active management despite being understandable; (3) Parents demonstrate limited competencies in providing experiential support. This dilemma stems from several parental challenges: (1) limited observational awareness regarding student’s learning, (2) difficulties in self-regulating their emotional responses, (3) constraints on the time and energy they can devote to learning support, and (4) blurred boundaries of responsibility between home and school. Based on these findings, we propose specific suggestions for improving family support from the perspectives of family, school and society. This study helps enrich the picture of family education against the background of information technology development and provides effective information for educators, parents and policy-makers to jointly promote the sustainable development of students’ online learning.