Beyond simple transmission: sequential mediation and gender moderation in the relationship between parental educational anxiety and adolescent help-seeking avoidance

In the context of intensifying academic competition and evolving family dynamics, parental educational anxiety has emerged as a salient yet understudied influence on adolescents’ academic behavior. This cross-sectional study investigates the underlying mechanism linking parental educational anxiety and adolescents’ avoidant academic help-seeking behavior among Chinese youth. A total of 695 adolescents aged 14 to 18 years from Liaoning Province, China, completed self-report questionnaires including the Parental Educational Anxiety Questionnaire, the Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Academic Help-Seeking Behavior Scale. Structural equation modeling with bias-corrected bootstrap analysis was employed to test mediation effects, while moderated regression analysis examined gender differences. Results indicated that: (1) parental educational anxiety was positively associated with adolescents’ avoidant academic help-seeking behavior; (2) both perceived social support and self-efficacy served as independent mediators, and together formed a sequential mediation chain (parental educational anxiety → perceived social support → self-efficacy → avoidant academic help-seeking behavior); and (3) multi-group path analysis revealed that gender moderated specific pathways: the direct effect of parental educational anxiety on avoidant academic help-seeking behavior was strong and significant among boys but nonsignificant among girls, whereas for girls, the association operated predominantly through perceived social support as the sole significant mediating pathway. The path from perceived social support to self-efficacy was also significantly stronger for boys than for girls. These findings illuminate the psychological and social mechanisms through which parental anxiety affects adolescents’ academic behavior, and offer evidence-based implications for family-school collaborations aimed at alleviating academic avoidance in adolescents.