Parental expectancies mediate the relationship between parents’ educational anxiety and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help

Parental educational anxiety has become more common in competitive academic environments, where there is a significant focus on academic success. This fear may affect both parents’ expectations for their children and their willingness to pursue professional psychological assistance. Nonetheless, empirical research on the mechanisms connecting educational worry to help-seeking behaviors among parents is scarce. This study aimed to examine the correlations between parents’ scholastic anxiety, parental expectancies, and attitudes toward obtaining professional psychological assistance, emphasizing the mediating function of parental expectancies. A cross-sectional survey methodology was utilized. Data were gathered from 240 parents of high school students between December 10, 2025, and January 12, 2026. Participants filled out standardized self-report instruments, comprising the Parental Educational Anxiety Measurement Questionnaire (PEAMQ), the Parental Expectancies Scale (PES), and the Short Form of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPH-SF). Descriptive analyses, group comparisons, and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) were performed to investigate direct and indirect correlations among the research variables. The findings demonstrated that parental educational anxiety was significantly associated with attitudes toward the pursuit of professional psychological assistance and a noteworthy favorable impact on parental expectations. Parental expectations were significantly associated with help-seeking attitudes. Mediation analysis indicated a substantial indirect influence of educational anxiety on help-seeking attitudes via parental expectancies. The structural model accounted for over-half of the variance in attitudes about seeking professional psychological assistance. The results indicate that parental educational concern affects help-seeking behaviors both directly and indirectly via parental expectations. Interventions designed to mitigate excessive educational anxiety and foster reasonable parental expectations may increase parents’ readiness to pursue professional psychological support.