A longitudinal study on the impact of parenting attitude on academic satisfaction among adolescents in South Korea: the mediating role of self-esteem

Adolescence is a key developmental stage in which academic identity and emotional well-being are shaped. Parenting attitudes are thought to influence students’ motivation and satisfaction, yet the long-term psychological processes linking these attitudes to academic outcomes remain unclear. This study examined how parenting attitudes are longitudinally associated with academic satisfaction over time among adolescents in South Korea, focusing on the mediating role of self-esteem. Data were drawn from 1,534 early adolescents (52% girls, 48% boys; aged 12–14 years at baseline) who participated in three waves (2020–2022) of the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey. Parenting attitudes, self-esteem, and academic satisfaction were measured using validated scales. Latent growth modeling and autoregressive cross-lagged modeling were employed to assess temporal patterns and directional relationships among variables. Positive parenting attitudes were associated with higher levels and more favorable developmental trajectories of adolescents’ self-esteem, and higher initial self-esteem was prospectively related to a more favorable trajectory of academic satisfaction. Although no significant direct longitudinal effects of parenting attitudes on academic satisfaction were observed, indirect pathways via self-esteem were statistically significant, suggesting that self-esteem may serve as a key emotional resource linking parenting attitudes to academic satisfaction. These findings enhance understanding of the long-term psychosocial processes underlying academic satisfaction among South Korean adolescents and suggest that interventions aiming to support academic well-being may benefit from fostering positive parenting attitudes and strengthening adolescents’ self-esteem, alongside direct support for academic behaviors.