Factors Influencing Parental Educational Anxiety in Primary Education under the "Double Reduction" Policy

Abstract

In 2021, China introduced a policy of the so-called Double Reduction, which decreased the amount of homework and limited after-school tutoring to enhance the well-being of students and develop them in a balanced manner. Nonetheless, although students can be relieved in some way, the policy has also brought a lot of anxiety to parents of children attending primary school who fear that their children will not be competitive enough and able to achieve success in their education. The adults are more concerned with the competitiveness of their children in the future, they are confused about their role in assisting with learning and they are not sure about the new social and school expectations. This paper examines the factors behind this anxiety, with the suggestion that it is a result of a combination of systemic, social and psychological factors. The study forms theoretical framework that investigates the incongruity between the holistic goals of the policy and the ongoing high-stakes examination system, the intensification of resource inequalities and the phenomenon of social comparison, and the threat of parental self-concept and self-efficacy. This paper explains how these factors perpetuate parental anxiety through an examination of the available literature, the ways in which these factors are perpetuated and through empirical research. The results show that there are more structural anxieties caused by systemic misalignment and competitive stratification than policy shocks at first. The research concludes that the reduction of this anxiety takes a multi-level effort that must be concerted beyond the technical execution of burden reduction. It requires the ultimate reevaluation of the evaluation systems, the dedication to the fair distribution of the resources, and the societal transformation of the ways of defining the success of the educational process and the roles of the parents, which will guarantee the sustainable and healthy growth of students, going in accordance with the initial vision of the policy.