Introduction
Achievement pressure from parents influences adolescents' depression. Such parental pressure may be especially salient in affecting adolescents' depression in Korea, where academic competition is highly intense. In explaining the association between parental achievement pressure and depression, we can include family communication and academic stress as mediating variables because they explain the association through relational and emotional processes. Supportive communication can buffer the negative effects of parental pressure, whereas increased academic stress may aggravate depression.
Purpose
This study aimed to examine mediating effects of family communication and academic stress on the association between parental achievement pressure and depression among middle school students in South Korea.
Method
Data were drawn from the 15th wave of the Panel Study on Korean Children, which is a nationally collected dataset in Korea. We analyzed responses from the middle school students (N = 1,208). Descriptive statistics and mediation analyses were conducted using SPSS 22.0 and PROCESS macro model 4.
Results
The results showed that family communication and academic stress significantly mediated the association between parental achievement pressure and depression, although there was no direct effect of parental achievement pressure on depression. Higher levels of achievement pressure lowered the level of family communication (β = -.27, p < .001), which in turn increased depression (β = -.32, p < .001). In addition, higher achievement pressure increased academic stress (β = .38, p < .001), which further worsened depression (β = .35, p < .001).
Conclusion
This study found that parental achievement pressure affects adolescents' depression indirectly through family communication and academic stress. High parental pressure reduced family communication and increased academic stress, which led to depression among Korean adolescents. These findings highlight the importance of fostering positive family communication and reducing excessive academic pressure to promote adolescents' psychological well-being, offering important implications for counseling psychologists.