Structural Modeling of Parent-Child Conflict and Academic Engagement in Students: The Mediating Role of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation

Academic engagement is very important in achieving a learning experience that indirectly guarantees students' academic achievement.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of difficulties in emotional regulation in the relationship between parent-child conflict and academic engagement.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and correlation of the type structural equation modeling in terms of methodology. The population of this study included all undergraduate students of Lorestan University to the number of 7500 undergraduate students in the academic year 2021-2022. The statistical sample size was determined based on Klein's thumb rule equal to 240 people which was done by available sampling method and online questionnaire. The instruments used in this study were parents–Child Relationship Scale (PCRS; Fine, Moreland & Schwebel, 1983), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale- Short Form (DERS-16; Bjureberg et al., 2016), and Academic Engagement Scale (AES; Reeve & Tseng, 2011). All analyzes were performed using SPSS-22 and AMOS-24.

The results of data analysis showed that the parent-child conflict had a direct and positive effect on difficulties in emotional regulation (β= 0/51; p<0/01); but it did not have a direct effect on academic engagement (p>0/05). Also, difficulties in emotional regulation harmed academic engagement (β= -0/25; p<0/01). Indirect results showed that difficulties in emotional regulation could mediate the relationship between parent-child conflict and academic engagement (β= -0/13; p<0/05).

Thus, the greater the parent-child conflict, the greater the emotional problems of young people, and the greater the difficulty in regulating emotion, the less academic engagement.