Educational Aspirations and Expectations of Adolescents in Rural China: Determinants, Mental Health, and Academic Outcomes

Educational aspirations and expectations of adolescents have implications for educational and psychological outcomes. This study aimed to determine factors associated with educational aspiration–expectation discrepancies and to examine the associations between the discrepancies and psychological and academic outcomes in rural left-behind children and non-left-behind children aged 14–16 in mainland China. Cross-sectional data from a self-report survey were collected in 2020 among 606 rural students (mean age = 14.85 years) in two public middle schools in Songzi county, Hubei Province. Participants filled in questionnaires measuring their socio-demographic information, educational aspirations and expectations, academic performance, parental and friends’ aspirations, academic self-perception, academic self-regulation, depression, and self-esteem. Results showed that more than half of the participants reported that they felt they were not likely to attain the level of education to which they aspired. Parental migration, academic performance, mother’s educational aspirations for children, and close friends’ educational aspirations were the main factors associated with students’ educational aspiration–expectation discrepancies. Both left-behind children and non-left-behind children whose aspirations exceed expectations were more likely to report lower self-esteem, higher depression, lower academic self-perception, and poorer self-regulation than those without a discrepancy. These findings have implications for families, schools, and policymakers through informing the development of interventions that target positive development in rural youth.