Family SES , Shadow Education and Education‐Related Worry in Suzhou, China: Tutoring and Parental Involvement as Linked Mediators

ABSTRACT Parental educational anxiety is increasingly visible in competitive education systems, but less is known about how family resources may be linked to both lower and higher worry. Using a 2020 parent survey from Suzhou, China ( N = 91,967), this study examines how family socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with parents' education‐related worry through extracurricular tutoring intensity and parental involvement. Educational anxiety is measured as a 10‐item parent‐reported worry scale, not as clinical anxiety. Serial mediation analyses show an inconsistent pattern: SES had negative total and direct associations with educational anxiety, but was positively associated with tutoring intensity and parental involvement, both of which were positively associated with anxiety. Positive indirect pathways through tutoring, involvement, and their sequence partly offset the negative direct association. Although the serial indirect effect was small, it was consistent across robustness checks. The findings show the emotional ambivalence of family advantage in shadow education.