[Impact of parental educational anxiety on junior middle school students' depression: Mediating role of perceived stress and the moderating role of parental educational time investment].

OBJECTIVES: Against the backdrop of intensifying educational competition in contemporary society, parents increasingly prioritize their children's development. Parental educational anxiety has become a key factor affecting adolescents' psychological well-being. However, the pathways through which parental educational anxiety influences adolescents' depressive symptoms, particularly the role of adolescents' internal psychological processes, and the moderating function of family supportive factors remain unclear. Situated in the Chinese cultural context, this study aims to construct a moderated mediation model to examine the mediating role of perceived stress in the association between parental educational anxiety and depression among junior middle school students and whether parental educational time investment buffers this pathway. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted, with data collected over one month in June 2023. Using convenience sampling, questionnaires were administered to 736 junior middle school students and their parents from Changsha, Xiangtan, and Shaoyang. Measures included the Chinese Stress Perception Scale (CPSS), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Parental Educational Anxiety Scale, and the Parental Educational Time Investment Questionnaire. A moderated mediation analysis was performed with the PROCESS macro in SPSS, and network structure estimation was conducted using R software. RESULTS: