Parental Socialization of Academic Failure and Adolescent School Burnout: The Mediating Role of Failure Mindset and Moderating Role of Learning Orientations.

School burnout is an important developmental concern during adolescence, yet less is known about the role of parent socialization, particularly in response to adolescent academic failure, in the development of school burnout over time. More specifically, limited research has examined how different forms of parental failure socialization contribute to adolescents' failure-related mindsets and how adolescents' own learning motivations may condition these associations. Using three-wave longitudinal data from 806 Chinese parent-adolescent dyads (Adolescents: Mage = 13.92 years, SD = 0.66; 53% female; students in Grades 7-8), this study examined whether adolescents' failure-is-enhancing mindset mediated the associations between parents' process-oriented and person-oriented socialization and later school burnout, and whether these associations varied by adolescents' mastery-related characteristics. Results showed that person-oriented socialization predicted higher school burnout through a lower failure-is-enhancing mindset, whereas process-oriented socialization showed the opposite pattern. Cognitive persistence strengthened the positive effects of process-oriented socialization, whereas negative reactions to failure amplified the negative effects of person-oriented socialization. Findings highlight the role of failure-is-enhancing mindset in linking parental failure socialization to school burnout and suggest that adolescents' motivational characteristics shape their sensitivity to parental messages about failure.