The Dynamic Longitudinal Relationships Between Family Functioning, Anxiety and Academic Disengagement Among Adolescents From the COVID-19 Pandemic to Post-Pandemic Era.

INTRODUCTION

Previous studies have predominantly focused on the pairwise cross-sectional relationships among family functioning, anxiety, and academic disengagement at the between-person level. However, they lack a dual perspective that combines the family system and emotional security to explore the dynamic interplay among them by separating within- and between-person differences from the COVID-19 pandemic to post-pandemic era.

METHODS

The present study examined the longitudinal relationships between family functioning, anxiety, and academic disengagement in 636 Chinese adolescents (baseline Mage = 15.48, SD = 0.73; 55.87% girls). Three waves of data were collected from November 2021 to March 2023 in a middle school in Henan Province, China, with each separated by an 8-month interval.

RESULTS

The random intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed the following key findings: At the between-person level, family functioning was negatively correlated with academic disengagement, while anxiety was positively correlated with academic disengagement. At the within-person level, T1 family functioning negatively predicted T2 anxiety, while T2 anxiety positively predicted T3 academic disengagement. Moreover, T1 anxiety negatively predicted T2 family functioning. Additionally, T1 family functioning negatively predicted T2 academic disengagement more strongly in boys than in girls.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings illustrate the dynamic relationship between family functioning, anxiety, and academic disengagement from the COVID-19 pandemic to post-pandemic era. Parents should prioritize maintaining healthy family functioning, and interventions should focus on enhancing adolescents' emotional regulation skills to alleviate anxiety, ultimately reducing academic disengagement. Additionally, these strategies should be tailored to account for gender differences.