The Relationship of Parent Involvement, Motivational Resilience, Flourishing, and Academic Performance: A Comparison of New Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Adolescents in Taiwan

Mental health and academic success are essential elements for individual’s career development. Therefore, the processes influencing psychological adaptation and academic performance during adolescent developmental stages have consistently been a central focus of research in educational psychology. Numerous studies have examined the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on various outcomes, highlighting that widening disparities in family wealth significantly affect the next generation’s mental health, educational aspirations, career planning, and income in adulthood, thereby leading to the intergenerational transfer of psychological capital (Dóci et al., 2023). However, recent research suggests a declining trend in the impact of SES and ethnicity on learning motivation and achievement performance (Coley et al., 2024). Moreover, most literature provides limited evidence for only the first few years before formal schooling, with relatively weak explanatory power for academic performance during adolescence. This indicates that socioeconomic background may no longer be the sole determinant affecting students’ ability to cope with academic pressure and educational achievement. Instead, there may be other important mechanisms influencing the relationship between SES and academic performance, which can vary depending on the learning stage (Anthony & Ogg, 2019). Many studies emphasize that high-quality parent-child relationship is a powerful tool for promoting adolescents’ mental health, self-concept, learning motivation, and sense of life meaning, as well as in buffering against academic and interpersonal stress (Cao & Liu, 2023; Zeng et al., 2024). However, we posits that fostering positive youth development relies not only on direct parent-child interactions within the family but also on the school microsystem and the mesosystem that arises from the interaction between family and school microsystems play crucial roles. Particularly for adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds and minority groups, who often experience a gradual decline in learning engagement with age due to multiple stressors. Therefore, there is a stronger correlation between parental academic socialization and adolescent goals and achievements in these groups. In essence, when parents actively participate in their children’s learning—by conveying the value of education, sharing experiences of overcoming difficulties, and expressing expectations for success—significantly influences adolescents’ motivation and academic achievement. The escalating global migration trends in recent years have led to a significant increase in new immigrant populations worldwide, profoundly altering family structures. Research has shown that children of immigrants often encounter more complex educational challenges than their peers from native-born families in their educational journey. These challenges stem from the cultural, educational, and linguistic influences of their parents’ countries of origin and include navigating bilingualism, negotiating multicultural or bicultural identities, confronting economic hardships, and facing social scrutiny. The prevalence and intensity of these learning difficulties have attracted global attention (Urdan & Bruchmann, 2018). Paradoxically, recent empirical studies have revealed that second-generation immigrants display higher levels of creative thinking, psychological resilience, motivation for success, and academic achievement compared to their peers (Fuligni et al., 1999; Tsai et al., 2022). This unexpected phenomenon, where immigrant children outperform expectations despite apparent disadvantages, has been termed the ‘‘immigrant paradox’’ by Coll and Marks (2012). The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reports by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) consistently indicate that non-immigrant students generally outperform their immigrant counterparts across all assessed subjects in most participating countries (OECD, 2023). However, this performance disparity is largely attributable to the additional socioeconomic and linguistic challenges that immigrant students often face. Notably, when statistical analyses control for factors such as SES and home language, a more nuanced picture emerges. In several countries and regions with substantial immigrant populations—including Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, and Switzerland—immigrant students demonstrate comparable or even superior performance relative to their non-immigrant peers. This finding underscores the importance of considering contextual factors when evaluating academic achievement across diverse student populations. Antony-Newman (2019) identified language barriers and unfamiliarity with educational systems as key challenges for immigrant parents’ involvement. This finding is corroborated by a survey conducted by Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency (2020), which found that 26.7% of Southeast Asian immigrant parents felt their limited Chinese proficiency hindered the ability to support children’s learning. These barriers underscore the need to address the factors affecting diverse student populations. Consequently, cultivating resilient learning environments has become a critical priority for educational systems worldwide (OECD, 2023). Recent research suggests that disparities in educational outcomes are more closely associated with the nature and quality of parental involvement rather than ethnicity or SES alone. Variations in parental involvement have been shown to significantly impact children’s motivation and cognitive development, highlighted the importance of understanding the different forms of parent involvement (Chun & Devall, 2019; Cui et al., 2024). The interplay of ethnic and ecological contextual factors significantly influences academic performance and emotional traits, making it a prominent topic in educational policies across many advanced countries (Coley et al., 2024). In particular, the high school stage in Taiwan’s current education system marks the first time adolescents encounter the critical choice of educational tracking. While this period is filled with changes and challenges, it is also a crucial period for shaping healthy physical and mental development (Chen & Chen, 2021). Providing appropriate support during this pivotal moment can enhance motivational resilience, enabling adolescents to experience positive emotions related to learning and improve academic performance, ultimately benefiting their career development. As mentioned above, we aimed to understand the relationship between subjectively perceived parent involvement, motivational resilience, flourishing, and academic performance among senior high school students from new immigrant and non-immigrant families. We employed purposive sampling and recruited participants from senior high schools (including both general and technical streams) across northern, central, southern, eastern, and outlying island regions of Taiwan, resulting in 1,039 valid self-report questionnaires and academic performance evaluations. The data were analyzed using t-test and multi-group structural equation modeling. The results revealed: (1) for non-immigrant families, home-based involvement (HBI), school-based involvement (SBI), and home-school communication (HSC) were significantly higher than for new immigrant families, but there were no significant differences in motivational resilience, flourishing, and academic performance between the two groups; (2) after controlling socioeconomic status, HBI can positively predict flourishing in the non-immigrant group, and HSC can negatively predict academic performance in the new immigrant group; (3) the predictive effect of HBI on motivational resilience is moderated by group, with a larger path coefficient for the new immigrant adolescents; and (4) in the new immigrant adolescents, motivational resilience mediated the effects of HBI on flourishing and academic performance, while the direct effect was not significant; in non-immigrant families, motivational resilience mediated the effect of HBI on flourishing and academic performance, while the direct effect on academic performance was not significant. This study provided a more comprehensive and clear understanding of the external and internal resources that influence academic performance and positive adaptation among high school students. Based on these findings, we provide some practical recommendations for enhancing parent involvement and empowering new immigrant families in counseling practices, ultimately fostering positive youth development. (1) Encourage parents to provide care and support as well as cognitive stimulating resources for their teenagers through home-based involvement, thereby creating a supportive environment conducive to adolescent growth. (2) Establish a friendly and inclusive school environment that enhances the understanding of parent involvement among new immigrant families. Help these parents recognize that their support for children extends beyond academic guidance; emotional support and empathy for learning challenges are crucial foundations for children’s success. (3) Foster motivational resilience within a supportive environment, assisting students in developing positive experiences from failure. (4) Shift towards an objective, evidence-based perspective in ethnic studies to move beyond ethnic attribution, incorporating a broader range of social, cultural, and institutional factors to comprehensively explore the adaptation processes of new immigrant populations.