Family psychological capital and adolescent academic burnout in Shanghai: the moderating role of spatial stratification

In many emerging countries, rapid urbanization has intensified spatial inequality in metropolitan areas, which has consequently altered mechanisms of family interaction. To be specific, mechanisms such as family psychological capital have strong influence towards adolescents’ academic development. However, little is known about how both social spatial inequality and family psychological traits jointly affect students’ academic development in such urban contexts. Focusing on adolescents’ academic burnout, in our study we adopted moderated mediation models to clarify how spatial hierarchy influences the impact of family psychological factors on academic development in the megacity of Shanghai. Using a survey questionnaire, we collected data from 501 families with an adolescent student and their two parents ( n = 1,503). The results indicate that family psychological capital can significantly reduce adolescents’ academic burnout and that spatial stratification can significantly moderate parent–child communication. Although community social capital (e.g., social networks, resources, and information access) did not significantly contribute to those relationships, the effect was significantly stronger in urban than suburban areas in Shanghai. In general, the spatial hierarchy based on urbanicity provides more advantages than social networks when using an intergenerational psychological pathway to reduce academic burnout among adolescents.