{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T06:18:10Z","timestamp":1787811490645,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787788800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    The existing literature on educational and social attainment has largely overlooked the role and interaction of social-psychological factors at the individual level. To address this gap, this study employs in-depth qualitative interviews (\n                    <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u202f=\u202f45) to explore how such factors shape the academic and career trajectories of Chinese university students. Anchored in a social-psychological perspective, the research identifies six core thematic drivers: parental educational conceptions, individual educational and occupational aspirations, self-reflection practices, socially informed behavioral expectations, self-concept development, and peer influence dynamics. Building on these findings, the study develops a context-sensitive analytical framework that illustrates how established social-psychological mechanisms of status attainment operate within contemporary Chinese higher education system. Rather than proposing new social-psychological constructs, the study demonstrates how parental expectations, aspirations, self-concept, reflective practices, and peer influence interact with institutional features such as the Gaokao, rural\u2013urban disparities, and changing labour-market conditions across different stages of educational and career attainment. In doing so, the study provides a qualitative refinement of the Wisconsin Model by specifying how its established mechanisms are configured within the contemporary Chinese context.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1813219","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T05:34:02Z","timestamp":1787808842000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Volition or coercion?\u2014the role of socio-psychological factors in the stratification pathways of Chinese university students"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Keyu","family":"Zhai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Education, Renmin University of China","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qingbin","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Normal University","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Meihan","family":"Tao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tongling University","place":["Tongling, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Weiyu","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Graduate Studies, Lingnan University","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yixin","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Lingnan University","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rssm.2017.08.001","article-title":"Increased educational attainment among US mothers and their children\u2019s academic expectations","volume":"52","author":"Augustine","year":"2017","journal-title":"Res. 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