{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]],"date-time":"2026-07-24T06:03:03Z","timestamp":1784872983546,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]],"date-time":"2026-07-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784851200000},"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. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Adolescence is a critical period with a high incidence of psychological and behavioral problems. In China, adolescent mental health presents a severe challenge. The family serves as the core environment for adolescent development, within which maternal education is a key factor influencing adolescent mental health.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Based on the data from the \u201cDatabase of Youth Health\u201d (DYH), this study employed a cross-sectional design and used a quadratic regression model to examine the impact of maternal education on adolescent psychological symptom severity (APSS), with a focus on testing for non-linear effects. The robustness of the findings was verified through a U-test for non-linearity and an instrumental variable approach. Additionally, mediation and moderation analyses were conducted to explore the underlying mechanisms and heterogeneity involved.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Regression analysis revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship between maternal education and APSS (higher SCL-90 scores indicate greater severity), with the peak occurring at 6.442 years of maternal education. This non-linear relationship emerged from synergistic reversal trade-offs between perceived maternal support and parental educational expectations. Heterogeneity analysis indicated that before the educational inflection point, non-only children exhibited significantly lower APSS, whereas beyond this point, only children demonstrated a steeper reduction in symptom severity.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship, driven by a \u201csynergistic reversal trade-off\u201d mechanism: as maternal education increases, both perceived maternal support and parental educational expectations simultaneously shift from risk to protective factors. The dual-pathway reversal is amplified in only-child families, revealing steeper risks at low education levels and stronger protective benefits at high levels. These findings offer empirical evidence for differentiated, mechanism-driven family interventions.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1858459","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]],"date-time":"2026-07-24T05:35:34Z","timestamp":1784871334000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Maternal education and adolescent psychological symptom severity: the synergistic reversal trade-offs between perceived maternal support and parental educational expectations"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Cui","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Statistics and Data Science, Qufu Normal University","place":["Qufu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yiwen","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"International College, Yunnan Agricultural University","place":["Kunming, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nianyu","family":"Du","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics, Qufu Normal University - Rizhao Campus","place":["Rizhao, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huiying","family":"Peng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics, Qufu Normal University - Rizhao Campus","place":["Rizhao, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shijiu","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health and Elderly Care, Shandong Women\u2019s University","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/s0140-6736(11)60827-1","article-title":"Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: Evidence for action","volume":"378","author":"Kieling","year":"2011","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2019.00355","article-title":"Integrated mental health services for the developmental period (0 to 25 years): A critical review of the evidence","volume":"10","author":"Fusar-Poli","year":"2019","journal-title":"Front Psychiatry"},{"key":"B3","article-title":"Ecological system theory and adolescent mental health education","volume":"39","author":"Yu","year":"2018","journal-title":"Educ Res"},{"key":"B4","unstructured":"Adolescent Mental Health. 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