Perceived Parental Comparison, Authenticity and School Adjustment in Adolescence: A Cross‐Lagged Panel Network Analysis

ABSTRACT

In increasingly competitive educational contexts, parents often evaluate and compare their children's performance, which may shape adolescents' self‐related experiences and adjustment. Little is known about how different forms of perceived parental comparison are dynamically associated with adolescents' psychological functioning and school adjustment. Using a cross‐lagged panel network approach, this study examined the dynamic associations among perceived parental comparison, authenticity and school adjustment. Four hundred forty‐nine adolescents in China ( M _age  = 15.81 ± 0.61; 51.9% female) participated at two time points. Results showed that parental upward social comparison emerged as the most structurally influential node, exhibiting the highest out‐expected and bridge expected influence. Self‐alienation, parental temporal comparison of decline and peer relationship problems also occupied prominent structural positions, whereas parental downward comparison showed the highest in‐expected influence. In addition, upward and downward social comparisons were linked to peer relationship problems in opposite directions, and school adjustment was associated with subsequent changes in decline‐focused parental comparisons. Progress‐focused comparison was associated with lower self‐alienation, and authenticity showed modest but meaningful links with school adjustment. Overall, the findings suggest that parental comparison, authenticity and school adjustment are embedded within a dynamic and reciprocal system during adolescence, with distinct comparison forms playing differentiated structural roles.