Digital transformation in education and parental emotional support during school transitions: a comparative study of China and Kazakhstan

Introduction

Since the beginning of the 21st century, driven by the rapid development and widespread adoption of digital technologies, global education systems have undergone unprecedented transformation. From interactive whiteboards and learning management systems to mobile applications and AI-powered tutoring platforms, the digitisation of education has not only transformed teaching practices but also reshaped the social ecology of schools [20, p. 3]. Within this transformed educational ecosystem, the connection between home and school – particularly the emotional dimension of parental involvement–has increasingly become a focal point of academic attention.

Parental emotional support, broadly defined as the emotional encouragement, empathetic understanding and responsive companionship that parents provide to their children in educational contexts, has long been regarded as a key factor influencing students’ physical and mental well-being as well as their academic achievement [10, p. 144]. However, digital technology has profoundly altered the ways in which such support is delivered and experienced. Today, parents can view academic performance via online platforms, communicate with teachers through instant messaging apps, and assist with homework via video calls – practices that were virtually non-existent two decades ago.

The transition to secondary school, particularly from primary to secondary level, is a critical juncture in a student’s development, during which they are more likely to face academic pressure and socio-emotional adjustment issues [1, p. 212]. Existing research indicates that the quality of parental emotional support during this phase significantly influences students’ adaptive capacity and long-term academic trajectories. Consequently, exploring how digital transformation mediates this support process holds both theoretical value and practical urgency.

This paper conducts a comparative study of China and Kazakhstan – two countries with significant differences in culture and educational systems, yet both undergoing rapid digitalisation in education. China possesses a vast national educational technology infrastructure and is profoundly influenced by Confucian parenting culture, providing a typical case study for examining the interplay between digital tools and high academic pressure [13, p. 27]. As a post-Soviet state, Kazakhstan is actively advancing educational reform through digital initiatives, having developed a unique digital environment for parental involvement against the backdrop of institutional transformation [12, p. 88]. A comparison of the two countries can reveal the complex mechanisms and cultural differences through which digital transformation shapes parental emotional support during the transition to higher education.

1. Digital Transformation in Education: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Overview

Digital transformation in education refers to the systematic integration of digital technologies into teaching processes, institutional management and the broader educational ecosystem [8, p. 5]. It differs from simple ‘digitisation’ (i.e. converting analogue information into digital format) in that it involves a fundamental restructuring of educational practice through technology, including a shift towards personalised learning, data-driven assessment, and the breaking down of traditional boundaries between home and school.

UNESCO’s 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report notes that over 130 countries have introduced national digital education policies, reflecting a global consensus that technology is a vital pillar for enhancing educational quality and promoting educational equity in the modern era [21, p. 14]. Relevant theoretical perspectives draw upon multiple disciplines: educational technology scholars focus on the functional value of digital tools – namely, their capacity to extend, enhance, adapt or redefine educational tasks [18]; whereas educational sociologists emphasise that digitalisation may reproduce or even exacerbate structural inequalities, particularly as manifested in the digital divide [22, p. 6].

In China, the national digital education strategy has been progressively implemented through successive Five-Year Plans, culminating in the ‘2021–2025 Plan for Education Informatisation’, which mandates the integration of artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing into school curricula and management systems [15]. Platforms such as Xuexi Tong, DingTalk and WeChat have become central to China’s school communication systems, enabling real-time feedback on student performance to parents and facilitating large-scale home-school dialogue.

In Kazakhstan, the digital transformation of education is driven by the ‘Digital Kazakhstan’ national programme (2018–2022) and subsequent initiatives, with the aim of equipping all schools with high-speed internet, providing students with digital devices, and establishing a national online learning platform [9, p. 3]. Although cities such as Almaty and Nur-Sultan have made significant progress, rural areas still suffer from infrastructure shortcomings, which constrain effective digital participation. This urban-rural divide has a significant impact on the equity of digital parental engagement nationwide.

2. Parental Emotional Support: Conceptual Framework and Educational Implications

Parental emotional support encompasses a range of behaviours: expressing affection, acknowledging children’s emotions, offering comfort during times of stress, and conveying confidence in their academic abilities [17, p. 374]. It differs from instrumental support (such as homework assistance) and informational support (such as advice on course selection), focusing instead on the emotional aspects of the parent-child relationship as they relate to education.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory provides a foundational framework for understanding the role of parental emotional support within the student’s overall social environment [3]. This model posits that the family microsystem and the school microsystem are interconnected via the mesosystem (the home-school interaction arena). Digital communication technologies have significantly expanded the interactive bandwidth of this mesosystem, enabling more frequent, diverse, and potentially more nuanced home-school interactions.

Self-determination theory further elucidates the underlying mechanisms through which parental emotional support influences student development [5, p. 227]. This theory posits that when parents fulfil their children’s three fundamental psychological needs – autonomy, competence and relatedness – the child’s motivation to learn is enhanced. Emotionally supportive parenting – that is, being involved without being overly controlling, and encouraging without coercing – is associated with higher intrinsic motivation, greater academic engagement and better emotional well-being.

Empirical research consistently indicates that students who receive high levels of parental emotional support demonstrate superior academic performance, lower levels of anxiety and depression, and a more positive attitude towards school [7, p. 202]. This effect is particularly pronounced during the transition to secondary school: as existing social networks are disrupted and pressures in the new academic environment increase, children’s need for secure attachment and parental reassurance becomes more acute. Consequently, how digital transformation affects the quality and quantity of emotional support during this phase has become a key research question.

3. The Transition to Secondary School and Student Adjustment: Challenges in the Digital Age

The transition to secondary school is one of the most extensively studied topics in developmental and educational psychology, regarded as a phase where high risks coexist with developmental opportunities [6, p. 90]. The transition from primary to secondary school (typically between the ages of 11 and 13) involves multiple simultaneous changes: increased academic demands, the restructuring of peer relationships, and a more distant teacher-student relationship, requiring students to develop stronger self-management and independent learning skills.

In China, this transition is subject to heightened pressure due to the high-stakes nature of the Zhongkao (the general secondary school entrance examination), placing immense strain on pupils in the upper years of primary school and the lower years of secondary school, as well as their families [25, p. 77]. Research indicates that Chinese pupils frequently experience rising academic anxiety and declining self-efficacy during this phase; pressure transmitted by parents via digital monitoring tools can sometimes exacerbate rather than alleviate these difficulties.

In Kazakhstan, the transition to secondary education faces unique challenges. The legacy of the post-Soviet education system, combined with ongoing reforms promoting core competencies and trilingual education, creates a complex and somewhat unstable academic environment for students at this stage [2, p. 31]. Many parents, having completed their own education under the Soviet system, find it difficult to provide effective academic guidance for the reformed curriculum; consequently, the importance of emotional support (which is less dependent on the curriculum) is all the more pronounced.

The impact of digital technology on the transition to secondary education is both empowering and potentially disruptive. On the one hand, digital communication platforms allow parents to keep abreast of their children’s grades, attendance and behavioural performance, facilitating more timely and precise emotional support; on the other hand, constant digital monitoring may undermine adolescents’ autonomy, trigger surveillance anxiety and ultimately diminish the quality of parent-child relationships [14, p. 89]. Consequently, striking a balance between supportive digital engagement and intrusive digital monitoring has become a core dimension of contemporary parental support systems.

4. Digital Platforms as Mediators of Parental Emotional Support: A Comparative Analysis

The emergence of dedicated home-school communication platforms has created new forms of emotional engagement for parents in education. In China, platforms such as DingTalk and WeChat parent groups have become ubiquitous tools in school life, delivering daily updates to parents on homework, exam results and teacher feedback [11, p. 55]. These platforms have overcome the temporal and spatial constraints of traditional parent-teacher meetings, enabling continuous engagement; for both parents and children, this may provide emotional comfort but may also create an emotional burden.

Research on urban schools in China indicates that digital parental engagement is significantly influenced by differences in socioeconomic status and digital literacy [24, p. 112]. Parents with higher levels of education and stronger technical skills are better able to utilise digital tools to provide nuanced emotional support – such as offering encouragement through personalised messages, participating in school activities via live streams, and accessing psychological resources online. Conversely, parents with lower digital literacy may perceive digital communication platforms as a source of anxiety rather than an empowering tool, thereby transmitting this anxiety to their children.

In Kazakhstan, digital parental engagement is still in its early stages but is evolving rapidly. The national ‘e-Mektep’ platform, launched in 2018, allows parents to view grades, attendance records and teacher notifications online, significantly expanding digital home-school connections [16, p. 7]. However, qualitative research indicates that many parents primarily use the platform for monitoring rather than active emotional engagement, reflecting both cultural norms regarding parenting roles and the limitations of digital capabilities [19, p. 34].

Cross-national comparisons of parental emotional support in the digital age must account for deep-seated cultural differences in parenting philosophies and notions of emotional expression. In China, influenced by Confucian culture, parental emotional support is often expressed indirectly–through self-sacrifice, dedication and high academic expectations–rather than through explicit verbal affirmation [23, p. 17]. Against this backdrop, digital platforms serve more as tools for conveying high expectations than as channels for unconditional positive regard. In Kazakhstan, traditional Kazakh collectivist values, Soviet-era educational norms and contemporary individualist trends intertwine to form a parenting culture that values both family community support and academic achievement, thereby shaping a unique environment for digital parental engagement.

Despite these differences, both countries exhibit a common tension: whilst digital technology enhances emotional support, it also carries the risk of excessive digital engagement. Research in both China and Kazakhstan indicates that the emotional quality of digital parent-child communication – whether interactions are warm, responses are timely, and attention is paid to the child’s emotional state – is a more effective predictor of positive student development outcomes than the frequency of digital contact [4, p. 76]. This finding suggests that research should shift from quantitative indicators of digital parental involvement to qualitative assessments of the emotional dimensions of digital parent-child communication.

5. Discussion: Implications for Policy and Practice

The comparative analysis in this paper offers several important implications for educational policy and practice in both China and Kazakhstan. Firstly, the design of digital communication platforms between schools and parents should take into account the emotional dimensions of parental involvement, rather than focusing solely on information and tool functionality. Platforms that merely provide parents with academic data and behavioural records may inadvertently foster a culture of surveillance-based parenting, thereby undermining the quality of parent-child emotional bonds.

Secondly, digital literacy training for parents should encompass not only technical skills but also the socio-emotional dimensions of digital communication. Parents need to learn how to use digital tools to express emotional support, set healthy boundaries for digital monitoring, and foster their children’s digital autonomy. Such training is particularly urgent in Kazakhstan, where the rapid proliferation of platforms has outpaced the development of digital parenting capabilities.

Thirdly, the interplay between educational digitalisation and parental emotional support must be understood within the specific cultural contexts of each country. Interventions aimed at enhancing digital parental engagement should be culturally adapted – for example, respecting the more indirect emotional expression characteristic of Chinese parenting culture, or the collectivist nature of family support in Kazakh culture. The value of cross-cultural comparison lies not in identifying universal solutions, but in revealing the diverse pathways through which digitalisation shapes the emotional ecology of education.

Finally, attention must be paid to issues of equity in digital parental engagement. The digital divide resulting from socio-economic status, geography and educational background means that the benefits of digital home-school connections are not distributed equitably. In both China and Kazakhstan, students from disadvantaged families not only face insufficient digital parental engagement but may also suffer the compounding disadvantage of a lack of emotional support during critical school transition phases. Addressing this equity issue requires the coordinated advancement of digital infrastructure development, device distribution and support for the digital literacy of families from disadvantaged groups.

Conclusion

This paper uses China and Kazakhstan as comparative case studies to explore the intersecting issues of educational digital transformation and parental emotional support during the transition to higher education. The analysis indicates that digital technology has significantly expanded the forms and temporal-spatial scope of parental involvement in education, whilst simultaneously introducing new complexities arising from digital literacy, cultural norms and the risks of monitoring-oriented parenting.

Both China and Kazakhstan are rapidly advancing the digitalisation of education, yet the cultural contexts of digital parental involvement differ markedly. In China, high academic pressure and Confucian parenting culture have jointly shaped a model of digital engagement characterised by academic monitoring and expectations of achievement; in Kazakhstan, traditional collectivist values, the post-Soviet institutional legacy and contemporary reform demands interact to form a distinct yet equally complex landscape of digital parental emotional support.

In both contexts, the emotional quality (rather than mere frequency) of digital parent-child communication is a key determinant of positive developmental outcomes during the transition to higher education. This finding holds significant implications for the design of educational technology platforms, the content of digital parenting programmes, and the equity frameworks of national digitalisation policies. Future research could employ a longitudinal mixed-methods design to track the long-term impact of parental emotional support – under varying forms and intensities of digital engagement – on students’ developmental trajectories, thereby fostering a more nuanced and evidence-based understanding of this critical dimension of contemporary education.