Studies have suggested that poor academic performance is associated with depression in children. We explored whether parental involvement in children's sports activities buffers children against the relationship between poor academic performance on depression. We propose a moderated mediation model in which we posited that parental sports involvement reduces both the strength of the relationship between academic performance and depression and the indirect effect of poor academic performance on depression in children through self-esteem. Measurements reported by a total of 274 elementary school students were collected about parental sports involvement, self-esteem, and depression. The children's academic performance was reported by their teachers. In support of our hypotheses, the results indicated that the relationship between poor academic performance and depression weakened as parental sports involvement increased. For children with parents less involved in their sports activities, poor academic performance was associated with greater depression through a decrease in self-esteem. However, for children with parents more involved in their sports activities, poor academic performance was not related to either self-esteem or depression.
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