The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between four substantial factors of
parents’ motivation(intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, entrustment motivation, and
competitive motivation)to participate in private tutoring for their children, and parents’
psychological burden(PPB), and their’ investment of participating in private tutoring for their
children(PIPEC). The sample of this study was parents who had a child/children enrolled in the
middle school(N=744). Using structural equation modeling, findings showed that intrinsic, extrinsic
and competitive motivation factors were positively related to parents’ investment of participating
in private tutoring for their children. However, entrustment motivation factor was not significantly
associated with PIPEC. Extrinsic and competitive motivation factors were positively related to
parents’ psychological burden. In contrast, intrinsic motivation was associated with lower level of
parents’ psychological burden. Entrustment motivation was not significantly associated with PPB.
Only extrinsic motivation has an indirect effect in parents’ psychological burden with PIPEC as a
mediator. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study were discussed for education
researchers and policy-makers who might be concerned with Korean parents.