Parental educational anxiety is a hot topic in the current context in China, but there is still no clear and powerful explanation for its specific generating mechanism. This research adopted qualitative research method, based on Bandura's social cognition theory, and interviewed 35 parents of primary and secondary school students. The study found that the key psychological cognitive factors that affect the generation of parents' educational anxiety include expectation assessment and educational efficacy, and environmental factors include restrictive factors, supportive factors and exemplary factors. Psychological cognitive factors and environmental factors do not affect parents' educational anxiety separately. There is a complex ternary interaction between environmental factors, psychological cognitive factors and parents' educational anxiety. These interactions also affect the ups and downs of parents' educational anxiety. This study provides new perspectives and ideas for better understanding and intervention of parental educational anxiety. We can alleviate parents' educational anxiety by popularizing knowledge of laws of adolescents' physical and mental development, improving parents' educational efficacy, and peer group demonstration. In addition, educational support should be provided to parents through multiple external methods.