AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES ISSN Print: 2156-1540, ISSN Online: 2151-1559, doi:10.5251/ajsms.2011.2.3.278.282

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The influence of authoritative parenting style on adolescents' academic achievement

Kingsley Nyarko University of Ghana, Psychology Department, P.O.Box LG 84, Legon Ghana

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to find out the influence of parental authoritativeness on adolescents’ academic achievement. As expected, the result shows that both mothers and fathers’ authoritativeness positively relate to the academic achievement of the students. The implications of the result are discussed. Keywords: authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, permissive parenting, parenting style, academic achievement

INTRODUCTION

One of the most robust approaches in the development of children’s social and academic achievement has been termed parenting style. In the scientific literature, there is ample evidence that insinuate that parenting styles are correlated with children’s school achievement. For instance, Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, and Fraleigh (1987) found that inconsistency and mixed parenting styles are correlated with lower grades for adolescents.

Baumrind’s (1971) seminal work on the classification of parenting styles has been essential in influencing research on parenting and its effect on children and adolescents. In her work she identified three types of parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. According to her, authoritative parenting which comprises emotional support, high standards, appropriate autonomy granting, and unequivocal, bidirectional communication has been shown to help children and adolescents develop an instrumental competence distinguished by the balancing of societal and personal needs and responsibilities (Baumrind, 1989, 1991a; cited in Darling & Steinberg, 1993).

Parenting style focuses on two major elements of parenting: parental responsiveness and parental demandingness (Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Parental responsiveness (parental warmth or supportiveness) refers to the extent to which parents intentionally foster individuality, self-regulation, and self-assertion by being attuned, supportive, and acquiescent to children’s special needs and demands (Baumrind, 1991). Parental demandingness, on the other hand also referred to as behavioral control refers to the

claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family, by their maturity demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness to confront the child who disobeys (Baumrind, 1991).

Several studies published shortly before the end of the 20th century examined the impacts of parenting styles on children’s productivity, especially establishing the gains to children of authoritative parenting as juxtaposed to the negative outcomes produced by authoritarian and permissive parenting (Demo & Cox, 2000). Park and Bauer (2002) reported that a positive association exists between authoritative parenting style and academic achievement among Caucasians.

Authoritative parenting is a more flexible style of parenting in which parents permit their children considerable freedom, but are careful to provide reasons for the restrictions they impose and will ensure that the children follow these laid down procedures. Authoritative parents are responsive to their children’s needs and ideas and will often seek their children’s views in family deliberations and decisions (Baumrind, 1991; Weiss & Schwarz, 1996). Baumrind (1991) avers that, “unlike any other pattern, authoritative upbringing….consistently generated competence and deterred problem behavior” (p.91). Bogenschneider, Small, and Tsay (1997), found that competent parenting is connected to warmer, more accepting, and more helpful styles of parenting.

Authoritative parenting has been found to be an essential factor in an adolescent’s life in comparison with the other parenting styles. It has been seen as the most effective in enhancing personal and social responsibilities in adolescents, without constraining their newly formed autonomy and individuality

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(Glasgow, Dornbusch, Troyer, Steinberg, & Ritter, 1997). Several studies have documented the positive impact of authoritative parenting style on academic achievement. These studies have indicated that parental authoritativeness is associated with higher academic achievements (Amato & Gilbreth, 1999; slicker, 1998; Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992). Steinberg, Brown, Cazmarek, Cider, and Lazarus (1988) observed that authoritative parenting facilitates school achievement. The empirical results of Steinberg and associates (1992) revealed that authoritative parenting and parental involvement in schooling are positively correlated with adolescents’ school success, while parental encouragement to succeed is negatively correlated with adolescents’ school achievement. Dornbusch and colleagues (1987) have found out that adolescents raised by authoritative parents, when compared with adolescents raised by authoritarian parents, have higher levels of academic performance in high school.

But other researchers (e.g., Jackson, Henriksen, & Foshee 1998) observed that authoritative parenting style was positively associated with academic success for European and Mexican Americans but was not related to Asian and African Americans’ academic achievements. In their study Blair and Qian (1998) found that parental control was positively associated with school performance of Chinese adolescents.

Moreover, several researchers (e.g., Amato & Gilbrett, 1999; Dornbusch et al., 1987; Slicker, 1998; Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling, Mounts, & Dornbusch, 1994) have shown that authoritative parenting is associated with a less propensity of disruptive behavioral practices.

Since the influence of authoritative parenting style has mixed implications on the academic performance of adolescents from different cultures, the study sought to find out if authoritative parenting style of parents in Ghana will have a positive influence on the academic performance of the adolescent students. Based on this it was hypothesized that there will be a positive relationship between parental authoritativeness (father & mother) and the academic performance of the students.

The present study extends prior studies on the relationship between parental authoritativeness and adolescents’ educational success by introducing a cultural dimension into it (study conducted in Ghana),

and looking at the authoritativeness of the individual parents (mothers & fathers).

METHOD

Sample: The sample for the present study was drawn from three senior high schools in the central region of Ghana. Only second year and third year (final year) students were used in the study. The schools are; University Practice Secondary School, Ghana National College and Assin Manso Secondary School all located in the central region of Ghana. Out of a sample of 239 adolescents, 45.2% were males and 54.8% were females. The participants belonged to different family structures. 72.3% of the students lived in nuclear families, whilst 27 7% lived within other family arrangements (single mother households, single father households, stepmother households, and step father households).

Procedure: The data gathering process began by sending a written permission to each of the headmasters of the three participating schools requesting their schools to be used as the population of the study. After the headmasters had consented to the request, they communicated my mission to the teachers of their schools and some of them voluntarily agreed and took part in the study. The teachers then informed the students of their respective schools about the study, and those who consented to be involved in it, were randomly selected to participate.

After the students had responded to the questions, the teachers were also asked to provide the academic grades of the students in the core subject areas of math, English, general science, and social studies. These scores were aggregated and the average score was used for the study.

Measures: Of interest in the current study are our measures of authoritative parenting and educational achievement. The demographic variables gathered for the study included age, grade, gender, family structure, etc.

Authoritative Parenting: The authoritative parenting scale was developed to measure the degree of authoritativeness of the parents (Steinberg, Mounts, Lamborn, & Dornbusch, 1991). It has three major components or dimensions: acceptance/involvement, firm control, and psychological autonomy granting. The original scale has a total of 36 items representing the 3 dimensions of the variable. The first dimension, acceptance/involvement has a total of 15 items with an alpha coefficient of 0.72. The second dimension

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which assesses parental monitoring and control has a total of 9 items with an alpha coefficient of 0.76. The third dimension, psychological autonomy granting which assesses the degree to which parents use noncoercive, democratic discipline and encourage the adolescent to express individuality within the family has a total of 12 items with an alpha coefficient of 0.72.

In the present study, 9 out of the original 36 items were used to measure the extent of parental authoritativeness. That is 3 items of each of the dimensions of acceptance/involvement, firm control, and psychological autonomy granting were taken and adapted to measure parental authoritativeness. The items were measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1-never to 5-always. Due to the nature of the study, the authoritativeness of two parental figures was measured or assessed. These were mothers and fathers’ authoritativeness. The overall alpha coefficient of the authoritativeness mothers’ scale is 0.61 (N=183), while that of the fathers’ has an alpha coefficient of 0.70 (N=170). Listed below are some of the items of the three subscales:

• Acceptance/Involvement- Example, “How often do you count on your parents to help you if you have some kind of a problem?”

• Firm control- Example, “How much do your parents try to know where you go at night?”

• Psychological autonomy granting- Example, “How often do your parents tell you that their ideas are correct and that you should not question them?”

Educational Achievement: The academic grades of the students for one academic year in four core subjects were aggregated and the average score was used to delineate their educational or academic achievement. These subjects are English, math,

general science, and social studies. Because the students were in the second and third (final) year of their education, I decided to use their second year test scores in those four subject areas in the study. Although, prior studies have shown that self-reported grades and actual grades taken from schools’ official records are highly correlated (Donovan & Jessor, 1985; Dornbusch, Ritter, Leidermann, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987) I decided to use the actual school grades of the students which I judged to be more authentic and reliable.

Data Analysis: The data collected from the survey were analyzed by using diverse statistical methods. Descriptive statistics was utilized to present an overall picture of the responses provided by the students.

Secondly, correlational analyses were used to test for linear relationships among the variables. Specifically, students’ ratings of the relationship between their parents’ authoritativeness and their school grades were anatomized by using bivariate correlation.

RESULTS

Relationship between Authoritative Parenting and Adolescents’ Educational Achievement: The statistical analysis conducted (table 1) showed a positive and significant relationship between mothers’ authoritativeness and their children’s school grades (academic achievement). Mothers’ authoritativeness in relation to their children’s school grades was significant (r=0.160, p<0.05).

Also, fathers’ authoritativeness was found to be positively and significantly correlated with the school grades of the children (r=0.204, p<0.01).

The above results, in summary, inform us that in all, the authoritativeness of parents in relation to the academic performance of their adolescent children was positively and significant related.

Table 1 Relationships between Parental authoritativeness and Adolescents’ Academic Achievement

Student's School Grades Mother's Authoritativeness

Mother's Authoritativeness .160*

N=183

Father's Authoritativeness .204** .846**

N=170 148

*p< .05 **p< .01

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DISCUSSION

The results of the study indicated a positive and significant relationship between mothers and fathers’ authoritativeness and the academic success of the students. The positive and significant association between mothers and fathers’ authoritativeness and the academic achievement of the students supported the hypothesis. The fact that authoritative parenting style of mothers and fathers had a positive impact on the educational achievement of the students, supports earlier studies conducted by researchers such as (Dornbusch et al., 1987; Glasgow, Dornbusch, Troyer, Steinberg, & Ritter, 1997; Steinberg, et al., 1992; Steinberg, et al., 1994) who have stated that adolescents who describe their parents as treating them warmly, firmly and democratically are more likely than their counterparts to perform better academically in school. Also, Deslandes (1996) reported a positive association between the three dimensions of parenting style (i.e., warmth, supervision & psychological autonomy granting) and school grades. According to Kracke (1997) authoritative parents encourage open, give-and-take communication and encourage the child's independence and individuality.

Authoritative parents provide a warm family climate, set standards, and promote independence which results in more active career exploration on the part of children. Bogenschneider (1990) has indicated that authoritative parents are more likely to be involved in school and more likely to encourage the educational excellence of their children. Steinberg and colleagues (1992) also indicated in their study that the impact of authoritative parenting on adolescent school success was as a result of the greater likelihood of authoritative parents to be involved in the school activities of their adolescent children. According to them these parents influence their children’s achievement through their direct engagement in school activities, such as helping with homework or course selection or attending parent-teacher conferences, and through the specific encouragement of school success, both explicitly and implicitly, by setting and maintaining high performance standards.

In connection to this finding, I suggest that parents provide a democratic atmosphere in the home which could provide children the opportunity to share their views on important matters. These exchanges of ideas between parents and their children have the capability of expanding the horizons of the children. Instead of parents seeing their adolescent children as

inexperience and thus need to be “controlled”, they should see them as capable individuals who have the capabilities and tools to influence their own destinies by providing them with an atmosphere devoid of intimidation and fear, but one which allows them to make informed and important decisions and choices.

The practice in the country where children are expected to kowtow to parents or authority figures in almost all issues should be discarded. Parents who do not allow their teens to take the initiative in exploring and understanding their environment should realize that such opportunities could serve as a platform to prepare these teens to excel not only academically; but also socially, emotionally and psychologically.

The limitations discovered in this study were my inability to find out if parental involvement covaries with the independent variable (parental authoritativeness) and also not comparing authoritative parenting style with the other parenting styles (authoritarian & permissive) in relation to the students’ academic achievement. Future studies should therefore try to 1) find out the relationship between authoritarian and permissive parenting styles and the academic achievements of the students, 2) a comparison among the three different styles to find out the most appropriate one in terms of their impact on the academic achievements of the students, 3) to find out the influence of parenting styles on preteens, and 4) ferret out the mediating role of parental involvement between parental authoritativeness and the students’ academic achievement.

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