Parenting Style and Academic Achievement in Children

Abstract

A myriad of research exists supporting different parenting styles and their correlation with academic achievement; however, most of these studies focus on Western social norms rather than the global community as a whole. This assignment endeavors to review the available literature on parenting styles and academic achievement in children concerning different cultures and social norms. The empirical evidence review reveals that parental involvement is a strong indicator of student success or failure depending on the specific parenting style, but cultural outliers exist. Overall, the authoritative parenting style strongly correlates with high academic achievement across various cultures and contexts. Exceptions to the authoritarian parenting and high academic achievement trend overwhelmingly represent differences in cultural norms in Asian societies. This phenomenon will also be discussed. Further research into cultural influences on parenting style is warranted.

Keywords: parenting style, Baumrind, academic achievement, children, culture

Parenting Style and Academic Achievement in Children

For over half a century, Dr. Diane Baumrind's (1966) parenting types have helped shape our understanding of how parenting styles affect children's development and academic achievement. Baumrind (1966) separated parenting styles into three categories: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. These parenting styles have significant differences in their execution of parental roles and their effect on the child and their academic performance. For example, the permissive parent is identified as having meager expectations of their child's behavior and academic performance but being incredibly responsive to their needs (Baumrind, 1966). The authoritarian parent, in stark contrast, has almost impossible expectations of their child's behavior and performance but offers little to no support or guidance to the child in their endeavors of attaining them (Baumrind, 1966). Finally, the authoritarian parent's hallmarks are high but attainable expectations and an involved, supportive approach to parenting, including offering their child guidance, support, and monitoring of success (Baumrind, 1966). Later, a fourth parenting type was adopted into the fold; the neglectful parent (Maccoby, Martin, Mussen & Hetherington, 1983). This parent has no expectations of their child and gives no support or guidance. These four parenting styles will be used to guide this empirical study into the cross- cultural implications of parenting styles and academic achievement in children.

This analysis will explore parenting style's effects on a child's academic performance. The hypothesis is that authoritarian parenting correlates negatively with academic performance across cultures. The research question is as follows: What parenting styles correlate most strongly with academic success and a positive self-concept in students of different cultures? This research is significant because most parents of any culture want their child(ren) to succeed academically and become a mature adult with a positive self-concept. However, many X-ennials (born 1977-1983) and Millennials (born 1983 to 1996) have little to no first-hand knowledge of a successful marriage or a healthy parenting style due to the large number of divorces taking place during the '80s and '90s (Norton & Miller, 1990). The following examination should serve as a starting point for growing the knowledge base needed to assist parents, faculty, and students in their academic success and to develop a positive self-concept in their children.

Literature Review

Cross-cultural Parenting: Patterns Emerge

This section presents an overview of the relevant research on parenting styles and their effect on their child’s academic performance in various cultural settings. First, a diverse population within the cultural context of the American high school is explored. Next, samples from three different cultural contexts are compared: Chinese, Australian, and American. In this study, a pattern begins to emerge, which suggests that there may be an exception to the rule, i.e., authoritative parenting is the best parenting style to prepare children for success in academia. We explore this exception by looking at a study of parenting and academic performance out of Pakistan, and finally, end with a similar study focused on children of Mexican and Dominican descent.

Meta-analysis 1. Research conducted in the 1980s tests Baumrind's typology in the context of school performance. The study includes a large and diverse sample size of nearly eight thousand school students from the San Francisco Bay area. Each of these students was given a questionnaire, which included questions about their economic background, ethnicity, home environment, and parental attitudes toward certain behaviors. The study concluded a positive relationship between authoritarian parenting styles and poor school performance (Dornbusch, Ritter, Liederman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987). The study also concluded a positive relationship between authoritative parenting and academic success (Dornbusch et al., 1987). This study is incredibly insightful as the diverse sample population was useful in providing consistent results across gender, age, ethnicity, family structure, and parental education level (Dornbusch et al., 1987). Overall the study found that "pure" authoritative families, meaning both parents scored high on the authoritative parenting style and low on the others, producing students with the most academic success. In contrast, families with inconsistent parenting styles where one parent was authoritarian, and the other was either permissive, neglectful or authoritative, had children with the least academic success (Dornbusch et al., 1987).

This study's exciting characteristic is that each student was asked to select one of nine different categories for ethnic identification: Asian, black, Filipino, Pacific Islander, American Indian, Latino or Hispanic, white. Vietnamese respondents were combined into the Asian groups. There were large enough sample sizes from Asian, black, white, and Hispanic populations to formulate the study's data. The study showed that across ethnic groups, similar correlations were present as in the white populations, authoritative parenting style was positively associated with higher grades (Dornbusch et al., 1987). There were differences, however, in the strength of the correlations according to specific ethnic groups. For Asians, there was almost no correlation between grades and the authoritative and permissive parenting styles (Dornbusch et al., 1987). The results were very interesting for the Hispanic population due to the differences in males versus females. Hispanic males showed almost no correlation between the authoritarian parenting style and grades, while Hispanic females, there was a strong negative correlation for the same factors (Dornbusch et al., 1987). This study gives us our first glimpse into the cultural differences associated with parenting styles and academic achievement, but this sample still came from Western society.

Meta-analysis 2. In 1998, researchers conducted experiments in Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States to determine if previous national results would be recreated globally in the context of different cultures. The study results found that, of the three groups, the parents from Hong Kong rated the highest on authoritarian parenting and that there was a positive correlation between this parenting style and academic achievement for their children (Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998). Of the two English-speaking groups, there was a negative correlation between authoritarian parenting and academic achievement but a positive correlation between authoritativeness and academic achievement (Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998). Interestingly, this specific study highlights a connection between parents' lack of college education and their child's scholastic success when academic authoritarianism is the parenting climate (Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998).

As in previously noted research, results for Asian parents and students varied from the mean scores. In both cases, Asian parenting, which scored higher on the authoritarian scale, positively correlates with academic success. These results have not been reproduced in other cultural demographics, either in Western cultures or otherwise. The question remains, are these results restricted to Chinese families, or does the positive correlation of authoritarian parenting and good academic performance stretch across other cultures in Asia?

Meta-analysis 3. Citing previous studies and the well-documented correlation of authoritarian parenting and positive academic performance in Asian families, researchers applied this formula to school children in Pakistan (Rauf & Ahmed, 2017). The research hypothesis is that the same correlation in Chinese-Asian families would be reproduced in Pakistani families because Pakistani parenting is typically authoritarian (Rauf & Ahmed, 2017). Researchers sampled 100 students, 50 male, and 50 female, recruited from various schools in Karachi,

Pakistan (Rauf & Ahmed, 2017). Children were then given a questionnaire in order to gauge the parenting style associated with each student. The academic achievement of the student was determined by their class achieved grade point. The research results showed a strong negative correlation between authoritarian style parenting and academic performance, which did not support the researcher's hypothesis (Rauf & Ahmed, 2017). The findings very clearly contradicted the prevailing belief that all Asian cultures are immune to the authoritarian effect on academic performance. Researchers assert that authoritarian parenting's demandingness and punitive style undermine a child's level of self-confidence.

Furthermore, the loss of self-confidence negatively affects their academic performance (Rauf & Ahmed, 2017). Admittedly, Rauf & Ahmed (2017) state that the sample was very small. In the future, a greater sample size with a more comprehensive array of ages and locations would reveal in greater detail the patterns associated with Pakistani authoritarian parenting and academic achievement.

Meta-analysis 4. It is well documented that early academic achievement positively predicts high school completion; however, there was little data on how Latino students fare in such scenarios. With this in mind, researchers set out to determine the academic success of Latino students from 750 Mexican and Dominican families living in the United States (Kim, Calzada, Barajas-Gonzalez, Huang, Brotman, Castro, & Pichardo, 2018). This longitudinal study revealed similar patterns from previous research on the relationship between parenting styles and academic achievement, specifically, the uniquely Latino cultural value of respeto, which is similar to authoritarian parenting attributes such as strict obedience and deference to adults (Kim et al., 2018). Researchers found that those parents who strictly adhered to the value of respeto were more likely to have children ill-prepared for school in an American school because these children were less likely to question, problem-solve, or negotiate (Kim et al., 2018).

The Asian Anomaly

To better understand the anomaly that seems to exist for Chinese and some other Asian parenting styles, Chao and Sue (1996) proposed a different approach to understanding the difference in Asian scores. In order to compensate for the cultural differences between maternal behavior in the Western world versus Chinese mothers, Chao (1994) hypothesized that although Chinese mothers show more significant authoritarian characteristics in general (general authoritarianism), they are, by comparison, more authoritative when it comes to academic style (academic authoritativeness). So, although the parent may have high demands for obedience in general regarding academics, the Asian mother offers more support than in ordinary circumstances (Chao, 1994). It is important to note that the Asian mother, particularly the Chinese mother, believes that having strict codes of behavior and demanding obedience to those codes is the most loving way to "train" their child for their lives as adults (Dornbusch et al., 1987). It is not to be construed that the Asian mother is unloving; the Asian mother is loving differently than the Westerner perceives it.

There is another possible explanation for the Asian anomaly. Rather than academic success being solely reliant on the type of parenting style used to raise the child, the learning environment is also critical to the child's success. As we have seen before, Chinese parents are more authoritarian in general, but this seems to affect their child's academic achievement positively. Could this be due to the learning environment that exists in communist China? A communist country would likely be more authoritarian; therefore, the parent's style would prepare their child for success in this context. More research is warranted to determine the correlation between parenting style, learning environment, and the child's academic achievement.

Discussion

Throughout the review of available research there emerges a pattern in which the authoritative parent, using high expectations as well as a high level of support, has the most successful impact on their child’s academic performance. This pattern is well-documented across many different contexts including, but not limited to, culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Most researchers attribute this correlation to the self-concept of the child achieved by the parent’s demandingness and responsiveness. The thought process is that the child learns independence and resilience due to the nature of the parent’s influence on their child. The child learns throughout their lifetime that they can rise to the expectation placed on them by others and that they can ask for and except help when needed. The theory is that this dynamic is what prepared a child for success in their academic pursuits and in their social emotional development. The flip side of the same theory is that authoritarian parenting diminishes a child’s capacity to succeed academically and socially due to the high demandingness of the parent without the benefit of support from the parent. The child learns that they must rise to the demands of others and that they must do it on their own, without the support of others. Due to this unique dynamic of authoritarian parenting, the child may succeed, or the child may fail. If the child fails, this hurts their self-concept which in turn, hinders their academic performance and social interactions. If this were the case across the board, these concepts would be uniform, however they are not.

Conclusion

When Baumrind’s (1966) theory is applied to different countries and cultural demographics, a pattern immerges which disputes the uniformity of the theory. Although the pattern holds for students in the United States (Dornbusch et al., 1987), Pakistan (Rauf & Ahmed, 2017), and families of Mexican and Dominican ancestry (Kim et al., 2018), there is a dissenting faction among Asian cultures, namely those families from Chinese social contexts (Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998). The Chinese cultural, demographic splinters away from the rest in the correlation between authoritarian parenting methods and academic success. Little research exists on the self-concept of these children as the research was focused on scholastic performance. When considering the evidence, this student’s research hypothesis is not entirely supported by the data. That is, authoritarian parenting does not always negatively correlate with academic performance. The question remains as to why this anomaly occurs.

It would be interesting to discover how these children fare in a Western society versus Asian or, precisely, the communist Chinese social context. Does authoritarian parenting in Chinese familial settings affect self-concept as those families of other cultural contexts? What is the learning environment like for children being raised in communist China? Does the authoritarian parenting style better prepare children for this learning environment, or is the difference merely accounted for by the cultural nuances described in previous studies (Chao, 1994)? More research into the cultural nuances of Chinese familial relationships is needed and the effects of the authoritarian parenting style on the child’s self-concept.

References

Baumrind, D. (1966). Effects of Authoritative Parental Control on Child Behavior. Child Development, 37(4), 887–907. https://doi-org.proxy.ccis.edu/10.2307/1126611

Chao, R. K. (1994). Beyond parental control and authoritarian parenting style: Understanding Chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training. Child Development, 65, 1111- 1119.

Chao, R. K. (1996). Chinese and European-American mothers' beliefs about the role of parenting in children's school success. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 403-421.

Dornbusch, S. M., Ritter, P. L., Liederman, P. H., Roberts, D. F., & Fraleigh, M. J. (1987). The relation of parenting style to adolescent school performance. Child Development,58, 1244–1257

Kim, Y., Calzada, E. J., Barajas-Gonzalez, R. G., Huang, K.-Y., Brotman, L. M., Castro, A., & Pichardo, C. (2018). The role of authoritative and authoritarian parenting in the early academic achievement of Latino students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 110(1), 119–132. https://doi-org.proxy.ccis.edu/10.1037/edu0000192

Leung, K., Lau, S., & Lam, W. L. (1998). Parenting styles and academic achievement: A cross- cultural study. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly,44(2), 157–172.

Maccoby, E. E., Martin, J. A., Mussen, P. H., & Hetherington, E. (1983). Handbook of child psychology.

Norton, A. J., & Miller, L. F. (1991). Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the 1990s.
Rauf, K., & Ahmed, J. (2017). The Relationship of Authoritarian Parenting Style and Academic

Performance in School Students. Pakistan Journal of Psychology, 48(2), 61–71.