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SCHOOl ACHIEVEMENT AT THE SECONDARY LEVEl: INFLUENCE OF PARENTING STYLE AND PAR

SCHOOl ACHIEVEMENT AT THE SECONDARY LEVEl: INFLUENCE OF PARENTING STYLE AND PARENT INVOlVEMENT IN SCHOOLING R. DESlANDES Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières E. ROYER. D. TURCOTTE. R. BERTRAND Laval University ABSTRACT. This study examined the influence of parenting style and parental involvement in schooling on academic achievement at the secondary level. The research was conducted with 525 adolescents of the Quebec-Appalaches region and used two instruments, the first one being developed by Steinberg and his colleagues (1992), and the second one by Epstein, Salinas, and Connors (1993). The instruments were validated with French-speaking secondary III students in 1994. lt was found that the three factors, parental acceptance, supervision, and psychological autonomy granting, contributed to school achievement. Results also indicated that youngsters whose parents gave them affective support performed better than their peers. Parent-teacher contacts seemed to be related to lower school grades. These data provide evidence that parents retain substan- tial influence over their adolescent's school performance. RÉSUMÉ. La présente recherche examine la relation entre d'une part, le style parental et la participation parentale au suivi scolaire et d'autre part, la réussite scolaire au secondaire. L'étude a été réalisée auprès de 525 adolescents de la région de Québec-Appalaches à l'aide de deux instruments, dont le premier a été conçu par Steinberg et ses collègues (1992) et le deuxième, par Epstein, Salinas et Connors ( 1993 ). Les instruments ont été validés auprès d'élèves de secondaire III, en 1994. Les résultats indiquent que les trois facteurs de l'encadrement parental, de l'encouragement à l'autonomie et de l'engagement parental, contribuent à prédire le rendement scolaire. Plus les jeunes perçoivent leurs parents comme leur apportant un soutien affectif, meilleurs sont leurs résultats scolaires. Les contacts entre parents et enseignants semblent toutefois avoir un rapport avec les difficultés scolaires. Ces données démontrent que les parents exercent toujours une influence prépondérante sur la réussite scolaire des adolescents. Research has shown that the home environment influences academic achievement and thus prevents high school dropout (Dauber & Epstein, 1993; ]anosz, 1994). Among the family-related factors associated with school performance are family background variables, such as parental REVUE DES SCIENCES DE L'tDUCATION DE MCGILL • VOL 32 N° 3 AUTOMNE 1997 191 Deslandes. Royer. Turcotte. & Bertrand education and family structure, and family processes, such as parental education style and parental involvement in schooling (Dornbusch, Ritter, Mont-Reynaud, & Chez, 1990; Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992). Parenting style refers to a general child-rearing pattern that characterizes parents' behaviors toward their child. lt is most often conceptualized along two dimensions, parental acceptance- involvement and strictness-supervision, which can be combined to create a fourfold parenting typology: authoritative, authoritarian, in- dulgent, or neglectful, wherein parental involvement in schooling re- fers to the parents' role in their child's education. lt can take several forms: presence at school, communicating with the teachers, or helping at home with homework (Christenson, Rounds, & Franklin, 1992; Steinberg et al., 1992). Baumrind (1978) was the first one to identify authoritative parenting in her socialization studies; however, most of her studies were con- ducted with young children. Recent American studies on adolescents have reported positive links between authoritative parenting and school performance (Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987; Lamborn, Brown, Mounts, & Steinberg, 1993; Steinberg et al., 1992). According to these researchers, authoritative parenting is defined by a combination of high levels of warmth and acceptance, behavioral con- trol, and psychological autonomy granting. Concerning the influence of a high level of parental involvement in schooling on school grades, a review of literature demonstrates conver- gence in the research results at the elementary level (Epstein, 1992). However, at the high schoollevel, research evidence is less supportive. Although Steinberg et al. (1992) have found that parent involvement is positively linked with academic achievement, a few researchers noted little or no effect of parental involvernent on adolescent school per- formance (Keith, Reimers, Fehrmann, Pottebaum, & Aubey, 1986; Natriello & McDill, 1986). Keith (1991) explains these inconsistencies in part by the numerous definitions of parent involvement in studies on school performance. For instance, sorne authors use the latter term to refer to parent participation in school activities while others use it to refer to more general parental interest in their child's academic and sociallife (Keith, 1991; Keith et al., 1986). In addition, modest yet positive correlations observed between parenting style and parental involvement in schooling suggest that a combination of sorne dimensions of these variables could be associated with adoles- cent school performance (Steinberg et al., 1992). In fact, studies have 192 MCGILLJOURNAL OF EDUCATION' VOL 32 NO 3 FALL 1997 Parental Influence and School Achievement indicated that students with higher grades come from parents who demonstrate high levels of warmth, supervision, and psychological autonomy granting and who are highly involved in their adolescent's schooling (Lamborn et al., 1993; Steinberg et al., 1992). Obviously, despite the differences reported above, the reviewed literature leaves no doubt as to the positive influence the family environment has on adolescent school achievement. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Epstein's (1987) theoretieal model of overlapping spheres of influence provides a useful conceptual framework for a global understanding of children's development and school achievement. The model focuses on the roles that parents and the school need to play and on linkages needed between schools and families to promote a child's success. In the model, schools and families are represented by two spheres that can be pushed together or pulled apart depending on the degree of family and school collaboration. Three major forces determine the amount of intersection: force A, whieh refers to individual and historie time, the age and grade level of students, and the social conditions of the period during whieh the child is in school; forces Band C, whieh represent the practiees of families and schools. Students, their development and their success, are central to the model. Aiming to complete the model, Deslandes and Royer (1994) have proposed to add the parenting style variable, next to the other family variables in the external structure of the family sphere. Figure 1 (p. 194) illustrates the modified model of overlapping spheres of influence. While keeping the whole model in a background perspective, the objective of the current study is to specifieally investigate the influence of two family variables, parenting style and parental involvement in schooling, on adolescents' school performance. A dimensional approach is applied, that is, dimensions or factors of the family variables are considered as continuous variables. Concerns arise from the two family variables whieh address more pre- cisely the following three questions: • What is the influence of parenting style on the academie achieve- ment of high school students? • What is the influence of parental involvement in schooling on the academie achievement of high school students? • What is the relative contribution of parenting style and parental involve- ment in schooling on the academie achievement ofhigh school students? REVUE DES SCIENCES DE L·tDUCATION DE MCGILL • VOL 32 N° 3 AUTOMNE 1997 193 De$landes. Royer. Twcotte. & Bertrand Family School ForceB ... .. Characteristics Practices (parent involvement in schooling) Parenting Style Force A Forcee ... .. Characteristics Practices Time 1 Age 1 School Level FIGURE 1. Modified model of overlapping spheres of influence Deslandes, & Royer, 1994; based on Epstein's overlapping spheres of influence on children's learning (1987,1992), METHODOLOGY Sample The sampling was composed of 525 secondary III students (equivalent to grade nine in the American school education system), 282 girls (53.7%), and 243 boys (46.3%), aged between 14.0 and 16.0. The subjects were attending two French-speaking high schools from the Quebec-Appalaches region. The first one was situated in a rural city (12,000 inhabitants) and the students were transported from surround- ing villages. The second one was a Quebec suburb high school (72,000 inhabitants). Table 1 presents sorne of the sociodemographic character- istics of the sampling. Measures School achievement measured by the year-end point averages as they appeared in the official school records were used as the dependent variable. We selected school grades because, according to Keith et al. 194 MCGILLJOURNAL OF EDUCATION· VOL 32 NO 3 FALL 1997 Parental Influence and School Achievement TABLE 1. Demographie eharaeteristies of the sam pie (N=525) ~ 00 Female 53.7 Male 46.3 Familyslze 1 child 7.4 2 Children 48.4 3 children & more 44.2 family structure Intact 80.8 Nonintact Parental education Elementary level. high school started High school diploma Vocational school College or university Mother 28.2 34.0 9.4 28.4 19.2 Father 31.0 19.2 10.0 39.8 (1993), these are more valid measures of leaming than achievement tests. The authors also contend that school grades are more sensitive to student effort and motivation and they represent the criteria which are most often used in promotion decisions. The selection of the year-end point overall average as opposed to the year-end point averages in French and in math was based on the strong correlations observed between our three measures (year-end GPA with French: r = .85; year- end GPA with math: r = .84). The independent variables were measured with the following instruments. PARENTING STYLE. Measures uploads/s3/ psihologie.pdf