Parenting Styles in Relation to Academic Performance - Anderson ...

Bradley 1Running Head: PARENTING STYLESParenting Styles in Relation to Academic Performance and Academic StressKristin BradleyAnderson University

Bradley 2AbstractThe purpose was to determine the affect of parenting styles on college students’ academicperformance and academic stress. Participants included 104 undergraduate students from a small,private Midwestern university. They completed a short demographic questionnaire, ParentalAuthority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991), and an adapted version of the Perceived Stress Scale(Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). It is hypothesized that (1a) students reared byauthoritative mothers will have higher GPAs, (1b) students reared by authoritative fathers willhave higher GPAs, (2a) students reared by authoritarian mothers will have higher academicstress, and (2b) students reared by authoritarian fathers will have higher academic stress. A maineffect was found for mothers’ parenting in relation to academic stress. No main effects werefound for fathers’ parenting in relation to academic performance or academic stress.

Bradley 3Past research has primarily studied the affect of parenting styles on children andadolescents. Results have been inconsistent when examining the affect of parenting styles oncollege students’ academic performance and academic stress. Parenting styles have been foundto affect the academic performance (Silva, Dorso, Azhar, & Renk, 2007; Turner, Chandler, &Heffer, 2009) and academic stress (Silva, Dorso, Azhar, & Renk, 2007; Smith & Renk, 2007) ofcollege students. However, other research has suggested that college students’ academicperformance is not affected by the parenting style they were reared in (Joshi, Ferris, Otto, &Regan, 2003). This inconsistency may be due to the differing measurements of parenting style.The most widely accepted model of parenting styles was developed by Baumrind andinvolves 3 parenting styles: permissive authoritarian, and authoritative. The 3 parenting stylesvary “across two dimensions: demandingness and responsiveness” (McKinney & Renk, 2008 p.5). Buri (1991) describes permissive parenting as involving little control over their children andoften do not resort to punishment to control their children’s behavior. Authoritarian parentinginvolves high levels of control but demonstrates little warmth to their children. They do notallow their children to question their authority and favor punishment to control their children’sbehavior. Authoritative parenting involves high levels of involvement with their children. Theycontrol their children’s behavior with warmth, are open to discussing disagreements with theirchildren, and are flexible with rules.Upon entering college, students experience a great deal of stress as they transition into adifferent stage of life. This stress can be thought of as academic stress and it typically involvescompleting assignments on time, performing well on exams, finding the motivation to study,time management, financial concerns about tuition and living expenses, grades, preparing forfuture career, and the overall ability to do well in a university setting (Smith & Renk, 2007).

Bradley 4Silva, Dorso, Azhar, and Renk (2007) examined the relationships between parentingstyles, college students’ present levels of anxiety, and academic performance. They found thatstudents reared by authoritarian mothers experienced higher levels of anxiety and students rearedby authoritative fathers experienced lower levels of anxiety. They also found that students rearedby authoritarian mothers had lower overall GPAs and students reared by authoritative mothersand fathers had higher overall GPAs. This suggests that individuals continue to be influenced bythe parenting style they were reared in even as they enter a new stage of life centered onindependence from family.Turner, Chandler, and Heffer (2009) examined the relationship between parenting stylesand academic performance. They found that students reared by authoritative parents had higheroverall GPAs than students reared by authoritarian or permissive parents. This is consistentthroughout research suggesting that students reared by authoritative parents experienceexpectations to do well in school as with authoritarian parenting but feel warmth and acceptanceby their parents when their academic best is not a 4.0 overall GPA. It could be suggested thatstudents who feel loved and accepted by their parents succeed academically because they do notfeel pressured to meet unobtainable expectations held by their parents.Smith and Renk (2007) examined gender differences, parenting styles, and academicrelatedstress in college students. They found that female students who identified themselves asreared by authoritarian fathers experienced higher levels of academic-related stress compared toother parenting styles and gender of parent. For males, they found no significance across allparenting styles and gender of parent. From this it could be suggested that an individual isaffected by parenting styles differently based on their gender.

Bradley 6An adapted version of the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) wasused to determine the participants’ overall academic stress. Ten items were answered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (always).ProcedureGeneral Psychology or Educational Psychology students were asked to participant in aresearch study about parenting styles in relation to academic performance and academic stress.The study began when the students completed a consent form. Once the participants consented tothe study, a short 7-item demographic questionnaire was given. After completing thedemographic questionnaire, about half of the students received the Parental AuthorityQuestionnaire (Buri, 1991) first and about half received the adapted version of the PerceivedStress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) to ensure counterbalancing. Scores for thepermissive subscale were obtained by summing items 1, 6, 10, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24 and 28.Scores for the authoritarian subscale were obtained by summing items 2, 3, 7, 9, 12, 16, 18, 25,26 and 29. Scores for the authoritarian subscale were obtained by summing items 4, 5, 8, 11, 15,20, 22, 23, 27, and 30. The scores for these 3 subscales range from 10 to 50. The highest score ofthe 3 parenting styles was identified as the parenting style a student was most closely reared inby either the mother or father. Scores for the adapted Perceived Stress Scale were obtained byreversing responses (0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 = 1 and 4 = 0) to the four positively stated items (4, 5,7, and 8) and then summing across all scale items, higher scores indicating higher academicstress. After the completion of the study, the debriefing followed providing the contactinformation of the researcher in case any questions arise or the participants wanted to pull theirdata from the study. This concludes the study.

Bradley 7ResultsFour separate ANOVAs were conducted to find the main effects of gender, parentingstyle, and the interaction between gender and parenting style. The first ANOVA looked at theparenting style of the mother in relation to the participants’ overall GPA. The second ANOVAlooked at the parenting style of the mother in relation the participants’ academic stress. The thirdANOVA looked at the parenting style of the father in relation to the participants’ overall GPA.The forth ANOVA looked at the parenting style of the father in relation to the participants’academic stress. They were all a 3 x 2 between subjects design with 3 levels of parenting:permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative; and 2 levels of student gender: male and female. Theresults indicated no significant main effects for gender, parenting style, and the interactionbetween gender and parenting style for the parenting style of mother in relation to GPA. Theresults indicated no significant main effects for gender, and the interaction between gender andparenting style for the parenting style of mother in relation to academic stress. However, asignificant main effect was found for the parenting style of mother in relation to academic stressat p = 0.012. A post hoc comparison permissive parenting to be significantly different thanauthoritative parenting, p = 0.012. This indicates that students reared by permissive mothersexperience higher academic stress than students reared by authoritative mothers. The resultsindicated no significant main effects for gender, parenting style, and the interaction betweengender and parenting style for the parenting style of father in relation to GPA. The resultsindicated no significant main effects for gender, parenting style, and the interaction betweengender and parenting style for the parenting style of father in relation to academic stress.

Academic Stress Scale ScoreBradley 835Parenting Style of Mother30252015105_X = 26SD=5.83_X = 20.32SD=7.07_X = 17.89SD=5.380Permissive Authoritarian AuthoritativeFigure 1.The above figure shows the means and standard deviations of mothers’ parenting stylein relation to academic stress (permissive > authoritative, p = 0.012).DiscussionIt is important to take into account that the participants were from a church affiliatedinstitution. Typically these students come from homes where their mother stayed at home duringtheir childhood and was the main nurturer in the household. From this you may expect collegestudents’ academic performance and academic stress to be affected by the mothers’ parentingstyle more than the fathers’ parenting style. When considering the significance found for studentsreared by permissive mothers in relation to academic stress it is important to consider thedemands a university setting. Students reared by permissive mothers may have not learned howto be academically responsible and therefore have difficulty functioning well in a universitysetting where time management and motivation are important in succeeding academically.

Bradley 9For future research it would be beneficial to examine other variables that may affectcollege students’ academic performance and academic stress. Some of these variables may beacademic motivation, whether the student is academically motivated by internal or externalfactors; coping strategies, beliefs about academic ability, and contingencies of self-worth;whether students find their self-worth in external contingencies such as their academicperformance or internal contingencies such as their belief in God. I think it would also bebeneficial to examine in more depth the gender differences in how students’ perceive theparenting style they were reared in as well as how they are affected based on their gender.

Bradley 10ReferencesBrown, L., & Iyengar, S. (2008). Parenting styles: The impact on student achievement. Marriage& Family Review, 43(1-2), 14-38. Retrieved from PsycINFO database.Buri, J. (1991). Parental Authority Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 57(1), 110-119. Retrieved from PsycINFO database.Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress.Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385-396. Retrieved from PsycINFOdatabase.Joshi, A., Ferris, J., Otto, A., & Regan, P. (2003). Parenting styles and academic achievement incollege students. Psychological Reports, 93(3), 823-828. Retrieved from PsycINFOdatabase.McKinney, C., & Renk, K. (2008). Differential parenting between mothers and fathers:Implications for late adolescents. Journal of Family Issues, 29(6), 806-827. Retrievedfrom PsycINFO database.Silva, M., Dorso, E., Azhar, A., & Renk, K. (2007). The relationship among parenting stylesexperienced during childhood, anxiety, motivation, and academic success in collegestudents. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 9(2),149-167. Retrieved from PsycINFO database.Smith, T., & Renk, K. (2007). Predictors of academic-related stress in college students: anexamination of coping, social support, parenting, and anxiety. NASPA Journal, 40(3),405-431. Retrieved from PsycINFO database.

Bradley 11Turner, E., Chandler, M., & Heffer, R. (2009). The influence of parenting styles, achievementmotivation, and self-efficacy on academic performance in college students. Journal ofCollege Student Development, 50(3), 337-346. Retrieved from PsycINFO database.