The relation of parenting styles and family environmental components to school performance

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine whether a predictive relationship exists between family environment variables and parenting style variables and whether either is predictive of school performance. The ten components descriptive of family environment were cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, independence, achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, moral religious emphasis, organization, and control. Parenting style variables evident in the home were classified as authoritarian, authoritative, or permissive. School outcome variables measured were grade point average, absences, conflicts with authority, and achievement. The subjects for the study were 207 adolescents from grades 9 through 12, randomly selected from a high school population of 1300. Subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire dealing with their situation at home and at school as it currently existed. The survey called for responses to demographic information, to a set of questions used to classify the style of parenting used in their home, and to the Family Environment Scale which is a measure of quality of family of origin environment. The results of the study supported the existence of a concomitant relationship between family environment and school outcome variables. Grade point average was significantly related to independence, achievement orientation, and intellectual-cultural orientation; attendance was significantly related to achievement orientation; and conflict at school was significantly related to the lack of moral-religious emphasis. With regard to predicting grade point average, achievement orientation in the home was most predictive of the ten environmental components. However, the ability of family environmental factors to predict attendance pattern, school conflict, or academic achievement was not shown to be significant. Finally, in terms of the ability of parenting style to predict school outcomes, authoritarian parenting was shown to be predictive of grade point average; authoritative and permissive parenting styles were shown to be predictive of attendance patterns; but, none of the parenting styles were shown to be significant predictors of either conflicts with authority or achievement.