A study of acculturation, parenting style, and adolescents' academic achievement in a group of low socioeconomic status Mexican American families

Abstract

This dissertation sought to explore the relationship between parental level of acculturation and parenting style and to explore the influence of parenting style in Mexican American families on the academic achievement of their adolescents. (n = 217). Gender was also explored as a potential influence on parents' choice of the parenting style used with their children. Three methods of data classification were employed in the present study using classification and analysis ecommendations found in related parenting style used classification were literature, Families were classified into groups (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, neglectful, good enough, somewhat authoritative, somewhat non- authoritative, and non-authoritative) on the basis of the adolescents' rating of their parents on two dimensions:parental involvement and parental supervision. Acculturation was measured with items on spoken and written language and ethnic identification in the Children's Hispanic Background Scale (CHBS). Results revealed no association between parental level of acculturation and parenting style adopted by parents for any of the three classifications. One of the analyses revealed an association between child's gender and parenting style with a trend toward a ,,relationship in the interaction between gender and parenting style an achievement for the same classification of data (Steinberg, et al. Modification). For all classification procedures, MANOVA results yielded significant findings in the main effect of gender. In every classification and across all parenting styles, achievement was higher for females. Of note, however, in Steinberg et. al Modification was the relationship between achievement and parenting style for males.