From the day a child is born, parents are faced with the decision of how they are going to raise their child. Are they going to be demanding and set high expectations for their child or are they going to sit back and let their child find their way?
Parenting style can affect multiple aspects of a child’s life such as self-esteem, behavior, motivation, self-discipline, and socialization. Most importantly, parenting style has a drastic effect on a student’s academic achievement. Having strong and supportive parents who set high expectations can help students thrive in school.
According to the clinical and developmental psychologist, Diana Baumrind, there are four main types of parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved, and authoritative. Authoritarian parenting is characterized by adherence to rules, a dominating style, and an extreme level of control. Authoritarian parents are low in support and high in demandingness. Support refers to the amount of affection, acceptance, and warmth a parent provides. Demandingness refers to the degree a parent controls his/ her child’s behavior. On the opposite end of the spectrum, permissive parents are high in support and low in demandingness. They are warm but overindulgent and make few or no demands for maturity. Uninvolved parents are both low in support and demandingness. Uninvolved parents are often emotionally detached, withdrawn, and have low levels of demands for their children. Lastly, authoritative parenting, arguably the best parenting style, is both demanding and supportive of the child. Authoritative parents allow autonomy and encourage independence while still setting clear limits on behavior and consistently enforcing boundaries.
The four main parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and uninvolved) vary based on levels of parent support and levels of parent demand (Image from here)
A 2015 study on the impact of parenting style on children’s educational outcomes in the United States, found that the authoritative parenting style was the best among all types of parenting style. More specifically, relative to uninvolved parents’ children, authoritatively raised children were predicted to have 1.1 more years of schooling and were 13.6 percentage points more likely to earn a high school diploma and 18.5 percentage points more likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Also, children with authoritative parents had 5.5 percentage points less likelihood of being high school dropouts compared to children raised by uninvolved parents.
Furthermore, in a study on the influence of parenting practices on adolescent achievement, psychologist Laurence Steinberg surveyed a diverse sample of 6,400 students from schools in Wisconsin and northern California. Forty percent of these students were from ethnic minority groups and nearly one-third had parents who had no education beyond 12th grade. Steinberg found that authoritative parenting has been correlated with stronger work orientation, greater engagement in school activities, more positive feelings about school, more time spent on homework, more positive academic self-concept, and lower levels of school misconduct.
Most importantly, the research indicated that authoritative parenting practices lead to successful school achievement regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic level, or family structure. This finding is momentous in terms of reducing the achievement gap because it means that all students have the potential to be successful when they are raised and supported by authoritative parents. Parenting style is something parents can control regardless of money or resources. Schools and education policymakers can use this information to help develop family-based programs that enhance student achievement. Educating parents on how to encourage their children to be independent, but also set limits and boundaries is one step to help diminish the achievement gap.
Post By: Katharine Dougherty