Relations of Parenting Style and Parental Involvement with Ninth-Grade Students' Achievement

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to explore the influence of both parenting style (demandingness and responsiveness) and parental involvement on the achievement outcome of early adolescents and to explore the relations both adolescents' and their parents' perceptions ofparenting, and to compare the influence that the differentperceptions have on adolescents' achievement. Subjects were 247 ninth-grade boys and girls and their parents from urban, suburban, and rural communities in the southeast and the midwest. Questionnaire measures of adolescents' and parents' perceptions of maternal and paternal demandingness, responsiveness, and parental involvement were designed for this program of research. Adolescents'reports ofparenting were found to correlate only moderately with parents' reports. Adolescents'(both boys'and girls'), but not parents', reports of parenting significantly predicted their achievement outcome, with parental involvement significantly predicting achievement above and beyond dimensions of parenting style. The importance of considering both adolescents'and parents'perceptions of parenting is discussed.