PARENTING STYLES AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Abstract: This research study was carried out to determine the effects of parenting styles on students’ academic achievement in Social Studies in Secondary Schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area. Three research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The survey research design was adopted for the study. Two instruments – the questionnaire and Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) were used to elicit relevant data to the variables of the research study. The population of the study consisted of all the JSS 1-3 students in all the public secondary schools in the study area. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) students were randomly selected from six (6) out of twelve (12) public secondary schools and this formed the sample size of the study population. The data collected were analyzed using independent t-test. The findings revealed that parenting style such as “authoritative, neglecting and permissive styles has significant relationship with the academic achievement of the students. Based on the findings of the study, it was commended among others that awareness should be given to parents about the best parenting style through the Parents Teachers Association (PTA).
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The family is the smallest and most important unit of the society. It is also the fundamental and important structure of the society that has an important role in one’s life and in the society. It is the first social group a child is exposed to before he/she is allowed to experience learning from other social group.
Also, research has shown that interaction between children and parents and how parents communicate with children are considered to be the most important and fundamental factors among the various factors that affect children’s learning processes. Indeed, the family plays an important role in the academic life of a child. The family teaches the child basic norms, values, attitudes, creating and enabling environment for the child to learn.
Therefore, parenting styles can be defined as a set or a system of behaviours that describes the parents and child interaction over a wide range of situation and create effective interaction atmosphere. Parenting styles determine an effective factor that plays an important role in children’s psychopathology and growth. The relationship of parents with children or parenting style according to Steinberg (2008) is the emotional climate in which parents raise their children and it is characterized by dimensions of parent responsiveness and development and demandingness. Moral and psychological training, identification, growth, and development of children’s talents, skills, familiarizing with the rules and norms of the society from the respective of parents are among those purposes.
PARENTING STYLES AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
More so, it is necessary to consider whether the educational success relates to parent’s parenting styles and also determines the relationship of parenting styles with students’ career path. Biabangard (2005) in a study examines the relationship of self-esteem and motivation with educational achievement among students of high schools. The researcher found that there was a significant correlation between self-esteem and achievement motivation and educational achievement. Kefayat (2010) contends that the relationship of parenting styles and attitudes with creativity and its relationship with diligence, educational achievement and progressivist behaviours of students of high schools.
Martin (2003) posits that parenting styles have often presented as a three-category structure which is; authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles. Dorbbusch et al. (2003), views authoritarian parent demands obedience from the child and tries to shape and control the child’s behaviour with an absolute set of standards. In a permissive parenting style and parents tend to offer as much freedom as the child wants, no demanding of any form of conformity as long as the child’s physical safety is not at risk. An authoritative parent, on the other hand, values both child’s autonomy and open communication with the child. From the report of the scoring focus psychologies exercise examined, the conviction drown is that there was a negative correlation between the various parenting style and students’ academic achievement. This is to say that family characteristic affect students’ academic achievement in social studies in junior secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Recent studies have challenged the notion that authoritative parenting promotes higher academic achievement noting that, contextual variables such as race, ethnicity in examining this relationship.
Weiss (2006) posits that in addition, some researchers have proposed a reconceptualization of the authoritative parenting styles as well as consideration of the middle range categories of parenting styles in regards to its impact on students’ academic achievement.
Also, Stevenson (2008) observed that different students view education as having different goals. This means that parenting can create a pool of informal citizens with a development ability to think and reason and it can be used to establish students who share a common body of knowledge and who share socialization into the way things are done in a particular society.
More so, parenting style is basically a contextual variables, but within the parenting environment (in which specific parenting behaviours are employed to promote achievement). Other individual factors may develop for instance, goal orientation, motivation, and self-efficacy. That may serve to mediate or strengthen the proposed relationship between parenting style and students’ academic achievement.
In addition, it is necessary for the educadtionalist to test the general ability and the relationship between parenting styles and academic achievement among adolescents, and investigate the extent to which authoritative parenting style promotes higher achievement outcomes and other mediating variables such as motivation, goal orientation, and self-efficacy.
Sternberg (2008) concluded that unlike previous study, non-white adolescents and their parents were largely unclassifiable in the traditional parenting style (Chang, 2009). It is based on contradictory findings in the literature on the effect of parenting style on academic achievement, there exists la needs to further examine the contention that authoritative parenting style promotes higher academic achievement among adolescents.
Furthermore, due to evidence in the literature that calls for a reconceptualization of the traditional parenting style dimensions, the general ability among all and ethnic groups of the impact of authoritative parenting on achievement outcome remains questionable.
From the above issues, the major problems necessitating this study was to investigate the influence of parenting style and students’ academic achievement in social studies in junior secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
PARENTING STYLES AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to determine the influence of parenting style and students’ academic achievement in social studies in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
Specifically, the study was intended to:
- Determine the influence of authoritative parenting style on students’ academic achievement in social studies in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
- Determine the influence of neglectful parenting style on students’ academic achievement in social studies in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
- Determine the influence of permissive parenting style on students’ academic achievement in social studies in junior secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
Originally posted on May 31, 2021 @ 2:42 pm
