International Research Journal of Social Sciences_____________________________________ ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(10), 1-6, October (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci. International Science Congress Association 1 The Impact of Authoritative Parenting Style on Educational Performance of Learners at High School Level Monika Sethand Kala Ghormode2 Department of Humanities, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Katol Road, Gittikhdan, Nagpur, INDIA Late Smitadevi Pendharkar, Master of Education (M.Ed) College, Gonhi Seem, Bahadura, Nagpur, INDIAAvailable online at: www.isca.in, www.isca.me Received 17th August 2013, revised 20th September 2013, accepted 3rd October 2013 Abstract Educational performance gets affected by a number of factors such as intelligence, achievement, motivation, home environment, school environment, interest and resources. The most significant influence on child is his or her parents. Psychologists and educationists are of the opinion that child rearing practices have the direct bearing on the educational performance of children. In this competitive era, where every parent expects that his child should do well at school, it is necessary to understand how different parenting styles determine the child’s educational performance at school. In the twenty first century of competition, every student is expected to be higher achiever and up to the expectations of parents and teachers. At present, though we assume that the educational performance of students at high school level is influenced by varying degree by the parenting styles, there are a few empirical studies available in this regard to clearly establish to what extent the particular parenting style determines or influences the educational performance of a child at this level of learning. This study has tried to fill in this gap between Authoritative parenting style and their impact on educational performance of learners at high school level. Keywords: Educational performance, Authoritative parenting style, High school level, Democratic control, High Academic achievement. Introduction ‘Family is the first school for young children and parents are powerful role models,’ says old wisdom. Changing lifestyles, working couples, nuclear families and several other factors are putting tremendous pressure on parents these days. Earlier, fathers used to go out for the work and mothers would stay at home taking care of kids, doing household chores. However, the modern lifestyles has made it necessary for couples to share financial burden of running a family together. Couples, these days, have to do a huge balancing act to fulfill all their roles. This has made parenting a herculean task. The most important challenges that many parents face is paucity of time. The 24 hour days gets juggled between home, office, children and self. Most kids complain that parents, may pamper them by providing them with latest gadgets, but have no time to play with them. Working parents don’t have time to attend parents-teacher meeting. Sometimes, children become very adamant if there is no watch on them. After all they too are human beings and they too need love and care, especially from parents. Teachers cannot replace parental love. The kids of working parents are very demanding. And to compensate the lack of time; parents indulge them with all sort of fancy things. This is not proper as this may lead to an unending list of demands, which after a certain time parents cannot fulfill. There has to be a watch on demands. The only tip that Principal has for working parents is that they should always try to balance life. One has to devote at least half-an-hour to talk to one’s child and if one notes any behavioral changes try to sort it out by spending quality time with them. Complexities of life in changing times have modified child parent relationship patterns. But it cannot be ruled out that the parenting styles has nothing to do with whatever a child does in general and what he or she does at school in particular. Among many factors that directly or indirectly govern the educational performance of the student at school, parenting style continues to occupy the position of centrality. Authoritative parenting: Authoritative parents are accessible and approachable. The interpersonal relationship of parent and child is guided by clear reason. Authoritative parents know to what extent freedom can be given to children and to what extent controlled is to be exercised. They often do not mistrust their children. Taking into confidence they democratically negotiate to arrive any conclusion or make decisions seeking the participation of child as well. Authoritative parents are emotionally warm, supportive and considerate. While distributing rewards and punishment they do not tend to be inconsistent. Child grows with greater maturity under the care of such parents. Definition: Authoritative "Authoritative parenting is a strategy that seeks to set reasonable rules and guidelines that are in the best interests of the child. The rules provide structure while still International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(10), 1-6, October (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 2 allowing room for the child to explore, test, and begin the process of learning what constitutes acceptable behavior. Authoritative parenting is also a model that allows parents to express love and affection with no worries that loving expression will undermine their control of the home. Instead of a rigid environment where there is no margin for deviation from the house rules, authoritative parenting makes it clear the parents are in charge of the household and will set limits. At the same time, this methodology also encourages a degree of flexibility in the child rearing process. This flexibility makes it possible for parents to assess a given situation and take action that is appropriate rather than falling back on disciplinary measures that may or may not help the child to mature". EdmundEducational Performance at High School Level: It takes into consideration the aggregate marks acquired by the student in the annual exams of 8th, 9th and 1st terminal exams of the 10th class. Performance in Languages: This refers to the aggregate marks acquired by the students in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Language in 8th, 9thand 10th class.Performance in Social Sciences: This refers to the aggregate marks acquired by the students in History, Civics, Geography and Economics in 8th, 9th and 10th class.Performance in Mathematics: This refers to the aggregate marks acquired by the students in Algebra and Geometry in 8th, th and 10th class.Performance in Science: This refers to the aggregate marks acquired by the students in Biology, Physics and Chemistry in th, 9th and 10th class.Review of Literature: Our efforts convinced us that a few attempts have been made to carry out research to understand the impact of parenting styles on academic achievement. Authors could find 41 such studies which attempted to establish Linkages between various parenting styles and educational performance at various levels. Following few studies present the impact of parenting styles on educational performance at high school level. Awujo indicated that Autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire child rearing patterns had significant relationship with students study habits.Kingsley Nyarko result shows that both mothers and fathers’ authoritativeness positively relate to the academic achievement of the students. In another study by Abdorreza Kordistated that there is a strong relationship between children’s school achievement and parenting attitude .It further revealed that authoritative parenting styles were associated with higher levels of children’s school achievement, though findings remain inconsistent across cultures and societies. Future studies may explore some of the salient issues underlying the inconsistencies reported in the study, particularly the contradictory results between Asian and European American school children. Valerie J. Shute, Eric G. Hansen, Jody S. Underwood, and Rim Razzouk founded that both parents and peers can have an influence on a child’s academic achievement. A small study conducted by Sharon E. Paulson founded that adolescents’ reports of parenting correlates 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. Esther Ho Sui-Chu and J. Douglas Willmsexamined that little support for the conjecture that parents with low socioeconomic status are less involved in their children’s schooling than are parents with higher socioeconomic status. In a study done by Mkumbwa A. shows that students from intact families scored significantly higher marks in targeted subjects compared to students from single parenthood. Relationship between Perceived Paternal and Maternal Parenting Styles and Student Academic Achievement in Selected Secondary Schools was done by Elias.H and Yee. H.T. which revealed that perceived paternal permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parenting styles were not significantly correlated with students’ academic achievement. Another finding of the study revealed that perceived maternal permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parenting styles were not significantly correlated with students’ academic achievement. MethodologyStatement of the problem: The impact of Authoritative parenting style of educational performance of learners at high school level.Hypothesis: i. There is correlation between a particular parenting style and students’ educational performance at high school level. ii. 2. Students with Authoritative parenting style perform better at high school level. iii. C.B.S.E and STATE students with Authoritative parents perform equally well. Sample: The sample for this study comprised of one thousand students drawn from 20 schools from Nagpur. 10 schools were located in urban area and the remaining 10 in rural. The ratio of male and female students and that of C.B.S.E and STATE was equal. The data was collected by using random sampling method. 50 students were taken from each school. All the students included in the sample were of 10th standard. Out of these 1000 students, it was found that 256 students had Authoritative parenting style. Tools used for data collection: The study was conducted to find linkages between Authoritative parenting style and educational performance of students in Nagpur at high school level. Keeping in view the objective of the study, Children’s Perception of Parenting Scale (CPPS) Hindi Version was administered to 1000 students included in the sample to find out the parenting styles of every student. International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(10), 1-6, October (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 3 Children's' Perception of Parenting Scale is developed by Dr. Anand Pyari, Dr. Raj Kumari Kalra and Poonam Bhasin10 from Agra in 1995. Procedure:The Marks acquired by students for all the three years {VIII, IX, X (pre-board)} were averaged. Then by applying between factorial design (ANOVA) the impact of authoritative parenting style was seen on educational performance. Results and DiscussionResults: The impact of Authoritative parenting style on educational performance of learners at high school level. Pearson correlation test was applied to examine the relationship between Authoritative parenting style and academic achievement. Above results show that there is strong positive and significant relationship between authoritative parenting style and academic achievement in each subject [language (r=0.77, p 0.01); social science (r=0.71, p 0.01); mathematics ((r=0.66, p 0.01) and science (r=0.51, p 0.01)]. The positive correlation indicates correlation coefficient that an increase in the score for authoritative parenting style is followed by an increase in the academic achievements. Table-1 Correlation between a Authoritative parenting style and educational performance of children at high school level Mean Std. Deviation N Parenting score 29.46 2.847 256 Language 67.64 7.465 256 Social science 67.54 7.955 256 Mathematics 67.56 8.912 256 Science 67.25 10.252 256 Table-2 Correlations**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) Parenting score Language Social science Mathematics Science Parenting score Pearson Correlation 1 .770 ** .718 ** .663 ** .512 ** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 N 256 256 256 256 256 Figure-1 Represents correlation between Authoritative parenting style (scores) and Language as a subject in High School Children International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(10), 1-6, October (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 4 Figure-2 Represents correlation between Authoritative parenting style (scores) and Social Science as a subject in High School Children Figure-3 Represents correlation between Authoritative parenting style (scores) and Mathematics as a subject in High School Children International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(10), 1-6, October (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 5 Figure-4 Represents correlations between Authoritative parenting style (scores) and Science as a subject in High School Children The study was conducted with the basic hypothesis that there is correlation between a particular parenting style and students’ educational performance at high school level. To do justice to the demographic stratification the educational performance of Rural CBSE, Rural STATE, Urban CBSE and Urban STATE students has been included in the study. Discussion: Impact of Authoritative Parenting Style on Educational Performance: The 2nd hypothesis of the study maintained that students with Authoritative parenting style perform well at high school level the results have confirmed this hypothesis. The research has clearly shown that the students with Authoritative parenting style have done well in all the four group of subjects Languages, Social Science, Mathematics and Science this can be attributed to the democratic nature but with legitimate control over the child in this parenting style. Authoritative parents are accessible and approachable. The interpersonal relationship of parent and child is guided by clear reason. Authoritative parents know to what extent freedom can be given to children and to what extent controlled is to be exercised. They often do not mistrust their children. Taking into confidence they democratically negotiate to arrive any conclusion or make decisions seeking the participation of child as well. Authoritative parents are emotionally warm, supportive and considerate. While distributing rewards and punishment they do not tend to be inconsistent. Child grows with greater maturity under the care of such parents. This kind of parenting leads to better interpersonal relationship between parents and child. Children have necessary freedom to set and pursue their goals including those of educational ones in warm supportive environment guided by their parents. It is, precisely this reason which explains that all the students with Authoritative parenting style have done well in all the subjects. It is concluded that students with Authoritative parenting style perform well at high school level. Recommendations and Limitations: The findings of this study have some practical implications with regard to making the educational policy and arranging the instructions for the students at school. As students with Authoritative parenting style show high educational performance in Languages Social Science, Mathematics and Science they can be motivated to go for the courses which require high academic performance. School authorities can arrange extra enrichment programmes International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(10), 1-6, October (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 6 besides their regular curriculum for these students. It will lead to better planning and coaching of various academic activities. Limitation: Following may be regarded as the limitations of the study. i. This study has been conducted on 256 students from Nagpur District against the background the millions of students who may have the same parenting style. It is logical to believe what comes true of these 256 students can very well be applied to understand the educational performance of other students of the same level. ii. All the students of the sample of this study belong to day schools. In other words the boarding schools have not been included in the study. iii. The scope of this study is limited to understand the impact of Authoritative parenting style on educational performance. In order to form comprehensive idea of the linkages between parenting styles and educational performance, it is necessary to undertake the studies that seek to understand the impact of other parenting styles such as Authoritarian, Indulgent and Neglectful on educational performance of learners. iv. There is every reason to believe that the parenting styles are influenced by the cultural practices. In other words same parenting style in its practice may differ a little from one culture to another. For instance Authoritative parent in American society may deal with his or her children differently from that of parent with same parenting style in India or Africa. This study has not investigated the cultural impact on parenting style. v. The parenting styles of the sample were determined on the basis of the questionnaire that the students were required to fill in. In order to determine the parenting style data was not collected from the parents themselves. Therefore, it can be termed as the parenting style as perceived by the students. ConclusionThe findings states that there are linkages which do exist between Authoritative parenting style and educational performance of children at high school level. It indicates that Authoritative parenting style has positive impact on all subjects at high school level. References 1.Edmund J. Boume, The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook books.google.co 2012/01/13 1600hr (2011)2.Awujo G., Relationship between Child Rearing Pattern and Secondary School Students Study Habits, Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 8(2) 2012/01/13 1600hr (2012)3.http://jsdafrica.com/Jsda/Summer_2006/PDF/ARC_RelationChildRearingPattern_SecondarySchoolHabit.pdf. 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Douglas W. Effects of Parental Involvement on Eighth-Grade Achievement, University of British Columbia and University of New Brunswick. This paper was prepared for the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Fmncisco (1995)9.Mkumbwa A. Parenthood and Academic Performance: Influence of Single Parenthood on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students Lap Lambert academic publishing https://www. lap-publishing.com/ (2012)10.Elias H and Yee .H.T., Relationship between Perceived Paternal and Maternal Parenting Styles and Student Academic Achievement in Selected Secondary Schools, Faculty of Educational Studies University Putra Malaysia European Journal of Social Sciences, 9(2), (2009) 11.Pyari A., Kumari R.K. and Bhasin P., Children’s Perception of Parenting Scale, Rakhi Prakashan, Agra (1995)