The relationship between college students' perceptions of parental behaviour and their academic success

Poznato je kako na akademski uspjeh utječe mnoštvo čimbenika. Iako se istraživanja uglavnom fokusiraju na one kognitivne faktore, svakako ne treba zanemariti i one kontekstualne, poput roditeljskog ponašanja. Postoji vrlo ograničen broj inozemnih istraživanja koja se bave utjecajem roditeljskog ponašanja na akademski uspjeh studenata, dok u Hrvatskoj takvo istraživanje na studentskoj populaciji do sad nije provedeno. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je utvrditi povezanost percepcije roditeljskog ponašanja (kroz percipiranu roditeljsku uključenost, podršku autonomiji i toplinu) majke i percepcije roditeljskog ponašanja oca s akademskim uspjehom studenata 2. godine preddiplomskog studija. Istraživanje je provedeno na prigodnom uzorku od 136 studenata. Za mjerenje percepcije roditeljskog ponašanja korišten je Upitnik percepcije roditelja-Upitnik za studente (Grolnick, Ryan i Deci, 1991), a za mjerenja akademskog uspjeha prosjek na kraju prve godine preddiplomskog studija. Istraživanje je pokazalo da i kod muških i kod ženskih ispitanika postoji značajna razlika pri procjenjivanju ukupnog roditeljskog ponašanja oca i ukupnog roditeljskog ponašanja majke, pri čemu i jedni i drugi ispitanici majčino ponašanje percipiraju povoljnije nego očevo. Međutim, istraživanjem je utvrđeno kako na ovom uzorku nema značajne pozitivne povezanosti između percipiranog roditeljskog ponašanja i akademskog uspjeha studenata.It is known that the academic success is affected by a multitude of factors. Although the research mostly focus on the cognitive factors, the contextual ones, such as parental behaviour, should not be ignored. There is a very limited number of foreign research dealing with the influence parental behaviour has on the academic success of the students. However, this type of research on the student population has not been conducted in Croatia so far. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the perceptions of mother’s and father’s parental behaviour (through perceived parental involvement, autonomy support and warmth) with the academic success of the second year undergraduate students of the University of Zadar. The study was conducted on a sample of 136 students. Perceptions of Parents Scales (POPS)-The College-Student Scale (Grolnick, Ryan, Deci, 1991) was used to mesure the perceptions of parental behaviour and student’s GPA at the end of the first year of undergraduate studies was used as a measure for academic success. Research has shown that both male and female participants show significant difference in perceptions of mother’s and father’s overall parental behaviour, wherein both groups of participants perceive mother’s behaviour more favourably than the behaviour of their father. However, it is established with this research that there is no significant positive correlation between perceived parental behaviour and the academic success of the second year undergraduate students of the University of Zadar