The influence of parenting style and ethnicity on academic self-efficacy and academic performance

Baumrind (1971) developed one of the two major traditions of Parental Acceptance/ Rejection Theory, in which she categorizes parenting styles into authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive categories. Research indicates that culture, ethnicity and socioeconomic status influence a family’s tendency toward a particular parenting style. This study investigated how different parenting styles experienced, as reported by university students, relate to students’ academic self-efficacy. We hypothesized that student-report of an authoritative parenting style would be associated with self-report of higher academic self-efficacy and relatively higher academic performance. Unlike previous studies assessing the relations between parenting style and academic self-efficacy, which have used samples of children and adolescents, this sample consisted of university students in developmental transition in independent living. In addition, we explored the extent to which ethnicity and family variables would be related to student-reported parenting style, achievement, and self-efficacy. We sampled students (n=264) enrolled in introduction to psychology courses at Texas A&M University. Participants received 1 course grade credit for their participation. Students’ typically were older adolescents/young adults (M=19.27 years, SD=1.52) and most were in their first and second year of college (M=1.63 year). All participants completed a packet of questionnaires in counterbalanced order. A Demographic Questionnaire was used to gather data on gender, age, ethnicity, year in college, study skills habits, GPA, and family description. The Parental Authority Questionnaire was used to measure Baumrind’s parental prototypes as reported to have been experienced by the students. The Self Efficacy and Study Skills Questionnaire was used to obtain self-report of academic self-efficacy. Analyses indicated that academic self-efficacy was significantly positively correlated with GPA. Also, as hypothesized, academic self-efficacy was significantly positively correlated with authoritative parenting style. Based on regression analyses, authoritative parenting style and academic self-efficacy were significant predictors of academic performance, after controlling for gender. In an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world, college academic success is an important aspect of human development. Identifying and understanding family background variables that contribute positively to college achievement and academic self-efficacy yield suggestions for navigating the crucial transition from adolescence to young adulthood.Office of Honors Programs and Scholarship