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The Relation of Parenting Style to Adolescent School Performance

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Child Development
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This article develops and tests a reformation of Baumrind's typology of authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative parenting styles in the context of adolescent school performance. Using a large and diverse sample of San Francisco Bay Area high school students (N = 7,836), we found that both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were negatively associated with grades, and authoritative parenting was positively associated with grades. Parenting styles generally showed the expected relation to grades across gender, age, parental education, ethnic, and family structure categories. Authoritarian parenting tended to have a stronger association with grades than did the other 2 parenting styles, except among Hispanic males. The full typology best predicted grades among white students. Pure authoritative families (high on authoritative but not high on the other 2 indices) had the highest mean grades, while inconsistent families that combine authoritarian parenting with other parenting styles had the lowest grades.
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The Relation of Parenting Style to Adolescent School Performance
Author(s): Sanford M. Dornbusch, Philip L. Ritter, P. Herbert Leiderman, Donald F.
Roberts and Michael J. Fraleigh
Source:
Child Development,
Vol. 58, No. 5, Special Issue on Schools and Development (Oct.,
1987), pp. 1244-1257
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1130618
Accessed: 01-10-2018 19:22 UTC
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The Relation of Parenting Style to
Adolescent School Performance
Sanford M. Dornbusch, Philip L. Ritter, P. Herbert
Leiderman, Donald F. Roberts, and Michael J. Fraleigh
Stanford Center for the Study of Youth Development
DORNBUSCH, SANFORD M.; RITTER, PHILIP L., LEIDERMAN, P. HERBERT; ROBERTS, DONALD F.; and
FRALEIGH, MICHAEL J. The Relation of Parenting Style to Adolescent School Performance. CHILD
DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 1244-1257. This article develops and tests a reformation of Baumrind's
typology of authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative parenting styles in the context of adolescent
school performance. Using a large and diverse sample of San Francisco Bay Area high school
students (N = 7,836), we found that both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were nega-
tively associated with grades, and authoritative parenting was positively associated with grades.
Parenting styles generally showed the expected relation to grades across gender, age, parental
education, ethnic, and family structure categories. Authoritarian parenting tended to have a stronger
association with grades than did the other 2 parenting styles, except among Hispanic males. The full
typology best predicted grades among white students. Pure authoritative families (high on authorita-
tive but not high on the other 2 indices) had the highest mean grades, while inconsistent families
that combine authoritarian parenting with other parenting styles had the lowest grades.
A recent review of research on the family
and school as educational institutions notes
an increasing emphasis on "process" studies
that seek to identify those features of the fam-
ily environment through which socioeco-
nomic and cultural background have an im-
pact on mental development and school
achievement. Hess and Holloway (1984) ana-
lyzed results from studies of preschool, pri-
mary, and middle-school children and
identified five processes linking family and
school achievement: (1) verbal interaction be-
tween mother and children, (2) expectation of
parents for achievement, (3) positive affective
relationships between parents and children,
(4) parental beliefs and attributions about the
child, and (5) discipline and control strategies.
Among these various processes, discipline
and control strategies appeared to have a ma-
jor influence on school achievement (Baum-
rind, 1973; Hess & McDevitt, 1984; Mar-
joriebanks, 1979).
The research of Baumrind is particularly
pertinent because she attempts to link compo-
nents of family interaction to cognitive com-
petence. She postulates three family par-
enting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and
permissive) that have consequences for the
development of cognitive and social compe-
tence. These three family types differ in the
values, behaviors, and standards that children
are expected to adopt; in the ways these
values, behaviors, and standards are transmit-
ted; and in parental expectations about the
behavior of children. In this study we extend
Baumrind's typology to a large and ethnically
diverse sample of adolescents.
Baumrind, in a series of studies of pre-
school children and their families (Baumrind
& Black, 1967), and later in studies of some-
what older children, delineated three modes
of family interaction that we will reformulate
for use in this study of adolescents and their
This research was supported by the Hewlett Foundation, the Irvine Foundation, the Bank of
America Foundation, individual trustees of the California Family Foundation, the Stanford Center
for the Study of Youth Development, and Father Flanagan's Boys' Home. It was part of the joint
project known as the Study of Stanford and the Schools. The principals of the six cooperating schools
participated actively at every stage, from project design to analysis: Verdis Crockett, Samuel John-
son, Jr., Gary McHenry, Robert Palazzi, Charles Perotti, Gary Poulos, Joyce Rosenstiel, and Jesus
Sanchez. We are indebted to Lee J. Cronbach, Helena Kraemer, Steven H. Chaffee, Michael W.
Kirst, Michael Garet, W. Richard Scott, Robert C. Calfee, Shirley Feldman, Eleanor E. Maccoby,
Martin Ford, and Albert H. Hastorf for their suggestions and criticisms. Jean Kanerva, Barbara
Prescott, Lindsay White, Lisa Shaffer, Fox Vernon, Robert Macaulay, Ivan Fukumoto, Angela
Valenzuela, and Worku Negash assisted in data collection and analysis. Send requests for reprints to
the first author at The Stanford Center for the Study of Youth Development, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA 94305.
[Child Development, 1987, 58, 1244-1257. ? 1987 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
All rights reserved. 0009-3920/87/5805-0003$01.00]
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Dornbusch et al. 1245
parents. (We will not describe the harmoni-
ous and nonconforming patterns, which we
do not use.)
The authoritarian style of parenting had
the following characteristics: parents at-
tempted to shape, control, and evaluate the
behavior and attitudes of their children in ac-
cordance with an absolute set of standards;
parents emphasize obedience, respect for au-
thority, work, tradition, and the preservation
of order; verbal give-and-take between parent
and child is discouraged. Baumrind's study of
preschool children found that such a mode of
family interaction was associated with low
levels of independence and social respon-
sibility.
Baumrind later described the authorita-
rian pattern, somewhat more formally, as be-
ing high in demandedness on the part of the
parents and low in parental responsiveness to
the child. She continued her studies of chil-
dren, this time with children 8-9 years old
(Baumrind, 1971, 1973). She found that the
authoritarian pattern, high in demandedness
and low in parental responsiveness, had dif-
ferent consequences for girls and for boys.
Girls, but not boys, who came from authorita-
rian families were more socially assertive. For
both sexes, intrusive-directiveness was asso-
ciated with lower cognitive competence
(Baumrind, in preparation).
A second pattern is permissive parenting,
in which parents are tolerant and accepting
toward the child's impulses, use as little pun-
ishment as possible, make few demands for
mature behavior, and allow considerable self-
regulation by the child. In the study of pre-
school children, Baumrind found the children
of permissive parents were immature, lacked
impulse control and self-reliance, and
evidenced a lack of social responsibility and
independence. In the follow-up studies at 8-
9 years of age, these children were low in
both social and cognitive competence.
Authoritative parenting is the third type
described by Baumrind. This pattern contains
the following elements: an expectation of ma-
ture behavior from the child and clear setting
of standards by the parents; firm enforcement
of rules and standards, using commands and
sanctions when necessary; encouragement of
the child's independence and individuality;
open communication between parents and
children, with encouragement of verbal give-
and-take; and recognition of the rights of both
parents and children.
Female children of authoritative parents
in the preschool sample were socially respon-
sible and more independent than other chil-
dren. Male children were as independent as
the other children were, and they appeared to
be socially responsible. At ages 8 and 9, both
male and female offspring of authoritative
parents were high in social and cognitive
competence (Baumrind, in preparation).
The studies of Baumrind and others have
focused on preschool children and children in
elementary school. Studies of family pro-
cesses and school achievement beyond child-
hood are rare. A recent study showed that the
effect of parental control processes persisted
in school performance among children 12
years of age (Hess & McDevitt, 1984). In ad-
dition, there is suggestive evidence that high
achievement in the adolescent years is associ-
ated with at least one family process, high
identification with parents (Kandel & Lesser,
1969; Morrow & Wilson, 1961; Rickberg &
Westby, 1967; Shaw & White, 1965; Swift,
1967; Weinhert & Trieber, 1982).
This article develops and tests Baum-
rind's conceptualization of family processes in
the context of adolescent school performance.
The study is unusual in that it extends Baum-
rind's typology of authoritative, authoritarian,
and permissive parenting to a very large and
diverse sample of adolescents, using high
school grades as the criterion variable. A
large-scale questionnaire study of adolescents
in high schools was used to derive indirect
measures of the style of parenting. In assign-
ing scores on the three parenting styles, we
relied on the face validity of questions and
response categories. The reliability of two of
our three measures and the consistency of our
findings increase our confidence in the utility
of this approach.
Sources of Data
The major source of data for this study is
a questionnaire completed by 7,836 adoles-
cents enrolled in six high schools in the San
Francisco Bay area, approximately 88% of the
total enrollment of those schools, in Spring
1985. The questionnaire contained numerous
items. Those used in this article include stu-
dent background characteristics, self-reported
grades, perceptions of parental attitudes and
behaviors, and family communication pat-
terns. From this questionnaire we used per-
ceptions of family processes to construct indi-
ces of parenting style, background variables
to serve as controls, and self-reported grades
as the dependent variable.
Some questionnaire items were not an-
swered by all students. Small variations in
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1246 Child Development
sample size across tables reflect this fact. We
chose to present all the available data rather
than including only those cases where the
data were complete.
The data from that questionnaire are aug-
mented by information on parental education
from two additional sources. First, a student
questionnaire had been administered in
Spring 1983 to a sample of students at five of
the six participating schools. The students
who participated in both surveys gave us a
substantial pool of students for whom we had
parental education. Second, parental re-
sponses to a family questionnaire mailed to
the homes of all students in our sample pro-
vided information on parental education for
additional cases in our sample. For those
analyses, such as multiple regressions, which
required the inclusion of parental education
as a measure of social stratification, a substan-
tial portion of our cases had to be excluded
because of the absence of information on pa-
rental education.
For one school in our sample we had cur-
rent grade point averages for every student.
Those data enabled us to assess the validity of
the self-reported grades that we used as a de-
pendent variable.
Measures
Demographic Variables
Ethnicity.-Each high school student
was asked to select one of nine categories for
ethnic identification: Asian, black, Filipino,
Pacific Islander, American Indian, Latino or
Hispanic, white, and other. Vietnamese re-
spondents were combined with the Asian
subgroup. Sample sizes provide sufficient
cases for the analysis in this article of re-
sponses from four groups: Asian, black, His-
panic, and (non-Hispanic) white.
Parental education.-Our measure of pa-
rental status or social class was parental edu-
cation. There was no information on parental
education in the student questionnaire used
as the basis for most of this article. Two other
sources, responses to a questionnaire mailed
to parents and responses to a previous student
questionnaire, were used to determine paren-
tal education for a subset of the total sample.
Together, these two additional sources pro-
vided information on parental education for
4,053 cases, or 52% of the total sample.
The parental education categories used
in the previous student questionnaire were:
(1) not a high school graduate; (2) high school
graduate; (3) vocational, trade, or business
school; (4) some college; (5) 4-year college de-
gree; (6) graduate or professional degree; and
(7) don't know. The question that was used in
the parent survey had slightly finer grada-
tions, and was recoded to match the break-
down shown here. Mother's education and
father's education were then averaged to
create a single parental education measure for
each family. Finally, for qualitative analyses,
mean parental education was trichotomized
so as to produce categories of clear social
meaning: up to 3.5 = low education, 4 to 4.5
= middle education, and 5 and above = high
education. Families whose mean education
did not reach attendance at a college were in
the low-education group; the middle-
education group included college attendance
but not receiving a 4-year degree; the high
group had at least a 4-year college degree.
Family structure.-Our measure of fam-
ily structure came from student reports of who
is present in the household. In the analyses
presented here, family structure consists of
five categories: two natural parents, single
mother, mother and stepfather, single father,
and father and stepmother. All other family
forms were too infrequent to provide a sample
large enough for analysis.
Measures of Parenting Style
Three parenting style indices were de-
veloped to roughly conform with Baumrind's
three styles of parenting (authoritarian, per-
missive, and authoritative). Twenty-five items
or sets of items were identified in the student
questionnaire as closely reflecting one of the
three styles, and each index was constructed
by taking the means of the appropriate items.
No question was allowed to contribute to
more than one of the indices, so that the three
scores are not forced to be correlated with
each other.
The authoritarian index was based on the
mean response to the following eight ques-
tions concerning the frequency of certain fam-
ily behaviors: in their family communication,
the parents tell the youth not to argue with
adults, that he or she will know better when
grown up, and that the parents are correct and
should not be questioned; as a response to
poor grades, the parents get upset, reduce the
youth's allowance, or "ground" the youth; as a
response to good grades, parents tell the
youth to do even better, and note that other
grades should be as good.
The permissive index was the mean of
eight responses: hard work in school is not
important to the parents (the mean for four
academic subjects), the parents don't care if
the student gets bad grades, they don't care if
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Dornbusch et al. 1247
the student gets good grades, there are no
rules concerning watching television, and (us-
ing the highest involvement of the possible
parent figures) the parents are not involved in
education, they do not attend school programs
for parents, they do not help with homework,
and they do not check the child's homework.
The authoritative index was calculated
from the mean frequency of nine responses
concerning family behavior: in their family
communication, parents tell the youth to look
at both sides of issues, they admit that the
youth sometimes knows more, they talk about
politics within the family, and they empha-
size that everyone should help with decisions
in the family; as a response to good grades,
parents praise the student, and give more
freedom to make decisions; as a response to
poor grades, they take away freedom, encour-
age the student to try harder, and offer to
help.
These three indices of parental style
were used as continuous variables throughout
the article as the main measures for the three
parenting styles.
The reliability of these three quantitative
indices of parenting style was assessed using
Cronbach's alpha. The alpha coefficients
were .70 for the eight items of the authorita-
rian index, .60 for the eight items of the per-
missive index, and .66 for the nine items of
the authoritative index. The alphas for the au-
thoritarian and authoritative indices were
moderately high and satisfactory, and the
alpha for the permissive index was only
slightly lower.
The slightly lower reliability for the in-
dex of permissive parenting may be a product
of the limited nature of the indicators of per-
missiveness within our questionnaire. The
concept of permissiveness may be tapping
two distinct and identifiable parental at-
titudes. Permissiveness may refer to a par-
enting attitude that is essentially neglectful
and uncaring, or it may refer to parenting that
is caring and concerned but ideologically
genuinely permissive. It is impossible to dis-
entangle these differing orientations in our
permissiveness scale. Ideally, researchers
should construct scales and measure these
two separable orientations. In the meantime,
we urge caution in interpreting those portions
of our results that feature indicators of permis-
siveness.
In addition to these quantitative mea-
sures, types of families were constructed
based on the scores on the three indices. In
particular, three "pure" styles of families
were defined, with a family included in a
pure family style category if it scored in the
top one-third on one parenting style index
and not in the top one-third on either of the
other two indices.
Half of the families (50%) could not be
characterized as having a pure parenting
style, while 18% (1,321) were categorized as
pure permissive, 17% (1,218) were pure au-
thoritative and 15% (1,064) were pure au-
thoritarian. Thus, pure parenting styles apply
to only half of the families in the total sample.
In addition, we created a variable in
which every family was assigned to one of the
possible combinations of pure parenting
styles. These combinations range from being
high on all three pure parenting styles to be-
ing high on none of them.
Measures of Student Performance
Self-reported grades.-The measure of
student performance used throughout this ar-
ticle is the response by the student to a ques-
tion that asks for the selection of a category
that represents the usual grade the student
receives. The categories were: mostly A's,
about half A's and half B's, mostly B's, about
half B's and half C's, mostly C's, about half
C's and half D's, mostly D's, and mostly be-
low D. A numerical scale of self-reported
grades was then related to these responses,
with 4.0 representing the top category.
We have consulted with educators about
the use of grades as a measure of school per-
formance. Their consensus was that grades,
unlike scores on intelligence tests and mea-
sures based on standardized achievement
tests, provide the most appropriate measure of
current school performance. Grades have
their difficulties as a measure of intellectual
performance, for they often represent rela-
tively arbitrary assessments by a teacher. But
the typical grade, usual grade, or mean grade
is the summation of many judgments about
the extent to which a student is responding to
the school curriculum.
Grade-point averages.-We found that
grade-point averages were available in most
of our schools only for seniors approaching
graduation. One school had up-to-date grade-
point averages for all its students. We there-
fore compared the questionnaire response,
the self-reported grade, to the grade-point av-
erage for each student in that school.
The correlation between grade-point av-
erages and self-reported grades was .76 (N =
1,146). We were concerned that there might
be a systematic inflation of self-reported
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1248 Child Development
grades for students whose academic perfor-
mance was low. Accordingly, we examined
the responses of students at each grade level.
There was only a slight tendency to overstate
grades when one reached grades near the bot-
tom of the distribution-mean grades of C
and below.
Accordingly, throughout this article we
will use a single measure of school perfor-
mance that was available for almost all stu-
dents in the sample. Self-reported grades give
a close approximation to the distribution of
grades on the transcript and will be used as
the measure of school performance in all anal-
yses.
Results
Parenting Style
In Table 1 we report the mean on each of
the three parenting style indices by sex, age,
ethnicity, parental education, and family
structure. The extent to which different
groups were reported by their children to em-
ploy each style of parenting is interesting in
itself, in addition to its relation to high school
grades. Since each index is based on a differ-
ent set of questions, scores on one index
should not be compared with scores on an-
other. Rather, comparisons should focus on
group differences in the means for a single
index.
There were small sex differences in the
parenting styles reported by the students. Fe-
males, compared to males, reported a slightly
lower level of authoritarian parenting, a dif-
ference that was statistically significant.
There was no gender difference in the reports
of permissive parenting. These small gender
differences in means will not be discussed
further. Most of our analyses relating grades
to parenting styles will not show gender dif-
ferences in the results.
Family parenting style does appear to be
related to the age of the adolescent. There
was a decline in the mean score on the au-
thoritarian index with increased age; permis-
siveness, on the other hand, was higher in the
older age groups. The authoritative index did
not show a clear relation to age. This suggests
that, while there may be shifts in the level of
authoritarian or permissive parenting as mat-
uration takes place, the authoritative style
may represent an ideological commitment
that does not readily change as children grow
up.
In Table 1, the mean on each parenting
index for each ethnic-sex group is compared
to the appropriate mean for whites. Differ-
ences among ethnic groups are seen in that
analysis. Asian, black, and Hispanic families
were higher on the authoritarian index for
both sexes than were white families.
Families of Asians, Hispanics, and black fe-
males were lower on the authoritative index
than were white families. For permis-
siveness, the ethnic differences were more
complex. Compared to whites, blacks were
lower on permissiveness, Hispanics were
higher, and Asians were slightly higher. Six-
teen of the 18 differences were statistically
significant.
The means on each parenting index in
Table 1 also showed a clear relation to paren-
tal education. Comparing within each sex,
families with higher parental education
tended to be somewhat lower in authoritarian
and permissive parenting and higher on au-
thoritative parenting. These differences in
parenting styles among parental education
groups are interesting in themselves, even
though the association of parenting styles
with grades will be shown to apply across all
parental education groups.
With respect to family structure, single
mothers showed a higher level of permissive
parenting than did two natural parents. For
their sons only, single mothers showed lower
levels of authoritarian parenting when com-
pared to households containing both natural
parents. Single fathers were also more per-
missive for both sexes, while they were less
authoritarian for females and less authorita-
tive for males than families containing both
natural parents. Step-families, compared to
families with two natural parents, tended to
be more authoritarian and more permissive,
and, for males only, less authoritative. Of the
24 comparisons between two-natural-parent
families and other types of families, 12 were
statistically significant.
Parenting Styles and Grades
For both sexes, the correlations between
grades and the three indices of parenting
style strongly support earlier studies on the
cognitive impact of parenting styles. The
negative correlation of authoritarian parenting
to grades was -.18 for males and -.23 for
females. For permissive parenting, the corre-
lations were -.09 for males and -.17 for fe-
males. Finally, authoritative parenting had
positive correlations with grades of .08 for
males and .13 for females. All correlations
were significant at the .001 level. The relation
of authoritarian parenting to grades was the
strongest of the three correlations for both
sexes.
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Dornbusch et al. 1249
One question that could be asked about
these relations of parenting styles to grades is
whether they apply equally well within
groups that differ on age, ethnicity, family
structure, or education. Correlational analyses
within categories provide a series of indepen-
dent tests of the relation between parenting
styles and grades. We will later present multi-
ple regressions for the total sample and
within ethnic groups, but here we will assess
the consistency of these relations in specific
categories of students.
The bulk of the literature on parenting
styles is based on studies of young children.
In that younger age group, the age of each
child is more likely to be a central variable
than in our studies of an adolescent popula-
tion in high school. We did not expect that the
relations between parenting style and grades
"would be highly dependent on the age of the
student, but we tested the possibility by look-
ing at the relation between parenting style
and grades for males and females in each of
the five largest age groups in our sample: 14,
15, 16, 17, and 18. There were no important
fluctuations among age groups in the associa-
tion between parenting style and grades. All
30 correlations (three scores by five ages and
two sexes) were in the expected direction,
and 29 were statistically significant.
The Baumrind typology was developed
from the intensive analysis of parenting in
largely middle-class, white families. We can
take advantage of the size of our sample and
its diversity to see whether, controlling for the
sex of the child, the four main ethnic groups
in our study show similar relations between
each style of parenting and grades, and thus
examine the extent to which a conceptualiza-
tion developed in one cultural arena applies
to groups with possibly divergent norms and
values.
The data indicate that, across ethnic
groups, authoritarian and permissive styles
were associated with lower grades, and an au-
thoritative style was associated with higher
grades. All eight correlation coefficients for
the two sexes and four ethnic groups were
negative when the authoritarian parenting
style was related to grades, and the same was
true when the permissive parenting style was
related to grades. For the authoritative style
the correlation to grades was positive in seven
out of eight ethnic-sex groups, with the only
failure among Asian females. Thirteen of the
24 correlations were statistically significant at
the .05 level.
There were, however, ethnic differences
in the strength of the correlations between
parenting styles and grades. For Asians, the
correlations of grades with both the authorita-
tive and the permissive styles were near zero.
For Hispanic males, authoritarian parenting
showed almost no relation to grades (-.03),
even though the relation was strongly nega-
tive among Hispanic females (-.26). Among
whites, our largest ethnic group, and blacks,
our smallest, all correlations were as ex-
pected. Asians appear to be the ethnic group
for whom our typology applies least well. Al-
though our approach does not seem to be lim-
ited in application to only a single ethnic
group, data from Asians appear to offer sup-
port only for the relation of authoritarian par-
enting to grades.
Although we have only a smaller sample
of students for whom we know the education
of their parents, it seems appropriate to use
that information to see whether our parenting
style indices relate to grades across social
classes. There are low, middle, and high pa-
rental education families within each sex,
making six independent subgroups within
which to examine the relation of the three
parenting styles to grades. All 18 correlations
were in the expected direction, with 11 statis-
tically significant. All correlations of au-
thoritarian parenting with grades were statis-
tically significant. The data support the view
that the parenting style typology applies fairly
well across the social classes.
We can simultaneously control for ethnic-
ity and parental education and thereby pro-
duce numerous correlations of parenting style
with grades, although many were based on a
small number of cases. There are four ethnic
groups, three parental education groups, two
sexes, and three styles of parenting. Exclud-
ing groups with fewer than 10 students, there
were 63 remaining correlation coefficients to
examine. Of the 63, 48 were in the expected
direction (positive for the authoritative index
and negative for the authoritarian and permis-
sive indices) and 15 in the opposite direction,
a ratio better than three to one. Looking only
at correlations that were statistically sig-
nificant, 21 were in the predicted direction
and only one (authoritative parenting for sons
"of low-education Asians) was in the opposite
direction. These correlations supported the
hypothesized relations between each par-
enting style and grades.
As American society has exhibited a de-
cline in the proportion of children living with
both natural parents, we wish to see if our
reformulation of Baumrind is applicable to
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1252 Child Development
children living in other types of families. For
five types of family structure, the three par-
enting styles were related to grades for both
sexes. Of those 30 correlations, only two
failed to be in the hypothesized direction.
The two failures occurred in the least com-
mon family structure-the child living with a
male single parent-where sampling fluctua-
tion is greatest. Within the more frequent
family structures-two natural parents, a sin-
gle mother, or a mother and stepfather in the
household-15 of the 18 correlations were
statistically significant at the .05 level using a
two-tail test. Since all 17 statistically
significant correlations were in the predicted
direction, the evidence suggests that diverse
family structures do not limit the scope of ap-
plication of parenting styles.
Multiple Regressions
Table 2 contains two multiple regres-
sions in which a series of structural variables
are combined, in the first regression, with the
indices of parenting style, or, in the second
regression, with a set of measures of pure par-
enting style (in the top one-third on one par-
enting style index and not in the top one-third
on either of the other two indices) in order to
predict grades. In a separate article we will
show that family processes, of which par-
enting style is just one element, are more
powerful than structural variables in the ex-
TABLE 2
DETERMINANTS OF GRADES, USING STRUCTURAL VARIABLES AND EITHER PARENTING STYLE INDICES OR
PURE PARENTING STYLES
WITH PARENTING STYLE INDICES WITH PURE PARENTING STYLES
b Beta F b Beta F
Female .............. .084*** .054 13.2*** .093*** .060 15.8**
(.023) (.024)
Parental education .... 117*** .171 112.2*** .125*** .183 126.9***
(.011) (.011)
Black ............. -.188** - .045 8.9** -.205** -.049 10.3**
(.063) (.064)
Hispanic ............. - .117* - .040 6.4* - .122** - .042 6.7**
(.047) (.047)
Asian ................ .485*** .186 151.6*** .466*** .179 137.4***
(.039) (.040)
Age .................. - .023* - .037 5.9* - .023* - .036 5.6*
(.010) (.010)
Single parent ......... - .213*** -.107 48.6*** - .200*** -.100 42.3***
(.031) (.031)
Stepparent ........... - .163*** - .064 17.6*** -.175*** - .068 19.8***
(.039) (.039)
Authoritarian ......... - .303*** - .230 227.7*** .........
(.020)
Permissive ........... -.127*** -.088 26.9***
(.025)
Authoritative ......... .053* .037 5.0*
(.024)
Pure Authoritarian .... .. ... ... -.295*** -.177 134.2***
(.025)
Pure Permissive . ......... - .143"** -.083 27.0***
(.027)
Pure Authoritative .... ... ... ... .045 .027 3.2
(.025)
Constant ............ 3.941 ... ... 2.825
R2 .................. .176 .156
N .................... 3,752 3,752
NOTE.-Numbers in parentheses are standard errors.
+ p < .10, two-tailed.
* p < .05, two-tailed.
** p < .01, two-tailed.
*** p < .001, two-tailed.
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Dornbusch et al. 1253
planation of variability in grades. Indeed, the
proportion of variance explained in that analy-
sis was surprisingly high, .34 to .38, given that
no measure of intellectual performance or
previous school performance was used as a
predictor.
In Table 2, the only family processes
used as predictors are those related to our
measures of parenting styles, so that we are
not expecting to explain a high proportion of
the variance in grades. The utility of the mul-
tiple regression technique is that it permits
the simultaneous operation and statistical
control of all the structural variables we have
used in the preceding analyses, and that it
enables us to assess the relative strength of
the relation between grades and each of the
three parenting styles when the structural
variables are all taken into account.
The first finding we note in Table 2 is
that the proportion of the variance in grades
explained by the predictors was slightly lower
when the pure parenting styles were sub-
stituted for the scores on the parenting style
indices. One explanation of this result will be
discussed in our presentation of Table 4.
The standardized beta weights provide a
means for assessing the relative contribution
of each of the predictor variables. Focusing
first on the structural variables, we note that
the most powerful ethnic predictor in both
equations was Asian. This gives further sup-
port to our conclusion that the parenting
styles we have studied do little to explain the
high grades of the Asians in our sample.
Parental education was also a relatively
powerful predictor, with betas averaging ap-
proximately .18. Other relatively powerful
structural predictors were our two measures
of family structure. Being in a single-parent
household or in a household containing a
step-parent was negatively associated with
grades. (A separate article will examine the
processes within those family structures that
produced these results.) In addition, female
students tended to get higher grades than
males, and black, Hispanic, and older stu-
dents tended to get lower grades.
Turning to the parenting style indices in
the first regression, we note once again the
relatively stronger relation of the authorita-
rian index to grades, with a beta weight
higher than the betas for the permissive and
authoritative indices. Moreover, that the au-
thoritarian index is stronger than parental
education as a predictor indicates that this
process variable was a better predictor than
the usual measure of social status.
Using measures of pure parenting style
produced similar results in the second equa-
tion. Pure authoritarian parenting showed a
stronger relation to grades than either of the
other two parenting types. In this equation,
pure authoritarian parenting was approxi-
mately equal to parental education in strength
as a predictor of grades. The relations be-
tween the pure parenting variables and
grades were in the expected directions.
We also examined ethnic differences in
the impact of parenting styles. Table 3 pres-
ents multiple regressions within each ethnic
group, using the same structural variables and
parenting indices that were used in the first
equation of Table 2. (We also did regressions
within each of the three most frequent family
structures. We do not present the tables of
results, but the findings show the same pat-
tern in each family structure, with authorita-
rian and permissive parenting negatively as-
sociated with grades, and with authoritative
parenting positively associated with grades.)
Within the Asian group, authoritarian
parenting was the strongest predictor of
grades, but the other parenting indices were
not significantly related to grades. Within
blacks, the group with the smallest number of
cases, no parenting index was significantly as-
sociated with grades.
Among Hispanics, an interesting result
emerged. Being female was significantly asso-
ciated with high grades. Yet the interaction of
females and authoritarian parenting was asso-
ciated with low grades, significant if a one-tail
test was used, and with the same magnitude
of beta weight as being female. This interac-
tion of gender and authoritarian parenting re-
versed the relation of authoritarian parenting
itself to grades within the Hispanic sample.
The failure of authoritarian parenting to affect
Hispanic males was noted earlier. This may
partially explain why, among Hispanics, fe-
males were only slightly higher than males in
mean grades, while the difference was much
more substantial in the other ethnic groups.
We can speculate on the reasons that au-
thoritarian parenting is gender-specific in its
impact on Hispanics. Perhaps this reflects cul-
tural orientations that produce major gender
differences within the Hispanic population.
For example, Hispanic informants suggest
that disobedience is expected among male
children in authoritarian households but not
expected from females. Males see themselves
as future heads of households; their subordi-
nation is only temporary. Others suggest the
importance of considering the lifelong orien-
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1254 Child Development
TABLE 3
DETERMINANTS OF GRADES, USING STRUCTURAL
VARIABLES AND PARENTING STYLE WITHIN
ETHNIC GROUPS
b Beta F
Asians:a
Female ........ .001 .001 .0
(.069)
Parental edu-
cation......... .086** .139 7.7**
(.031)
Age ............ - .070* - .129 6.3*
(.028)
Single parent .... -.269* -.125 6.4*
(.107)
Stepparent ...... -.654*** -.186 14.3***
(.173)
Authoritarian .... -.228*** -.190 14.6***
(.060)
Permissive...... - .073 - .057 1.0
(.074)
Authoritative .... - .089 - .070 1.5
(.073)
Blacks:b
Female ......... .354** .266 9.5**
(.115)
Parental edu-
cation......... .076 .128 1.9
(.054)
Age ............ .017 .029 .1
(.053)
Single parent.... -.019 -.013 .0
(.123)
Stepparent ...... .131 .065 .5
(.180)
Authoritarian.... -.142 -.127 2.2
(.095)
Permissive ...... .076 .064 .5
(.109)
Authoritative.... -.001 -.001 .0
(.097)
Hispanics: C
Female ......... 1.070* .662 3.87*
(.544)
Parental edu-
cation......... .037 .059 .95
(.038)
Age ............ -.007 -.010 .03
(.038)
Single parent.... -.167 -.085 2.06
(.116)
Stepparent ...... -.209 - .078 1.73
(.159)
Authoritarian .... .117 .088 .24
(.240)
Permissive...... - .048 - .039 .33
(.085)
Authoritative .. .170+ .125 3.19
(.095)
Authoritarian
x female ..... -.280 + - .666 3.28 +
(.155)
TABLE 3 (Continued)
b Beta F
Whites:d
Female ......... .080** .053 8.5**
(.028)
Parental edu-
cation......... .140*** .188 103.0***
(.014)
Age ............ -.025* -.041 4.7*
(.011)
Single parent .... -.240*** -.123 44.0***
(.036)
Stepparent ...... -.138** - .058 9.7**
(.044)
Authoritarian.... -.344*** -.262 200.7***
(.024)
Permissive...... - .142*** - .096 22.2***
(.030)
Authoritative .... .073* .050 6.4*
(.029)
" Intercept = 5.534; N = 370; R2 = .141.
b Intercept = 1.777; N = 135; R2 = .121.
' Intercept = 1.624; N = 285; R2 = .082.
d Intercept = 3.993; N = 2,592; R2 = .157.
+ p < .10, two-tailed.
* p < .05, two-tailed.
** p < .01, two-tailed.
*** p < .001, two-tailed.
tations of Hispanic females, emphasizing
femininity and family. Whatever the explana-
tion, we have here clear additional evidence
of difficulty in directly applying the parenting
typology across diverse cultures.
Finally, looking at the results for whites
in Table 3, we note how well the pattern of
findings reflects the original formulation. Au-
thoritarian and permissive parenting are asso-
ciated with low grades, and authoritative par-
enting is associated with high grades. The
typology derived from a predominantly white
sample of children obviously continues to fit
the white adolescent population fairly well.
Pure and Inconsistent Parenting Styles
All families in our sample can be
categorized as either predominantly practic-
ing one form of parenting or practicing a com-
bination of parenting styles. The data in
Table 4 include the mean grades of students
from the families that could be categorized as
pure authoritarian, pure permissive, and pure
authoritative. We find that, for both sexes, the
mean grades of the children from pure au-
thoritative families were much higher than
the mean grades of children from pure au-
thoritarian or pure permissive families (all dif-
ferences significant at the .001 level).
Looking at the same three pure family
parenting styles, we examined mean grades
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Dornbusch et al. 1255
TABLE 4
MEAN GRADE OF EACH COMBINATION OF HIGH ON PARENTING STYLE INDICES, BY SEX
MALE FEMALE TOTAL
INDICES ON WHICH Mean Mean Mean
HOUSEHOLD IS HIGH Grade N Grade N Grade N
All indices high ................. 2.34 92 2.42 54 2.37 146
(.73) (.79) (.75)
Authoritarian and permissive ..... 2.42 349 2.49 328 2.45 677
(.82) (.83) (.83)
Authoritarian and authoritative ... 2.54 444 2.65 303 2.58 747
(.77) (.77) (.77)
Permissive and authoritative ..... 2.84 129 2.94 133 2.89 262
(.76) (.69) (.72)
Authoritarian only (pure) ........ 2.62 555 2.68 509 2.65 1,064
(.79) (.79) (.79)
Permissive only (pure) .......... 2.61 673 2.70 648 2.66 1,321
(.90) (.85) (.87)
Authoritative only (pure) ........ 2.96 552 3.08 666 3.02 1,218
(.77) (.72) (.75)
No index high .................. 2.80 917 3.00 908 2.90 1,825
(.82) (.74) (.79)
within ethnic, parental education, and family
structure categories. For both sexes, within
the four ethnic groups, three parental educa-
tion groups, and the three most common fam-
ily structures, there were no exceptions to the
ordering of mean grades for the pure forms.
Pure authoritative families always had the
highest mean grades.
Table 4 also includes, for the two sexes
and the total sample, mean grades for stu-
dents coming from families exhibiting each
possible combination of high scores on the
three parenting style indices. Our definition
of a family with a pure parenting style was
that the family be in the top one-third on one
parenting style index and not be in the top
one-third on the other two indices. In Table 4,
every family is thus assigned to one of the
following groups: high on all three indices;
high on two indices (authoritarian and per-
missive, authoritarian and authoritative, or
permissive and authoritative); high on only a
single index (our pure authoritarian, pure per-
missive, and pure authoritative families); and
not high on any index.
The mean grades in Table 4 exhibit a pat-
tern that helps to explain the slightly lower
predictive power of the equation using pure
parenting styles in Table 2. The mean grades
of students from pure authoritative families
were clearly the highest. But the mean grades
of students in pure authoritarian or pure per-
missive families were not the lowest. The
lowest grades were found among students
whose family parenting style is inconsistent,
especially with combinations that include au-
thoritarian parenting. The combination of au-
thoritarian, permissive, and authoritative par-
enting (all indices high) and the combination
of authoritarian and permissive parenting
were associated with the lowest mean grades.
Authoritarian combined with authoritative
parenting was also associated with low
grades. Only the combination of authoritative
and permissive parenting (not including au-
thoritarian parenting) had mean grades higher
than pure authoritarian or pure permissive.
Thus, inconsistency, when including a
high index on authoritarian parenting, is asso-
ciated with the lowest grades. We speculate
that inconsistency in the home environment
creates anxiety among children, and that anxi-
ety reduces the relation between the stu-
dent's effort in school and the grade received.
We have examined some other data from our
sample and note a slight tendency for incon-
sistent communications from parents to be as-
sociated with a lower correlation between
hours of homework and grades.
Discussion
This article has provided evidence that
Baumrind's typology of parenting styles, orig-
inally formulated to explain social and cogni-
tive development among young children, can
successfully be applied to adolescents and re-
lated to their academic performance in high
school. Students from a wide range of back-
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1256 Child Development
grounds tended to get lower grades when
their descriptions of family behavior indi-
cated more authoritarian parenting, more per-
missive parenting, or less authoritative par-
enting. The association between grades and
the index of authoritarian parenting was stron-
ger than the association between grades and
the indices of the other styles of parenting.
The measurement of parenting styles
from data derived from the child's percep-
tions creates a potential problem. For ex-
ample, if students who are more estranged
from their parents do less well in school and
also tend to assign negative authoritarian
characteristics to their parents, that might ex-
plain some of our findings. But some of our
results do not fit this explanation focused on
bias in reporting. First, some combinations of
parenting styles, such as a highly authorita-
rian style mixed with high levels of permis-
siveness, were associated with lower grades
than a pure authoritarian style. That students
reporting such mixed or inconsistent par-
enting styles did less well in school suggests
that the reports are more than a reflection of
attitudes toward parents. Second, families of
different ethnic background or different pa-
rental education markedly diverged in their
use of parenting styles. Yet, without any al-
lowance for the values and norms of each
group with respect to authoritarian parenting,
it continued to be negatively associated with
grades across diverse groups. Such results
suggest that we are dealing with more than a
global positive or negative perception of par-
ents and their behavior. Nevertheless, a sur-
vey such as this one cannot answer objections
to using such perceptual data. Observational
data, preferably longitudinal, are needed to
check on these results.
Even as we stress the applicability of this
typology of parenting styles across a variety of
social groups, there are numerous findings
that call for further investigation. For ex-
ample, the mean level of authoritarianism was
about the same in families of Hispanic males
and of Hispanic females, yet authoritarianism
was much more associated with poor school
performance among the Hispanic females.
Similarly, our data show clearly that the
success of Asian children in our public
schools cannot be adequately explained in
terms of the parenting styles we have studied.
Compared to whites, Asian high school stu-
dents of both sexes reported that their
families were higher on the index of au-
thoritarian parenting and lower on the index
of authoritative parenting. Yet, counter to the
general association of such parenting patterns
to grades, the Asians as a group were receiv-
ing high grades in school. In addition, while
authoritarian parenting was significantly asso-
ciated with lower grades among Asians, there
was no significant relation between grades
and the other two parenting styles. This arti-
cle concludes with more questions than an-
swers in examining Asian parenting practices
and school performance.
The typology of parenting styles that we
have adapted was primarily devised for the
study of middle-class white families and their
children. Indeed, the parenting typology did
tend to be more associated with grades among
whites than among the other ethnic groups.
Yet, with the exception already noted for His-
panic males, in all ethnic groups authoritarian
parenting showed the expected relation to
grades. Permissive and authoritative par-
enting were not as consistently related to
grades across ethnic lines.
It is impressive that the diverse measures
of parenting styles were associated with
grades across a wide variety of social catego-
ries. The two sexes, the five age groups, the
five types of family structure, and the three
parental education groups all exhibited the
same predicted pattern. The families that
were high in authoritarian or permissive par-
enting tended to have students who did less
well in high school, and the families that were
high in authoritative parenting had children
who got higher grades in school. There were
major differences between the sexes, among
the age groups, among the family structures,
and among the parental education groups in
the extent to which the different styles of par-
enting were employed. Yet, regardless of
each group's mean scores on the parenting
styles, the relation of each style to school per-
formance exhibited the predicted pattern
within each group.
There is a need for further investigations
that will help increase our understanding of
these parenting styles and their conse-
quences. Certainly, longitudinal studies that
can unscramble the causal pattern are crucial.
To some extent, parental behavior is a prod-
uct of school performance by children, and
that relation probably is inflating our correla-
tional analysis. In addition, determining
which parent or step-parent is engaging in
which type of parenting style may help us to
delineate the meaning of various parenting
behaviors. Finally, careful studies of the
meanings of specific behaviors as interpreted
by members of various social groups, particu-
larly ethnic groups, could produce a major ad-
vance in our knowledge. Both better data and
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Dornbusch et al. 1257
better conceptualizations are needed to ad-
vance our knowledge of parent-adolescent re-
lationships.
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... The literature shows a lack of uniformity with respect to demographic variables that could have an impact on the parenting style and mental health of parents raising children with intellectual disabilities. For instance, socioeconomic status (SES) plays a significant role (Dornbusch et al., 2016;Riany et al., 2019). Riany et al. (2019) report that parents of low SES were more likely to adopt authoritative and permissive parenting than those from a higher SES background. ...
... Riany et al. (2019) report that parents of low SES were more likely to adopt authoritative and permissive parenting than those from a higher SES background. Conversely, parents with a higher SES are more likely to adopt an authoritative style (Dornbusch et al., 2016), which is linked to better mental health outcomes (Szkody et al., 2021). Additionally, cultural norms and values profoundly influence parenting practices and perceptions of mental health. ...
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Parenting style adopted by parents is believed to impact parental well-being and development of children including those with intellectual disabilities. While there is large body of literature on parenting style adopted by parents raising children with intellectual disabilities, especially in the western context, limited attempt has been made to understand parental styles and their relationships with the mental health of parents. In this study, a total of 200 parents raising children with intellectual disabilities completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS-21) and the Financial Stress Scale. The instrument was subjected to correlations and hierarchical multiple regressions. The results showed contribution of mental health in the variance in parenting style. For instance, general stress, anxiety and financial stress made significant contribution in the variance in authoritarian parenting style. Also, general stress, anxiety and financial stress made significant contribution in the variance in authoritative parenting style. Additionally, a relationship was found between permissive parenting, depression, general stress and financial stress. The study concludes with a recommendation for targeted parenting and mental health training for parents raising children with intellectual disabilities in Ghana.
... Research indicates that authoritative parenting, characterized by warmth and structure, is associated with higher self-esteem and better adjustment in adolescents (Steinberg, 2001). Conversely, authoritarian and neglectful parenting styles are linked to lower self-concept and emotional maladjustment (Dornbusch et al., 1987). Parenting styles aim to shape children's personalities to meet the needs of individuals, communities, and families for appropriate behaviour. ...
... The results suggest that while adolescents generally perceive themselves positively across different dimensions of self-concept, they experience greater challenges in social and educational adjustment. These findings support the notion that parenting styles, peer interactions, and academic environments play a crucial role in adolescent self-concept and adjustment (Baumrind, 1971;Dornbusch et al., 1987). Research indicates that love-oriented parenting fosters secure attachment, emotional well-being, and higher self-esteem in children (Baumrind, 1991;Rohner, 2004). ...
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While many societies worldwide are experiencing demographic transitions characterized by declining birth rates and shrinking kinship networks, the rise in pet ownership, particularly dog keeping, is most pronounced in Western and East Asian urbanized societies, where pets increasingly fulfill companionship roles. Dogs, one of the most often kept pets, are largely considered integral members of the human family. An increasing number of owners have even begun to regard their dogs as their children. This phenomenon can be explained by cultural evolutionary hypotheses, which suggest that due to changes in their environment, humans have culturally redirected their biological needs to nurture and care for children towards animals. Why are dogs good candidates for this child-like role in Western societies? The aim of this theoretical review is to describe the child-like morphological, behavioural and physiological features of pet dogs and explore the similarities and differences in dog and child parenting. We also examine the motivations behind “dog parenting” and conclude that “dog parents” constitute a heterogeneous group of people who attribute child-like roles to their dogs to various degrees and for various reasons. Both are highly dependent on socio-cultural contexts, among other factors. While some owners might see their dog as a child surrogate to spoil, others actively choose to have dogs and not children, bearing in mind that they have species-specific characteristics and needs. Dog parenting can also coexist with child parenting, enhancing the idea that humans might have evolved to care for others regardless of species.
... It is often known that authoritative parenting helps kids accomplish well in school and experience less anxiety. According to a research by Dornbusch et al. (1987), students from authoritative homes performed better academically and had lower anxiety and depression rates than their counterparts who were reared by permissive or authoritarian parents. According to the authors, children who experience authoritative parenting's supportive style are more likely to ask for assistance and practice good problem-solving techniques, which are critical for both academic achievement and emotional control. ...
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Objective: The main purpose of this research was to study the effect of Gender (male & female) and levels (High & Low) of dimensions of Parenting Style on the measures of dependent variables (Anxiety and Academic Performance). Method: The sample for this research consisted of 300 female and male students. Purposive sampling technique was used. Data analysis was done descriptively by using mean and standard deviation and further two-way ANOVA with 2×2 factorial design was used. Screening Instrument: A parenting style and anxiety scale were used. Result: Research results revealed a significant independent effect of levels of all four types of parenting style on both measures of dependent variables (anxiety and academic performance). Significant interaction effects of gender × levels of democratic were found on anxiety and Significant interaction effects of gender × levels of autocratic parenting styles were found on academic performance.
... Existe una larga tradición en el estudio de los estilos educativos parentales (Chamberlin, 1977;Dornbusch et al., 1987;Glasgow et al., 1997;Pardo et al., 2018;Vega-Díaz et al., 2023). Los estilos educativos parentales se conceptualizan como un conjunto de conductas educativas que los padres transmiten a sus hijos/as (Darling y Steinberg, 1993). ...
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