The impact of maternal parenting style on achievement goals, academic performance, and personal interest in school among high school students
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the direct effects of maternal parenting style (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) on high school students’ achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance), GPA, and personal interest in school. This study also investigated the indirect effects of maternal parenting style on GPA and personal interest in school via students’ achievement goals. Data were collected from 160 high school students attending one school in New York State during the 2010–2011 school year. The results of path analyses partially confirmed the study’s hypotheses. When students perceived their mothers to exhibit higher levels of the authoritative parenting style, they were more likely to endorse mastery goals and display a greater personal interest in school. The endorsement of mastery goals was also found to mediate the relation between higher levels of the maternal authoritative parenting style and students’ personal interest in school. Higher levels of the maternal authoritarian and of the maternal permissive parenting styles lead students to attain lower GPAs. These two maternal parenting styles were unrelated to students’ achievement goals and to their personal interest in school. Performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were also unrelated to students’ GPAs and personal interest in school. The results of this study underscore the importance of the maternal authoritative parenting style in nurturing personal interest in school, both directly and indirectly through the endorsement of mastery goals, during adolescence.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Cognitive psychology
Recommended Citation
Mital, Sonya Britt, "The impact of maternal parenting style on achievement goals, academic performance, and personal interest in school among high school students" (2011). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3454820.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3454820
