Parenting style and teen outcomes over four years

Introduction

Many studies have found that teens whose parents are both warm and firm do well in school. Most of those studies measured parenting and outcomes at the same time. The researchers wanted to know whether parenting style at age 13 predicts school performance and self-reliance four years later. They hypothesized that teens with authoritative parents at 13 would have higher grades and self-reliance at 17 than teens with authoritarian or permissive parents.

Participants

540 eighth graders, all age 13, from six public middle schools in suburban Ohio and Minnesota took part (51% girls; 74% White, 12% Black, 8% Latino, 6% Asian American; most from middle-income families). 462 (86%) were still in the study at age 17. A university institutional review board approved the study. A parent of each student gave written informed consent, and each student gave written assent at 13 and again at 17. Students were told they could skip any question or leave the study at any time; 78 left over the four years. Names were replaced with code numbers, and no school or parent saw any student’s answers.

Method

At 13, students completed a 24-item questionnaire about their parents (for example, "My parents explain the reasons for their rules," rated 1 to 5). From the warmth and rule-setting scores, each family was classified as authoritative (high warmth, high explained rules), authoritarian (low warmth, high strict rules) or permissive (high warmth, few rules). The researchers did not assign or change any family’s parenting. At 17, the researchers collected each student’s grade point average (GPA, on a 0 to 4.0 scale) for the junior year from school records, and students completed a 10-item self-reliance scale (scored 10 to 50) with items such as "I can usually solve problems on my own."

Results

At 17, teens classified as having authoritative parents at 13 had a mean GPA of 3.3, compared with 3.0 for teens with authoritarian parents and 2.8 for teens with permissive parents. The difference between the authoritative and permissive groups was statistically significant ($p < .05$). Mean self-reliance scores were 38 (authoritative), 33 (authoritarian) and 35 (permissive). Teens who left the study had slightly lower eighth-grade GPAs than those who stayed.

Discussion

Authoritative parenting at 13 predicted higher grades and self-reliance at 17. Because parenting was measured, not assigned, the researchers cautioned that other differences between families, and teens’ own traits, could explain part of the link.

Invented study for practice.