Authoritative parenting stimulates academic achievement, also partly via self-efficacy and intention towards getting good grades

by Joyce Hayek, Francine Schneider, Nathalie Lahoud, Maya Tueni, Hein de Vries

The aim of this prospective study is to examine how parenting style relates to academic achievement of Lebanese adolescents and test the mediating effect of self-efficacy and intention towards getting good grades. Potential moderation by demographic factors (age, gender, school type, religion and parents’ education) was also examined.

Students (n = 345) from private and public schools in Mount Lebanon and Beirut area, aged between 15 and 18, participated in a two-wave longitudinal study and completed a self-administered questionnaire based on the I-Change Model assessing socio-demographics (age, gender, school type, parents’ education, family structure, religion), socio-cognitive factors (attitude, social norms, self-efficacy, intention), parenting styles and academic achievement. Adolescent were surveyed at two time points, six months apart. A multiple linear regression was carried out to identify baseline factors independently associated with academic achievement 6 months later. Moderation was examined using Hayes’s SPSS macro PROCESS. A serial mediation model was employed to test for the sequential mediating effect of self-efficacy and intention between parenting style and academic achievement.

Authoritative parenting was prospectively associated with better academic achievement and higher self-efficacy and intention at 6 months follow up. In addition, self-efficacy and intention towards getting good grades were found to mediate the relationship of parenting style to academic achievement. Adolescents who perceive their parents as authoritative are more likely to develop high efficacy beliefs and higher intention and subsequently are more likely to achieve better in school compared to peers of neglectful parents. Socio-demographics did not moderate the effect of parenting on academic achievement.

Authoritative parenting influenced both directly and indirectly the academic achievement of their children. Interventions aiming at improving academic performance of adolescents should also encompass positive parenting style strategies.