Influence of parenting styles on juniorsecondary school students' performance insocial studies in ilorin emirate

Influence of Parenting Styles on Junior
Secondary School Students' Performance in
Social Studies in ilorin Emirate
AbdulRaheem Yusuf, Ayorinde Samuel Agbonna
Hamdalat Taiwo Yusuf
Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education, Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of parenting styles on junior
secondary school students' performance in social studies in llorin Emirate, Nigeria. The study
used questionnaire and Proforma to collect data on parenting styles and students' performance.
The data on junior school certificate and parenting styles were analyzed using frequency count,
percentages and chi- square to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses raised in the
study. The results showed that the parenting styles adopted had influence on the performance
of the students. In addition, it was observed that students from authoritative parenting had better
performance than students from other parenting styles. It was recommended among others that
parents should adopt authoritative parenting style to enhance optimal performance of the students.
In addition, the school should create structures and strengthen the existing ones that would
provide parent training intervention.
Introduction
The relationship between a student and his or her parents has been noted to have an influential
impact on not only the student performance in school but also in his/her life generally.
Parenting styles have been analysed and grouped by educationists. Numerous studies such as
Baumrind, (1991), Maccoby & Martin, (1983), Mandara, (2006) and Micki, (2008), have
shown that the parenting style experienced by children contribute in no small measure to the
moulding of the behavioral pattern generally and specifically, the performance of the children.
Miki (2008) noted that the relationship between parenting styles and their children's
performance h shown that parents can have a dramatic impact on their children’s
performance, often resulting in a vast improvement. Also, though; not as preventing, it is also
shown that parents can have a powerful impact on their children's behaviour in the classroom
and at other school based activities.
At the junior secondary school level, social studies is one the core subjects, which, if effectively taught, according to Yusuf (2004), has the potential to influence all round development Nigerian youth. However, students' performance in the subject shows growing decline in the Junior School Certificate Examination, observed by Yusuf (2004). In addition, the fluctuating performance is not restricted to any sex nor based on school location. For instance Yusuf (2004) found that there is no significant difference in the performance of male and female students, when taught using c operative instructional strategy while school location had influence on students' performance. One of the reasons for the poor performance of the students may be due to the parenting style adopted by their parents. Parenting styles are different manners of parents' child relationship. Parenting is a complex activity that includes mar specific behaviours that work individually and together to influence the child. Although specific parenting behaviours, such as spanking or reading aloud, may influence the child's development, looking any specific behaviour in isolation may be misleading. However the are people who have noted that specific parenting practices are less important in predicting child well-being than is the broad pattern of parenting. Most researchers who attempt to describe this broad parental milieu rely on Diana Baumrind's concept of parenting style. The construct of parenting style is used to capture normal variations in parents' attempts to control and socialize their children (Baumrind, 1991). There are two things that are critical in understanding this definition. First, parenting style is meant to describe normal variations in parenting. In other words, the parenting style typology developed by Baumrind, (1991) should not be understood to include deviant parenting, such as might be observed in abusive or neglectful homes. Second, it is assumed that normal parenting revolves around issues of control. Although parents may differ in how they try to control or socialize their children and the extent to which they do so, it is believed that the primary role of all parents is to influence, teach, and control their children. Parenting style captures two important elements of parenting: parental responsiveness and parental demandingness (Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Parental responsiveness (also referred to as parental warmth or supportiveness) refers to "the extent to which parents intentionally foster individuality, self-regulation, and self-assertion by being attuned, supportive, and acquiescent to children's special needs and demands" (Baumrind, 1991, p. 62). Parental demandingness (also referred to as behavioral control) refers to "the claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family whole, by their maturity demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness to confront the child who disobeys" (Baumrind, 1991, pp. 61-62). In line with Maccoby & Martin, (1983), this categorization of parenting styles can be loosely tied to the dimension of parenting styles described by Arnette (2002) as "demandingness" and "responsiveness". Demandingness, as explained by him means the degree with which parents set down rules and expectations for behaviour and require their children to comply with them. Responsiveness, according to him, entails the degree with which parents are sensitive to their children's needs and the extent to which they express warmth, love, and concern for their children. According to Weiss & Schwarz (1996), parenting styles car-summarized and placed into four (4) general themes of discipline positive parenting, monitoring and problem solving. According them, discipline theme of parenting style involves the discouragement of behavioural excess or anti social behaviour. They give the components to good disciplinary practices which are accurate definition of and labelling of certain behaviours as excessive antisocial, consistent tracking of those behaviours over time across settings; and the consistent and contingent use of effective but not harsh methods to inhibit those behaviour. Positive parenting, as explained by Weiss & Schwarz (1996),, means the interactions between the parents and their children v. foster interpersonal, academic, and work skills, and which encourage the development of normative values and standards of be haviour According to them, students of parents who use positive parenting skills are generally less likely to have low academic performance schools. On the other hand, students of parents who arc supportive and affectionate, or are rejecting and generally negative in their attitude are more likely to perform low academically. According to Weiss & Schwarz (1996), monitoring means parental awareness of children's peer associates, free time activities, physical where about, school awareness and performance and m access. Thus, children from good monitoring parental background are generally associated with good academic performance while ineffective monitoring has been associated with poor academic performance of the students. On problem solving theme of parenting styles, Weiss & Schwarz (1996) explained that, failure to acquire and use problems solving strategies may facilitate the fall in the academic perform, of students from such a background. Difficulties with problem sol may be caused by: ineffective parenting caused by stress associated with conflict; inappropriate modes of problem solving passed on from parents; stress and problems at home carried over to the sc environment, and problem solving in homes that is characterized by conflict, blaming, and non-acceptance of responsibility are associated with poor academic performance of some students. These interactions generally correspond with the general classification of parenting styles as authoritarian, democratic and laissz-faire. In the authoritarian parenting styles, children are exposed to a kind of master-servant relationship with their parents where overly harsh, punitive with no freedom to the children takes place. In a democratic parenting style, there is a kind of positive parenting where there is mutual interaction between parents and their children. In the laissefaire parenting style, we have a kind of indifferent or uninvolving parenting where the parents show non-challant attitude to the activities of their children both at home and the school. Maccoby & Martin (1983) and Mandara (2006) provide a more comprehensive way of categorizing parenting according to whether they are high or low on parental demandingness and responsiveness. They give a typology of four parenting styles: indulgent, authoritarian, authoritative, and uninvolved. Each of these parenting styles reflects different naturally occurring patterns of parental values, practices, and behaviours as observed by Baumrind (1991). In addition, he stated that the classification gives a distinct balance of responsiveness and demandingness. Maccoby and Martin (1983) state that indulgent parents (also referred to as "permissive" or "nondirective") "are more responsive than they are demanding. To them, they are non- traditional and lenient, do not require mature behaviour, allow considerable self-regulation, and avoid confrontation" (Baumrind, 1991, p. 62). In addition, indulgent parents may be further divided into two types: democratic parents, who, though lenient, are more conscientious, engaged, and committed to the child, and nondirective parents. They opined that authoritarian parents are highly demanding and directive, but not responsive. "They are obedience- and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be obeyed without explanation" (Baumrind, 1991, p. 62). These parents provide well-ordered and structured environments with clearly stated rules. Authoritarian parents can be divided into two types: non- authoritarian-directive, who are directive, but not intrusive or autocratic in their use of power, and authoritarian-directive, who are highly intrusive. According to Maccoby & Martin, (1983) and Taylor, Hinton, & Wilson, (1995), authoritative parents are both demanding and responsive. They monitor and impart clear standards for their children's conduct with assertion, but not intrusive and restrictive. Their disciplinary methods are supportive, rather than punitive. They want their children to be assertive as well as socially responsible and self-regulated as well as cooperative. The uninvolved pare are low in both responsiveness and demandingness. In extreme cases, this parenting style might encompass both rejecting-neglecting and neglectful parents, although most parents of this type fall within the normal range. Baumrind, (1991) observes that parenting style is a typology should not be a linear combination of responsiveness and demandingness. He noted that each parenting style is more than and different from the sum of its parts. In addition to differing responsiveness and demandingness, the parenting styles also differ in the extent to which they are characterized by a third dimension: psychological control. Probably that is why Weiss & Schwarz (1996) states that psychological control refers to control attempts that intrude into the psychological and emotional development of t child through use of parenting practices such as guilt induction, withdrawal of love, or shaming. One key difference between authoritarian and authoritative parenting is in the dimension psychological control. Both authoritarian and authoritative parents place high demands on their children and expect their children behave appropriately and obey parental rules. Authoritarian pare: however, also expect their children to accept their judgments, values, and goals without questioning. In contrast, authoritative pare' are more open to give and take with their children and make greater use of explanations. Thus, although authoritative and authoritative parents are equally high in behavioural control, authoritative parents tend to be low in psychological control, while authoritarian pare; tend to be high. Studies have been conducted on the influence of parenting Styles on students' performance. For instance, Chao (1994) a Mandara (2006) found that children from authoritative parenting style are associated with higher achievement among Europe Americans while those from Hispanic and African Americans win parenting style is authoritarian or uninvolving, are on the average lower in achievement compared to their European Americans. Also, Stemberg, Dombusch and Brown (1992) discovered that European American peers whose parenting style is authoritative, performed better academically than their counterparts from other parenting styles. In another study conducted by Stemberg, Lamborn, Darling,Mounts and Dombusch (1994), it was found that parenting style was a major predictor of grade point average for all children except African American children. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of parenting styles on students' performance in Junior Secondary School social studies in Ilorin Emirate, Nigeria. Methodology
The study adopted the ex-post facto design. The data used for the study were extracted from the computer processed result of students' performance in the 2007 final Junior School social studies examinations. The sample consisted of six selected Secondary Schools from Ilorin East, South, West, Asa, Moro Local Government Areas of Kwara. A total of 393 students participated in the study. The instruments used to gather data in this study were researcher designed questionnaire adopted from Micki (2008) and a pro-forma which enabled the researcher to correspond the data obtained from the questionnaire with the pro-forma. The data were analysed using simple percentage and chi-square statistics. The research questions were answered using simple percentage while the hypotheses were tested using chi-square. The following research questions were raised in this study: Does parenting style influence Junior Secondary School students' performance in social studies? Does parenting style influence Junior Secondary School students' performance in social studies on the basis of gender? Does parenting style influence Junior Secondary School students' performance in social studies on the basis of school location? Research Hypotheses Hoi: Parenting style does not influence Junior Secondary Sc: students' performance in Social Ho2: Parenting style does not influence Junior Secondary Sc-students' performance in Social Ho3: Parenting style does not influence Junior Secondary Sc students' performance in Social Data Analysis and Findings
The data collected were analyzed using computer SPSS software. Frequency count and
percentage and chi-square were used to an and test the research questions and the hypotheses
respective.
Research Question One Does parenting style influence Junior Secondary School Students’ Performance in Social Studies? Table 1: Students' performance according to parenting style
From table 1, it is observed that parenting style influence performance of Junior Secondary School students in Social Studies This is because the performance 113 (71.2%) out of 161 student whose parenting style was uninvolving had below 50% in studies while only 48 (27.9%) had 50% and above. In the same 131 (59.3%) of the students whose parenting style was authoritarian had below 50% score while 90 (38.5%) out of only 222 had and above. However, only 5 (5%) out of 99 had below 50% majority 94 (94, 9%) had 50% and above. 11 (26.2%) out of 42 students whose parenting style was indulgent had below 50% while 31 (73.8%) had 50% an above. Research Question Two Does parenting style influence the performance of Junior Secondary School in Social Studies based on gender? Table 2: Students' performance according to gender
The analysis in Table two showed that parenting styles have no significant influence on the performance of students in Junior Secondary Social Studies on the basis of gender. From the table, out of 283 male students, 139 (49.1%) of them had below 50%, while 144 (50.9.3%) of them had 50% and above. Out of 240 female students, 121(50.4%) had below 50%. The remaining 119 female students scored between 50% and above. Does parenting style influence the performance of Junior Secondary School students in Social Studies based on school location? Table 3: Students' performance according to school location
Table 3 indicates that out of 336 social studies students in the urban schools 148 (44%) had a score below 50% while 188 (56%) students had 50% and above. Out of 187 students from the rural schools 110 (58.8%) had below 50% score while 77 (41.2%) had score; between 50% and above. Hypotheses Hoi: Parenting style does not influence Junior Secondary School students' performance in Social Studies. Table 4:Chi-square showing influence of parenting style on students' performance
a. 1 cells (5.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 4.26 From the analysis on Table 4, it is observed that parenting style die significantly influence the performance of students. This is because at chi-square ratio 308.713a and at df 12, the Asymp. Sig. is .000 Since the P<.05, the hypothesis was rejected. This means that parenting style did influence students' performance in social studies. Ho2: parenting style does not influence male and female students performance in social studies. Table 5: Chi-square showing influence of parenting style on students’ performance based on
gender
a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimun expected count is 24.32 Influence of Parenting Styles on Students' Performance 45 Based on the analysis on Table 5, it is observed that parenting style does not significantly influence the performance of students based on gender. At Chi-Square value (7. 724a) and df (4), the Asymp. Sig is .102. This means the P> .05 and therefore the hypothesis is not rejected. Ho3: Parenting style does not influence the performance of Junior Secondary School students' performance on the basis of school location. Table 6: Chi-square showing influence of parenting style on students' performance based on
school location
a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 18.95 The analysis in table 3 indicates, at .05 level of significance, the value was .003. This implies that the parenting style significantly influenced the performance of students based on location of the school. This means that the hypothesis was rejected. Discussion
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of parenting styles on students'
performance in Junior Secondary School Social Studies. The finding shows that, using the two
important elements of parenting i . e parental responsiveness and parental
demnadingness, four parenting styles, of indulgent, authoritative, authoritarian and
uninvolved, have significant influence on the performance of students in Junior Social studies
in Ilorin metropolis.
The analyses in the study showed that indulgent and authoritative parents tended to have higher positive influence on academic performance. This is because, they promote more stimulating home environments for their children which make their children to have higher test scores when they we-younger, and came from home with more educated parents an higher incomes than parents in the authoritarian and uninvolved groups. The study tallied with Baumrind (1991), who stated that indulgent parents are more responsive than they are demanding while authoritative parents are both demanding and responsive wit high degree of supportive disciplinary methods that positive impacted on their children's performance. The study is also in line with that of Stemberg, Dombusch an Brown (1992) which concluded that authoritative parenting is competence inducing in that it recognizes the child's need for control and individuality, views the rights and duties of parents and children as complementary, and is characterized by sensitivity to children capabilities and the developmental tasks they face. Authoritative competence parenting is therefore related to a warmer, more accepting and ore helpful styles of parenting. In contrast, the study showed that those parents wit authoritarian and absolutely permissive (uninvolved) parenting styles tended to have negative influence on their children performance in schools. Thus, according to Mandara (2007, is because these parents were the least educated, least likely to be married, had the lowest incomes and came from poorer homes than the parents in other groups. Furthermore, their children were less motivated to take tests, less healthy, and less likely to be an older sibling than the youths in other groups. They thus buttressed the findings Dornbusch et al (1987) which found that both authoritarian an absolutely permissive parenting styles were negatively related to children's cognitive ability. However, even with these important differences controlled, parenting style still had a relatively high influence on student performance in Social Studies for almost all school locations and gender of the students. As with some related studies urban students scored the highest percentage of good grades and came from either authoritative or indulgent family background. However, some rural students also scored high grades but almost all of them came from authoritative parents. In fact, the difference between rural students in authoritative homes and the others from other homes was larger than the difference between urban students in authoritative homes and urban students with other types of parents, once the background factors were controlled. The study showed that there was no significant gender based difference in the performance of students in Junior Secondary School Social Studies. Authoritative and indulgence parenting styles were associated with good grades for all students in both rural and urban location and both male and female students. However, demandingness appears to be less critical to girls than to boys' performance. Conclusion
This paper has tried to examine the influence of parenting style on the performance of Junior Secondary School students in social studies in Ilorin Emirate, using the last Junior Secondary Certificate Examination result, gender and the location of the schools of students as the basis of analysis. With the effort, parenting styles have been found to influence children's well-being generally and their academic performance in specific. The findings in the study indicate that children from authoritarian family backgrounds (high in demandingness, but low in responsiveness) and those from uninvolved family background (low in both .responsiveness and demandingness) tend to perform poorly in school because they have poorer social skills, lower self-esteem and higher level of depression. On the other hand, children from authoritative parenting families (high in both demandingness and responsiveness) tend to perform well in schools while those whose parents are characterized with indulgent parenting style (high in responsiveness and low demandingness) tend to perform moderately well in schools since they tend to have higher self-esteem, better social skills and lower level of depression. Parenting style therefore provided a robust indicator of parenting function that influence children's performance across a wide spectrum of environments and across different Local Government Areas of Students. Both parental responsiveness and parental demandingness are important components of good parenting. Authoritative upbringing is found to be associated with both instrumental and social competence and lower levels of problem behaviour in both boys and girls students and in both rural and urban schools at all academic activities. Recommendations
Based on the findings and discussion, the following recommendations are made: Since the parenting style adopted by the parents of the students influences the performance of the students, there is the need for the parents to adopt authoritative parenting style. This will enhance optimal performance of the students. There is also the need for training that will serve as parent training intervention so as to equip the parents with the skills an-dispensation required for being both responsive and demanding. Structures such as Parents Teachers Association should b° strengthened. Enlightenment programmes on good parenting should be organized for the parents to expose them to different parenting styles and how they have contributed or influenced the performance of students in their school work.
References
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