Psychology writing assignment - Essay Example

Article Summary The article under consideration is d “The Influence of Parenting Styles, Achievement Motivation, and Self-Efficiency on Academic Performance in College Students”. It was published in the Journal of College Student Development in 2009. The given article is based on the research that was conducted with the aim of investigating implications of the authoritative parenting style for the performance of students, their self-efficiency and level of motivation in education. In this research, the authors hypothesized that there would be a strong correlation between the authoritarian parenting, intrinsic motivation, self-efficiency and academic performance.

Moreover, researches intended to test the connection between authoritarian parenting and self-efficiency.The significance of the following topic is conditioned by the fact that the sufficient amount of the scientific literature prove that parenting techniques produce the strong influence on the development of a child and formation of his/her personality. Subsequently, the results of the current research can be applied in order to positively influence academic achievements of students by means of establishing an education program that would address predicted problems and challenges in education.

The research was conducted on the basis of online questionnaires that were completed by 264 undergraduate students who took psychology courses and were offered to participate in the study to receive the course credit for participation. The time needed to complete questionnaires ranged from 30 to 60 minutes while the results were gathered in group administrations with 10-30 participants. Furthermore, the several variables were utilized while measuring responses of students. Demographic variables included data on gender, ethnicity, age, information about parents, and other.

Parenting style was measured with the Parental Authority Questionnaire – a scale suggesting to evaluate the degree of authority of parents. Apart from that, the questionnaire included sections dedicated to evaluating academic performance, motivation, self-efficiency and study skills. The results of the study were analyzed using the linear regression analysis that enabled to trace the correlations between the variables. Subsequently, it was revealed that there is a significant relationship between the variables, namely, authoritarian parenting style and intrinsic motivation serve as predictors of academic performance as well as academic self-efficiency and authoritarian parenting style together can serve as a model and be predictive of academic performance.

As a whole, researches managed to find grounding for all the hypotheses that were outlined. The results of the study have important implications for formulating the base of knowledge concerning the influences of parenting styles on the development of children and their academic success. In general, the findings confirm already existing findings, however the following study contains several limitations, such as the prevailing majority of students are females and European Americans, who were brought up in a two-parent household.

Moreover, their parents are well-educated. Therefore, the authors conclude that the given study can serve as a basis for the future research that can examine ethnic differences in academic performance and parenting styles among college students. In addition, the relationship between intrinsic motivation, academic self-efficiency, and parenting styles can be tested using samples of students from ethnic minority groups. ReferencesTurner, E., Chandler, M., & Heffer, R. (2009). The influence of parenting styles, achievement motivation, and self-efficiency on academic performance in college students.

Journal of College Student Development, 50(3), 337-346. Retrieved from http://sdtheory.s3.amazonaws.com/SDT/documents/2009_TurnerChandleretal_JCSD.pdf