The Influence of Parenting Styles by Turner, Chandler, and Heffer - Essay Example

Research Paper I am going to undertake a complete analysis of the article, “The Influence of parenting Styles, Achievement Motivation, and Self-Efficacy on Academic Performance in College Students” by Erlanger A. Turner, Megan Chandler, and Robert W. Heffer. This article appears under the category Journal of College Student Development in the May/June 2009 issue. The researchers were attempting to determine whether parenting style has influence on the academic performance of a student. The study also sought to determine the interaction between authoritative parenting and self-efficacy. From the article and course learning, the independent variables are achievement motivation, self-efficacy, and parenting styles. On the other hand, the dependent variable is academic performance. The statistical data provided in the research as well as the article topic function as a hint helping one to identify the various variables easily. The researchers expect academic performance to change according to the other factors, which include parenting styles and motivation. As the researchers anticipate, the independent variables are affecting the outcome of the dependent variables in that the authoritative parenting style, self-efficacy and motivation lead to better academic performance. The inherent expectation exhibited by the researchers is that the most favorable style of parenting would yield the best results when considering academic performance. In order to test the hypothesis and acquire reliable data, the researchers decided to use questionnaire as their preferred research method. As we discussed in class, the researchers decided to use questionnaire because it is one of the most reliable and convenient method of collection of data. Various characteristics of individuals were chosen for the study. The number of undergraduate students included in the study was 264. The researchers over-represented European Americans who were 179 or nearly 68% of all individuals (Turner et al. 341). Among the underrepresented groups are African Americans and Asian Americans who were represented by 13 and 14 individuals respectively. The participants signed up to participate in the study through online platforms and obtained course credit for the participation. The results indicated that specific parenting characteristics that include but not limited to supportiveness play a critical role in determining a person’s academic outcomes. In addition, self-efficacy and motivation are also crucial determinants of educational performance. Self-efficacy is in turn influenced by the time-spent learning. Here, students who study hard gain confidence, which is a higher efficacy. From the class discussions, any researcher should ensure that the individual or individuals being studied have the full consent of what is happening. The researchers in the current research heeded to this essential ethical issue. They accomplished this by ensuring that it was voluntary as individuals could sign up for the study through online channels. Although the subjects did not fill the informed consent form, it is clear that they were fully aware that a study was in progress and that they were willing to participate. Additionally, the course materials maintain that all researchers should ensure that participants are not harmed in any way by a research. The article does not mention whether all questions asked were sensitive in that they could not intimidate the subjects. This is because individuals from various ethnic and familial backgrounds participated. The researchers should have been aware of the importance of not harming the participants so that they could get the most accurate information. For instance, African Americans could have felt unease if they were asked questions on racial lines. From course materials, a sociologist is mostly concerned with developments exhibited by the human communities and establishing reasons behind certain outcomes, which is mostly based on exogenous grounds. One of the main arguments that a sociologist would be interested in is the fact that for African Americans, “parental beliefs in high degrees of control predicted lower grades, but parental beliefs in responsiveness did not contribute to adolescents’ grades” (Turner et al. 338). This is clearly the contribution of the environment because beliefs are environmental factors that the sociologist would like to expound on. A sociologist would argue that beliefs should have little to do with educational outcomes. From course materials, a biologist is concerned with endogenous factors. The main aspect of the present study that a biologist would be interested in is the idea that there are different response rates and determinants of better educational outcomes among diverse ethnic groups. One of the most intriguing aspects is that although Asian American parents are characterized as being authoritarians, which does not work well with other ethnic groups, their children exhibit better educational outcomes as compared to their European American counterparts. A biologist would argue that since all people are the same biologically, they should exhibit similar learning outcomes, which is not the case with the Asian Americans. The reason could be biological reasons where these individuals are generally motivated to pursue educational excellence by nature. Social class has had a profound but an unseen effect on the present study. First, the researchers have failed to acknowledge its effect by ignoring it in its entirety. Second, it is not a coincidence that among the participating subjects, almost 68% are European Americans, who comprise the higher social class. This has affected the outcomes of the study to the point that the conclusion has not incorporated the idea of beliefs. According to course materials, social class has an essential impact on most aspects and should not be ignored. Since the course material describes various research methods that can be used, another research method that could have been applied in this study is survey. This method incorporates asking questions and recording people’s responses. This method would yield better results because the researchers would gain primary data on additional questions that may rise from the present study such as why the participants think they are motivated to achieve academic goals. This would also introduce a new perspective and help in explaining the differences in various ethnic groups. Therefore, an in-depth perspective on why different ethnic groups respond differently to various parenting styles would emerge to help in not only explaining some crucial questions but also help in strengthening the research and making it conclusive. To improve my understanding of the issue being discussed in the article further, I located another article covering the relationship between parenting style and learning motivation. To locate this resource, I used the University’s online library search tools by typing relevant search phrases where most articles in the search results were relevant to parenting style but not related to education outcomes. Among these articles, I selected “Relations of Perceived Maternal parenting Style, Practices, and Learning Motivation to Academic Competence in Chinese Children” by Cecilia Cheung and Catherine McBridge-Chang. It is found under the January 2008 issue of Merill-Palmer Quarterly. Although this study restricted its dimensions to the Chinese people, it was still relevant to the main topic. The research in this article presents a measure of educational parenting practices that were developed through teacher parent interviews. It was based on restrictiveness of the parents, school motivation, and concern with academic activities. The perceived maternal practice fostered a unique variance in the children’s learning motivation and achievements demands. Achievement demands explained the children’s real academic performance. Generally, the article explains the interactions between the parent and the child and its influence on educational outcomes. According to the results of this study, the parent’s interest in academic activities involving the child play critical roles in determining the child’s performance (Cheung and McBridge-Chang 1-2). In addition, the motivation at the child receives from the parent is also of great influence. The results of this study were consistent with existing family interaction models. This improves my understanding in that it helps in enlightening my understanding concerning how a separate culture from the ones covered in the original article responds with respect to parenting style. Works Cited Cheung, Cecilia S and McBridge-Chang, Catherine. “Relations of Perceived Maternal parenting Style, Practices, and Learning Motivation to Academic Competence in Chinese Children.” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 54.1 (2008): 1-22. Print Turner, Erlanger A., Chandler, Megan and Heffer, Robert W. “The Influence of parenting Styles, Achievement Motivation, and Self-Efficacy on Academic Performance in College Students.” Journal of College Student Development 50.3 (2009): 337-346. Print. Read More