Parenting Styles as a Function of Academic Achievement

The study investigated the relationionship between parenting behaviors and academic achievement. The objective of the study was to inquire the functions of parenting on academic achievement. The study was conducted in Tulu Yombo Junior School, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. The study was conducted from January 2018 up to September 2018. The study employed a cross-sectional research design. The population of the study was 200 students of grade 7 and 8. Subsequently, 50(25%) samples were selected using stratified random sampling. The study was a pure quantitative research type. For this reason, it used a survey questionnaire which is close-ended to identify the styles of parenting the parents of the students employed. The questions were prepared to be responded in “Likert Scales”. On the other hand, record scores of academic achievement were used as secondary data. The data were analyzed and interpreted using One-way ANOVA and Honestly Significance Difference (HSD) statistical test. The result of the study revealed that children of Authoritative (democratic) parents scored x . significantly higher in their academic achievement than did children from Non-authoritative. However, no substantial difference was o served in the academic achievement of students from authoritarian x . , indulgent x . and neglectful parents x . .

CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 1. Introduction

Background of the Study
"Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world" (Mandela). Education is an engine for the advancement of science and technology (Power, 2015). It is the key to reduce poverty, eliminate gender inequality, foster peace and in general for the socioeconomic and political development of a country (Smith, 2018).
Education is a principal institutional mechanism for developing human skills and economic development. It is a crucial element for sustainable national economic development. It is highly accepted as it is the most important and necessary tools for improving oneself in particular and the country in general.
Although education (academic achievement) is the most useful inputs for the socioeconomic development of a country, there are various factors which influence it. Among them, parenting styles (forms of raising children) is one of the topmost facets which influence on academic achievement. It is fact that if several negative factors combine, the risk of insecurity or unsuccessfulness increase. Many children report that parents who have abusive behavior is one factor for their low academic achievement. This is because children of these parents will experience anxiety, fear, anger, confusion, depression, repress to immature forms of behavior and develop behavioral problems in the school, which has a negative impact on their academics (Wallerstein and Kelly, 1980a;1980b). Maccoby et al. (1983), argued that academic achievement is nothing more than exercising "good" parenting style i.e. authoritative parenting where there are high levels of parental responsiveness and high level of demand. Morrison and Coiro (1999), revealed that children of improperly reared exposed to varieties of risks (difficulties). to mention some academic problems, troubled relationships with family members, low self-esteem and depression.
Diana Baumrind, a developmental psychologist, was a pioneer who works on parenting styles (psychological construct) which refers to the representing standard strategies that parents use in their child rearing. Baumrind (1967), identified three initial parenting styles: authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, and permissive parenting. She argued that each type of behavior is highly correlated to a specific kind of parenting. Maccoby et al. (1983), expanded this parenting styles model into four y expanding Baumrind"s permissive parenting into two different types: indulgent (permissive) parenting and neglectful (uninvolved) parenting. They used a twodimensional framework to classify into four: responsiveness-love/warmth and demandingness -control.
Ethiopia is a country where traditional and deep-rooted cultures and values have existed for centuries. These cultures and values have an influence on various aspects of the society (e.g. Parent-Child relationship). For instance, the culture of parent-child relationship has an influence on the academic performances of the child. Hence, this study outlined the influence (function) of parenting styles on the academic achievement of children.

Statement of the Problem
It is undeniable fact that parenting is the cornerstone of human development. It has implications for all aspects of human life. Among the necessities" of human eings, education is one which is influenced by parenting.
Human eings need and have to do many things for survival. Among the necessities" and tasks, education is one which individual should encounter so as to achieve their goal (e.g. getting a job) and fulfill their basic needs. In our world, many individuals are unsuccessful in their academics and many social scientists attribute parenting as the topmost factors for it. Researches show that parenting makes a difference, but the way children turnout depends on the interaction among their inherited characteristics, parental behaviors and other environmental experience (Baumrind and Black, 1967).
Ethiopia is a country where quite substantial part of the people live in rural areas (Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia, 2007). The common type of parenting in the rural area is authoritarian, which negatively correlated with academic achievement. Although there are few studies conducted on the influence of parenting styles on academic achievement, there are no studies conducted in the study area the researcher undertook.
Thus, it is based on these rationales, this research geared to explore the influence of parenting styles on academic achievement.
To this end, to achieve the objectives of the study, the following basic research questions were stated: 1. Are there statistically significant differences in academic achievement due to the difference in parenting styles? 2. Which parenting style(s) is/are more prevalent in the kebele?

General Objective of the Study
The general objective of the study was to investigate the functions of parenting on academic achievement.

Specific Objective of the Study
 To identify whether there is/are statistically significant differences in academic achievement due to difference in parenting styles or not.  To identify the prevalence of the types of parenting in the kebele.

Significance of the Study
This study is geared towards identifying the functions of parenting styles on academic achievement. To this end, identifying these issues has much more importance to clearly understood, plan, develop and carry out appropriate strategies to bring about a difference in the academic achievement of the children. Here below, the researcher forwarded the expected specific benefits of the study: It will help to develop "proper" parenting styles through community education programs awareness oth at individual and societal level, especially for Tullu Yombo Kebele (School). Besides this, the researcher believes that this study will initiate further investigation on the issue under investigation.

Delimitation of the Study
The study was delimited to Oromia region, Arsi Zone, Huruta Town, Tullu Yombo Kebele Junior School on students of grade 7 th and 8 th . The study also delimited conceptually to identify the functions of parenting on academic achievement even if other factors also exist and reveal outcome on academic achievement. The reasons for its delimitation on this area and topic were: the people way of live is traditional-agrarian. The people were less access to education and information which implied to use non-authoritative types of parenting. These in turn implied for low academic performance. The other reason is inability to address all factors that influence academic achievement.

Definition of Key Terms
Academic is the process of acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge in order to crate things to be done. Achievement is the process or action of securing or scoring good grades. Attachment refers to the strong emotional bond that develops between children and parents or guardians. Demanding refers to the extent parents control their children"s ehavior or demand their maturity. Parenting styles refer methods/strategies/ways parents or guardians use to up-bring or raire their children. Responsiveness refers to the degree parents are accepting and sensitive to their children"s emotional and developmental needs. Socialization refers to the process by which we acquire the beliefs, values and behaviors of a group or society.

Study Area
The study was conducted in Ethiopi, Oromia region, Arsi Zone, Huruta Town, Tullu Yombo Kebele Junior School on Students of grade 7 th and 8 th .

Study Design
The study employed a quantitative cross-sectional study design.

Population and Sampling Design
The population of the study was 200, among whom 120 and 80 where grade 7 th and grade 8 th students respectively. Among these students, 50(25%) were selected as a sample of the study. The participants were selected using stratified random sampling. Sex difference, demographic variable, was used as strata. Accordingly, from the total of 200 students, 60 and 140 were females and males respectively, among whom 15(30%) and 35(70%) were respectively sampled.
Participants were selected though lottery technique by drawing either number 1 or 0. Fifty (50) cards were assigned with number 1 and the remained 150 were 0. Hence, those students who drawn a card with number 1 were selected to fill the questionnaire or taken as participant of the study whereas those who drawn 0 were non-participant (excluded).

Instruments and Procedures of Data Collection
Close ended questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire was prepared in English and then translated into Afan Oromo to accommodate the mother tongue of the respondents (students).
On the eve of data collection, the researcher informed and briefed the participants about the questionnaires, issues related to it and ethics of confidentiality. Then, the researcher and two teachers of the school collected the necessary data. The scores of the academic achievement of the participants (students) were taken from the record office and kept secretly.

Pre-Testing
The researcher, for checking the validity and reliability of the instrument, distributed the questionnaire to the students of grade, 7 th and 8 th of Adama Number 2 school whom they have thought to have similar characterstiscs with the study population. Accordingly, 20 students filled the questionnaire and the researcher got insight to correct the organization and wording of the instrument. In addition, the pre-testing allowed the researcher to inculcate the occupational status of the respondents" family.

Data Analysis Procedures and Interpretation
The unit analysis of this study was parenting styles as function of academic achievement. The data was classified based on students rating of their parents on the two dimensions Warmth-love and control-demanding.
After the data processed and classified, it was analyzed and interpreted using One-Way ANOVA, at α level . and k-1and n-k degree of freedom. Thus, to see whether or not there were academic achievement differences due to parenting styles One-Way ANOVA was employed. On the other hand, to identify and test which pairs of parenting styles are statistically significant, HSD (Honestly Significance Difference) or Tukey test was used.

Dependent Variable (DV)
The dependent variable of the study was academic achievement.

Independent Variable (IV)
The independent variable of the study was parenting styles which include authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent and neglectful parents.

Result and Discussion
The objective of the study was to investigate the functions of parenting on academic achievement. The researcher first want to present the results of his findings through discussing about the socio-demographic variables of the respondents. As indicated in the Table 2 below, 24 (48%) and 16 (32%) of the respondents were Oromo and Amhara, respectively and the rest 10(20%) were covered by other ethnic groups. Regarding the sex distribution of the respondents, 70% and 30% were male and female respectively. In relation to marital status of the respondents", 76%, 22, 8% and 4% were single, cohabited, married and divorced respectively.
Finally, the researcher presented the occupational status of the respondents" family. Accordingly, % were farmers and followed by business men, 12%.  The researcher tried to show in the above table, i.e. table 3 a out the respondent"s family parenting styles. Hence, it is indicated that out of 50 respondents, 12 (24%), 20 (40%), 11 (22%), and 7 (14%) were Authoritative, Authoritarian, Neglectful and Indulgent from parenting respectively.
To answer the research question formulated in this study. The major analysis was done using one way-ANOVAto see which groups (styles) of parenting are statistically significant difference from one another. Multiple comparison test called Tukey test or Honestly Significance Difference (HSD) test was employed to check which pairs of parenting styles are statistically significantly different. It is clearly indicated in table 4 that, those respondents who were from Authoritative parents scored more on academic achievement x . . However, there is no significant difference in the academic achievement of respondents from the three groups of parents i.e. authoritarian x . , indulgent x . and neglectful x . . As One-way ANOVA summary table indicates above, there was statistically significant difference between parenting style and academic achievement (F=215.32, Df-2.81). To test which pairs of parenting styles are statistically significantly different on the academic achievement, HSD test was used. The HSD test result disclosed that, there was a statistically significant difference in the academic achievement between participants who up brought from authoritative and authoritarian parents (HSD=19.5). Moreover, the result outlined that, students developed with authoritative parents have statistically significant difference in academic achievement compared to students developed with neglectful and indulgent parents (HSD: .9, . . The rest didn"t show statistical significance difference (HSD: among authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful =7.4, 8.9 and 1.5).
Therefore, the result showed that student developed by authoritative parenting scored significant result than the other aforementioned three groups of parenting.

Discussion
The findings of the study revealed that children from authoritative parents x . perform significantly higher in their academic than did children from non-authoritative i.e. authoritarian, neglectful and indulgent. However, there was no substantial difference observed in the academic achievement of students (children) among authoritarian x . , indulgent x . and neglectful x . . This finding is consistent with the result of studies conducted in other countries (Dornbusch et al., 1987;Reynolds, 1992;Steinberg et al., 1992). Dornbusch et al. (1987), stated that children from authoritarian family perform poorly in academic and have low self esteem. Likewise, Leung et al. (1998) stated that higher academic achievement is typically associated with low parental authoritarianism and higher parental authoritativeness. The findings of this study are congruent with Maccoby et al. (1983). Morgan (1994) (as cited in (Feldman, 2011;Feldman et al., 2014;Santrock, 1999) argued that children with authoritative parents tend to have higher self esteem, achieves higher in the school, have fewer conduct problems and are more considerate of others. Their finding revealed that higher academic achievement is observed in students from authoritative parenting where there is high levels of parental responsiveness and high level of demand.
According to Steinberg et al. (1992) stated there are a number of reasons for authoritative parenting style is more effective than other ways of rearing a child. The foremost reason is the way affection and control exercised appears to seem fair and reasonable to the child. The result of the current study revealed that parents need to love and control their children if they wish their children to perform higher academic achievement. Baumrind (1967), argued that parents should warn towards their children but they should also be able to demand a good standard of behavior and be supportive. The result of the current study warns indulgent and neglectful parents that the behaviors they show in upbringing their children have negative effects on their children school performance. These parents undermine and low in control of their children. As we have seen in the finding part, students from neglectful parents poor perform in their academic. This finding concedes with Crittenden and Ainsworth (1989) finding which revealed that children who up brought from neglectful parenting associated with insignificant academic achievement.
In sum, the findings of this study indicate that there were statistically significance difference in the academic achievement of students due to difference in parenting styles their parents model.

Summary
It is o vious that a num er of varia les factors account for variation in the students" academic achievement (performance). However, this study focused on the role of parenting styles on academic achievement. The results indicate that the type of parenting style parents employ greatly affects a student"s academic achievement. Among the four styles of parenting, only the authoritative is associated with higher academic achievement whereas the remaining three namely authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful are associated with low academic achievement.

Conclusion
It has been mentioned that the objective of this studywas to invesitigate the functions (influence) of parenting styles on academic achievement. Hence, based on the finding of the study the following concluding remarks were made: The way parents treat or upbrought their children makes a difference in the academic achievement of the children. Authoritative parents has positive contributon to the academic achievement x . of their children. The students from authoritative parents has statistically significant difference in their academic achievement (HSD: Authoritative versus authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful =19.5, 26.9, 28.4). However, there is no statistical significance difference in the academic achievement among the students from authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful. Therefore, these three non-authoritative parenting relates with low academic achievement.

Recommendation
Now a day, education (academic life) is becoming as the main means of livelihood. There are various factors, which account for poor performance in the academic. The way parents or guardian rear or up brought their children is the one and the prime determinant factor for the childrens" academic achievement and entire life. Hence, measures should be taken by government and other concerned bodies such as NGOs, community and family.
Based on the findings of this study, the researcher recommended measures, which should be taken by government and other, concerned bodies such as NGOs, community and family.
Parents should exercise authoritative type of parenting since the study reveal that it has a positive contribution to academic achievement. To do so, parents should first get knowledge and skills about the parenting from the concerned body.
Government and other concerned body should work with the community to teach about the influence of parenting on the academic achievement of the students. The concerned body may work on the child-parent relationship, cognition and abilities enhancement, freedom and so forth. Hence, the concerned body should work on socialization of children.
After these all, the concerned body should initiate follow up through conducting research in order to observe changes.