Impact of Parenting Practices on Scholastic Performance of High School Students in Wolayta and Amhara Cultures
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Date
1997-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study examines the impact of parenting practices on scholastic performance of
high school students, the relationship between ethni city and parenting style, and the type of
parenting style dominantly practiced among Ethiopian fam il ies. The subjects of the study
were tlu'~e hundered thirty five eleventh-grade students attending two Comperehensive
Secondary Schools in Wolayta Soddo and Bahir Dar. Based on Maccoby and Matin's (1983)
revi sion of Baumrind's conceptual framework, families were class ified into one of four
parenting groups (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful) on the basis of the
adolescents' ratings of their parents on two parental dimensions: acceptance/involvement and
strictness/supervision. The students were then contrasted along their scholastic performance.
Results indicate that parenting practices have a significant impact on scholastic
performance of high school students, explaining 13. 14% of the variations in academic
achievement. However, the impact of parenting practices is moderated by the effect of sex of
the students. That is, male students who characterize their parents as authoritative sco re higher
in scholastic performance than their counter parts who perceive their parents as nonauthoritative
and female students who come from all four parenting sty le families. Male
students who come from authoritarian fami lies perform better in school than their counter
parts who are from neglectful homes and female students who come from indulgent and
neglectful families. The scholastic performance of female students is not significantly
different as a function of parenting style they have in their familie s. Moreover, the results also
reveal that ethnicity and parenting style are not related and that authoritative parenting style is
a type of parenting style dominantly practiced among Ethiopian families. The implications of
the results to child-rearing practices and child sociali zation and the adaptabi lity of Ethiopian
fa milies to modern patterns of child-rearing practices are di scussed.
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Keywords
Impact of Parenting Practices