At risk adolescents: their perception of parenting styles

Abstract

This study was conducted to compare typical and students at risk’ perceptions of their parenting and the relations those perceptions have with other factors connected with academic achievement, namely, motivational goals, coping strategies and expectancy orientation. Three urban state high schools in North Queensland, involving 1127 Year 8-10 students, participated in the study. The students completed a survey exploring their: a) parenting perceptions, b) motivational goals, c) coping strategies and d) expectancy orientation.

Sociodemographic variables and mid-semester English and math grades were also recorded. Multivariate analyses of variance showed significant differences between typical and students at risk’ coping strategies, motivational goals, expectancy orientation and perceptions of parenting. Perceptions of parenting as authoritative was consistently linked with enhanced motivational goals, coping strategies and expectancy orientation in typical and students at risk, while the converse was found in students who perceived their parenting to be neglectful. An important finding is that there were no significant differences in constructs between those students who reported permissive parenting (N=50) compared to the rest of the sample (N= 1013) suggesting that parenting processes in the sample follow the permissive style.