A case study of parental styles, parenting practices, student self-concept, academic self-concept, anger control, and student achievement in a suburban middle school

The purpose of this research was to examine parents' perceptions of their school-related parenting practices, their parental style, and children's dispositions, and the relationship of these variables to their students' achievement level on their New York State eighth-grade mathematics assessment examination. Students in this study took the eighth-grade mathematics examination in March 2008 in a suburban Long Island middle school. Parents' school-related parenting practices were derived from the work of Epstein. The school-related parenting practices used in this research were Parenting, Volunteering, Learning at Home and School Participation. The parental styles used in this research were based on the works of Baumrind: Permissive, Authoritative and Authoritarian and Non-Coercive based on the work of Gerald. Students' dispositions were Self-Concept and Academic Self-Concept based on the work of Marsh and O'Neil, and Anger Control based on the work of Rusielewicz.;The subjects of this research were parents and their children who took the 2008 eighth-grade mathematics examination and received either Level 3 (proficiency) or Level 4 (Mastery). Thirty-four of 70 parents and their 34 children took part in this research.;The research methodology was quantitative. Parents' perceived school-related parenting practices and parental styles were determined by administering a parent survey. The students' dispositions were determined by administering a student survey. Analyses of the parents' and students' responses were conducted using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and correlations.;Parents identified their school related parenting practices in descending order as Learning at Home, School Participation, Parenting and Volunteering. Most parents identified their parental style as Authoritarian. There was no difference in boys and girls in the three student dispositions. The only Parenting practice that showed a correlation with student achievement on the mathematics examination was Parenting, which had a positive effect on students who achieved Level 3. The only student disposition that showed any statistical significance was Academic Self-Concept.