School motivation and academic achievement of adolescents living in Appalachia: The influence of parenting behaviors and family interactions

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between several parental behaviors and family variables and school motivation and academic achievement of adolescents living in rural Appalachia. Participants were 707 students from rural Appalachian high schools. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine predictive significance of parental autonomy-granting behavior, support, monitoring, punitiveness, gender role attitudes, and familism on school motivation and academic achievement. Consistent with hypotheses and previous research, results demonstrated that traditional gender role attitudes were obstacles for school motivation and academic achievement. In addition, age-of-adolescent, gender, and fathers' level of education were significant predictors of school motivation and academic achievement. Parental support and parental autonomy-granting behavior were only selectively predictive of school motivation. Parental monitoring, punitiveness, and familism failed to predict either school motivation or academic achievement in any of the statistical models.