Perceived parental bonding, fear of failure and stress during class presentations

Abstract

The purpose of the present studies was to test the hypothesis that students' perceptions of parental bonding may be predictive of how individuals approach achievement situations. It was hypothesized that reports of parental overprotection would be predictive of elevated fears and subsequent stress and low achievement compared to perceived parental care. No hypotheses were specified regarding the gender of the parent. In Study 1 participants were 230 elementary school students who were assessed on motivation, stress and affect prior to a "high stakes testing". Results indicated that paternal caring scores and, to a lesser degree, maternal caring scores were associated with lower levels of fear of failure, anxiety and depression. In Study 2, 58 college students were monitored (physiologically) during a class presentation in order to test the hypothesis that perceived parental rearing is predictive of stress through influencing fear of failure. Results from Multilevel Random Coefficient Modeling showed that perceived parental caring was associated with significantly lessened stress compared to perceived overprotection. Modeling the relationships using Structural Equation Modeling indicated that students reporting an overprotective parental style approached the task with significantly elevated fears, had elevated stress during the task, and lower task performance. Another salient finding was that students' perceptions of their fathers' parenting style was highly predictive of the stress response. The discussion reviews these findings and examines possible implications for enhancing achievement motivation in educational contexts.

Can Parental Bonding Be Assessed in Children? Factor Structure and Factorial Invariance of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) Between Adults and Children

“…Individuals using a four-point response scale (0 = very unlike, 3 = very like) are asked about their memories concerning the treatment received from their parents up to the age of 16. PBI has been adapted in the Greek language by Sideridis and Kafetsios [27] and has shown acceptable psychometric properties.…”

“…However, no analysis was conducted on issues related to the suitability of the measure for this specific age population. Similarly, Sideridis and Kafetsios [27] have used an adapted version of the PBI with 5th and 6th graders and found moderate to high reliabilities for Overprotection (0.65) and Caring (0.79) sub-scales, and significant associations with measures of fear of failure, anxiety and depression. However, the suitability of the adapted instrument for the specific age population was not tested further.…”

Perceived Parenting Styles and School Anxiety in Preadolescents

“…These authors suggest that typical stressors in school settings are aggressions, social evaluation and school failure. School anxiety can generate poorer learning results (Chapell & Overton, 1998), poorer performance in evaluative situations (Sideridis & Kafetsios, 2008) and grade retention (King, Ollendick, & Prins, 2000). School anxiety is also associated with psychosomatic symptoms, affecting students' wellbeing and health (King et al, 2000;Von Gontard, Moritz, Thome-Granz, & Equit, 2015).…”

Perceived Parental Attachment and Achievement Motivation

“…Powers and Wagner (1984) found that internal, ego-related attributions, such as effort and ability, were significantly positively correlated with achievement motivation (r = .31, p < .001), whereas external, causal attributions, such as context and luck, were not. Sideridis and Kafetsios (2008) found that perceptions of parental care, specifically care from mother and care from father, correlated negatively with fear of devaluing self (r = -.30, p < .01; r = -.35, p < .01), fear of uncertain future (r = -.18, p < .01; r = -.23, p < .01) and fear of others losing interest (r = -.28, p < .01; r = -.27, p < .01). A cluster analysis by Paulson, Marchant and Rothlisberg (1998) revealed that students who reported a positive view of parental involvement, such as perceived authoritative parenting, also reported the highest feelings of academic competence and school achievement.…”

“…Spera (2006) focused on scholastic outcomes rather than the achievement motivation that could lead to these. Sideridis and Kafetsios (2008) hypothesized that fear of failure would mediate the relationship between parental attachment and stress. Paulson, et al (1998) looked at perceptions of academic performance rather than achievement motivation.…”