Relations of middle school students' perceptions of family and school contexts with academic achievement

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to examine the relations of both family and school contexts on students' academic achievement and to explore the mediating effects of students' perceptions of their motivations and academic self-competence between the family and school contexts and achievement. Participants were 230 fifth-and sixth-grade students. Students' perceptions of parenting style (demandingness and responsiveness), parental involvement (parental values and involvement in school functions), teaching style (teacher control and responsiveness), and school atmosphere (school responsiveness and supportive social environment) significantly predicted their school achievement; however, students' motivations and self-competence mediated the relations between students' contexts and their academic achievement. Furthermore, parental values, teacher responsiveness, school responsiveness, and supportive social environment predicted students' motivations and academic competence above and beyond parenting style, parental involvement, and teacher control. The importance of students' supportive relationships and the internalization of the messages conveyed to them underscore the need for a contextual view by school psychologists when consulting with parents and education staff regarding achievement concerns. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Over the past 20 years, researchers have made considerable advances in their understanding of the contextual factors that influence children's school achievement; yet, that knowledge is only recently influencing psychological practice in the schools. Individual influences of parent, teacher, and school factors on achievement are well documented in the educational and developmental literature (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998;Steinberg, 2000): students' school achievement is related to their perceptions of parenting style and parental involvement (e.g., Carlson, 1990;Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987;Grolnick & Ryan, 1989;Paulson, 1994;Stevenson & Baker, 1987;Wentzel, 1994), to teaching style and the classroom environment (e.g., Goodenow, 1993;Ryan & Grolnick, 1986;Rutter, 1983;Wentzel, 1997), and to school climate (e.g., Epstein & McPartland, 1976;Roeser, Midgley, & Maehr, 1994). However, an ecological perspective of child development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979(Bronfenbrenner, , 1986 would suggest that understanding children's perceptions of any single context is not sufficient for understanding children's performance in school. Despite continued suggestions to study the influence of the combination of contextual factors (Anderman & Anderman, 2000;Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983;Epstein, 1983;Steinberg, 2000), few multicontextual studies of children's achievement have been conducted. Microsystem models (see Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983 for a description of ecological models of research) are used most frequently in establishing the relations of any given context (family, classroom, or school) with children's achievement. However, mesosystem models, defined as "one tha...

Examining the Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Student Motivation

“…The findings from the Marchant et al (2001) study confirm the important role that relationships among parents, teachers, and peers play on early adolescents' school achievement. In particular, students' perceptions of their parents' values about achievement had the strongest relationship with both motivations and competence.…”

“…There is consistent evidence suggesting a relationship between parent involvement and students' perceived control and competence (Adunyarittigun, 1997;Ames et al, 1993Ames et al, , 1995Grolnick et al, 1991;Koskinen et al, 2000;Marchant et al, 2001;Stiller and Ryan, 1992;Trusty and Lampe, 1997). Grolnick and Slowiaczek (1994) propose that parents may be communicating to children strategies for effectively dealing with the school.…”

“…Being involved sends the message that parents are committed to the importance of a good education, and their attempts to stay involved are a testament to this commitment . However, it may be that the values conveyed, more than the behavioral characteristics of parent involvement, are beneficial (Marchant et al, 2001). When students perceived that parents valued the importance of effort and academic success, students were more motivated and had higher perceived academic competence (Marchant et al, 2001).…”

“…Two studies investigated students' academic school engagement measured by either the amount of acting-out behaviors, the quality of their work habits, task orientation, tolerance, focus, or coping with failure (Izzo et al, 1999;Steinberg et al, 1992). Four studies used scales of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation as measures for academic motivation (Ginsburg and Bronstein, 1993;Marchant et al, 2001;Ames et al, 1993Ames et al, , 1995. Four studies examined student autonomy by looking at locus of control, control understanding, perceived competence, perceived autonomy, self-regulation, or affective coping and engagement (Grolnick and Slowiaczek, 1994;Grolnick et al, 1991;Trusty and Lampe, 1997;Stiller and Ryan, 1992).…”

“…The study by Marchant et al (2001) explored the relationship of both family (parenting style and parent involvement) and school contexts on students' motivation. Researchers examined how students' perceptions of their motivations and academic self-competence mediate between these environmental contexts and academic achievement.…”