Parenting Styles and Student Achievement in Special Education

Introduction

Parents develop parenting styles that largely determine the type of parent-child relationship and the levels at which children develop various skills and competencies. Within this discipline, the family context is conceived as a system that includes modes of mutual influence — both direct and indirect — among its members. Parenting styles and family interaction patterns influence virtually all spheres of an individual's development: behavioral skills and aspects of personality, ways of interacting with the community, and even the level of success or failure in special education.

Within the family environment, a child begins to develop his or her character and personality through the parents who are closest to him or her. Parents are responsible for the care and protection of each family member, and are also responsible for regulating conduct by setting boundaries and providing positive reinforcement. Parents are of extreme importance, since they are part of the construct that can either support or disrupt learning; such disruptions are ultimately reflected in school performance.

Significance of Parenting Style

The poor academic achievement of a special education student and the environment that prevails inside a child's home is often treated as an unimportant issue. However, schools widely recognize that the role of parents in the family is essential for the proper development of any individual, and particularly for student achievement in special education. Many studies have found that parenting styles and unfavorable family interactions negatively affect the academic performance and social development of children in special education (Jimenez and Guevara, 2008).

The social importance of this issue is underscored by one of the most pressing problems in education: the rate of poor academic achievement among special education students. According to the National Institute for Educational Evaluation (INEE, 2004, 2006), only 37% of students completing primary school demonstrate a satisfactory level in reading skills, and in mathematics this proportion falls to only 13%. When comparing students by socio-cultural context — including what the INEE ranks as "cultural capital of families" — this factor explains approximately 68% of the differences in student learning. In cultural contexts classified as "very unfavorable," the vast majority of students (over 80%) received unsatisfactory grades in special education. This pattern can lead to school failure across large sectors of society (Connell and Prinz, 2002).

In this context, it is necessary for researchers to pursue lines of inquiry examining the relationship between parenting styles, family interactions, and academic achievement in special education. This includes reviewing theoretical approaches and findings from previous research, confirming or refuting those findings in special education populations, and designing intervention strategies to improve parenting practices, family interactions, and the academic performance of children at risk.

Family interactions have been addressed from various psychological approaches, each using its own theoretical and methodological terms. The present work draws on authors with a cognitive-behavioral orientation who use the term parenting styles (Papalia, 2005), as well as authors from a behavioral approach who employ terms such as parent-child interaction, dyadic interaction, and parenting practices.

Types of Parenting Styles

Research on parenting styles provides an overview of the factors that favor certain styles and the influence those styles have on children's psychological development — particularly on variables such as academic achievement, the level of social adjustment in school and family, and self-esteem (Aguilar, Valencia, Martinez, Romero, and Lemus, 2004). There are five main parenting styles, characterized as follows.

This style characterizes parents who define rules within the home and communicate them to their children, letting children know when they are behaving appropriately. This kind of parenting takes the needs of children into consideration without abandoning established rules. Parents who use a democratic style communicate openly with their children to share their point of view and make decisions together.

This style characterizes extremely tolerant parents who allow their children considerable freedom, make fewer demands for compliance, avoid punishment or strong verbal correction, and yield to the slightest insistence from their children. These parents serve the needs of their children but rarely set firm behavioral expectations. They hold a tolerant attitude toward children's impulses, seldom use punishment as a disciplinary measure, let children make their own decisions, and establish few behavioral rules, though they are affectionate. Children who grow up in such families often lack impulse control, which makes them appear immature for their age; they also tend to have poor social and cognitive skills.

This style also characterizes tolerant parents who allow children to behave as they like, but unlike the permissive style, negligent parents do not attend to children's needs for care, do not impose punishment, and do not establish exchanges or negotiations with their children. Such parents are low in demandingness and pay little attention to their children's needs. While similar to permissive parents, the key difference is that negligent parents give significantly less attention and affection. Children raised in this type of family often exhibit self-control problems, poor academic performance, and behavioral difficulties both in special education settings and in society generally.

This style characterizes parents who are very strict and uncompromising, demanding obedience from their children. Authoritarian parents impose rules and moral standards that must be followed without objection; they do not tolerate contradiction and may act against the interests and aspirations of their children. They often justify this attitude on the belief that it will give children a positive future and that a "hard" upbringing makes children responsible and committed. Children raised by such parents are typically obedient but tend to lack spontaneity, curiosity, and originality, and are often dominated by their peers.

In this parenting style, parental demands are balanced with responsiveness to children's needs. Authoritative parents set clear standards, apply their rules consistently, support their children's individuality and independence, promote open communication, listen to their children's views, discuss matters with them, and recognize both their children's rights and their own. Children who grow up with authoritative parents are generally socially competent and academically successful, with good self-esteem and psychological development appropriate to their age.

Conclusion

The family environment, which is shaped by the parenting style adopted by parents, is critical for the academic performance of children in special education, because parents are involved in their children's cognitive, psychological, and social development. Sometimes parents hold the misconception that if their child requires special education, there is nothing they can do because they lack specialized knowledge and must depend entirely on school teachers. In reality, the responsibility of parents is heightened in special education, since teachers cannot do it alone; moreover, the child spends more time at home and absorbs whatever environment the parents provide. In cases where children have some kind of disability, parents should not withdraw from involvement, because children need their parents engaged in the whole learning process in order to perform better at school.

Parents can help by adopting a positive parenting style so that their child benefits from a supportive home environment and is therefore better positioned to achieve academically. Research also finds that children's academic achievement depends substantially on the discipline, learning opportunities, and autonomy provided by mothers — underscoring the vital role that maternal parenting practices play in children's academic outcomes.

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