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.

References

Aguilar, J., Valencia, A., Martinez, M., Romero, P., and Lemus, L. (2004). Parenting styles and measures of psychosocial development in college students. America Journal of Thought and Language, 12(1), 69–81.

Anabalon, M., Carrasco, S., et al. (2008). The family commitment vs. school performance of children in general education in the city of Chillan. Horizons Education, 13(1), 11–21.

Baker, L., Mackler, K., Sonnenschein, S., and Serpell, R. (2001). Parents' interactions with their first-grade children during storybook reading and subsequent relations with home reading activity and reading achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 39(5), 415–438.

Berridi, R. (2001). Parental relationships, achievement orientation and academic performance in primary school children. Master's Thesis. Mexico: National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Connell, C. M. and Prinz, R. J. (2002). The impact of childcare and parent-child interactions on school readiness and social skills development for low-income African American children. Journal of School Psychology, 40(2), 117–193.

Connor, C., Son, S., Hindman, A. H., and Morrison, F. J. (2005). Teacher qualifications, classroom practices, family characteristics, and preschool experience: Complex effects on first graders' vocabulary and early reading outcomes. Journal of School Psychology, 43(4), 343–375.

Garcia, M. and Henao, G. (2009). Family interaction and emotional development in children. Magazine Faculty of Social Sciences, Childhood and Youth, 7, 785–802.

Jimenez, D. and Guevara, Y. (2008). Parenting styles and their relationship to school performance. In Knowledge of Psychology (Vol. I, pp. 33–54). Mexico: UNAM.

Martinez, R. A., Martinez, R., and Perez, M. H. (2004). Children's school assessment: Implications for family-school partnerships. International Journal of Educational Research, 41(1), 24–39.

Morrison, E. F., Rimm-Kaufman, S., and Pianta, R. C. (2003). A longitudinal study of mother-child interactions at school entry and social and academic outcomes in middle school. Journal of School Psychology, 41(3), 185–200.

National Institute for Educational Evaluation (INEE). (2004, 2006). Results of national tests of reading achievement and applied mathematics at the end of the 2002–2003 and 2004–2005 school years. Mexico: National Testing and Measurement.

Papalia, E. D. (2005). Human development (9th ed., pp. 327–328). McGraw-Hill.

Santrock, J. (2006). Educational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 74–77). McGraw-Hill.

Torres, L. E., Ortega, P., Reyes, A., and Garrido, A. (2008). Study of dyadic interactions. In O. Tena and H. Hickman (Eds.), Advances in human learning research: From the basic to the applied (Chapter 5, pp. 115–140). Mexico: National Autonomous University of Mexico, FES Iztacala.

Vallejo, A. G. (2002). Parenting styles and conflicts of authority between parents and adolescents in rural Totonac. Doctoral Dissertation. Mexico: National Autonomous University of Mexico.