How parental involvement impact on child’s social development

From the time a child is born, they begin to establish relationships with the people they are surrounded by. The relationship a child establishes with their parents is the first and most long lasting, and thus the quality of this relationship will ultimately impact how the child establishes relationships with their peers. On the same token, children who have strong social skills often have higher self-esteem and ultimately perform better in school. Middle childhood is a critical period for this parent-child relationship to impact development because the child is able to interact with their parents on more than just a caretaker level. In the present paper, different types of parenting styles and practices, and their impact on social competence and academic achievement are examined. It is hypothesized that children with involved, authoritative parents will have stronger social skills and perform better in school, while children with uninvolved, permissive and authoritarian parents will be at a developmental set back (Zemblar & Blume, 2009). The research studies in this paper attempt to strengthen the claim of this hypothesis.

THEORIES

Various theories are associated with the relationship parents build with their children. Parenting styles create different environments that impact a child’s development in middle childhood. However, it is important to understand Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, Baumrind’s parenting typology, and Darling and Steinberg’s contextual model of parenting in order to understand the research presented in this literature review.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

The social learning theory states “ we learn social skills and behaviors by observing the behavior of others” (Zembar & Blume, 2009). This relates to the overall issue of this literature review because the way that parents interact with their children will ultimately impact how the children will interact with their peers.

PARENTING STYLES

Baumrind classifies four different types of parenting styles including authoritative, classified by high levels of control and warmth, authoritarian, which is high levels of control with little warmth, permissive, or warmth with little control, and uninvolved, which lacks both control and warmth (Zembar, 2009). Most research claims that authoritative parenting yields the most positive developmental outcomes in children, and this will help guide the research and findings in this literature review.

CONTEXTUAL MODEL OF PARENTING

The contextual model of parenting suggests “ the socialization goals parents hold for their children lead to different types of parenting practices, which in turn facilitate adaptive adolescent school outcomes” (Spera, 2005). This model contributes to the hypothesis that parenting behaviors and practices lead to different developmental outcomes. All three of these theories will be further investigated throughout the literature review.

PARENTAL IMPACT ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT/COMPENTENCE

In a study conducted at the University of Queensland in Australia, the primary goal was to establish whether children who are bullied at school could be distinguished from non-bullied children based on how they were parented and the quality of their social relationships with peers (Healy, 2015). The study hypothesized that children who were bullied could be identified based on their low levels of facilitative parenting, supportive of peer interactions and skills, and lower peer assertiveness and willingness to make friends. In this case, facilitative parenting is similar to authoritative parenting and is defined as parents who provide a warm and nurturing environment for their children while also encouraging them to engage in social situations and build peer relationships. The random sample was drawn from 8 schools in South East Queensland, Australia, and consisted of 215 fifth grade students, their parents, and their teachers. The schools represented a broad range of class size and socio-economic status. 185 students between the ages of 5 and 11, with virtually equal amounts of each gender ultimately participated in this study. Through various reports from the parents and children, interviews of each child, and a Bullying Report completed by the classroom teacher, the results of this study revealed that facilitative parenting differentiated between bullied and non-bullied children in all aspects of the study (Healy, 2015). This study shows that parents do have an impact on a child’s social competence and comfort. Those who provide a warm and nurturing environment, as well as encouragement, not only help prevent their children from being bullied, but also contribute to their overall social comfort and competence.

A longitudinal study conducted at Eastern Michigan University questioned whether or not maternal parenting behaviors helped to explain the association between the quality of a partner relationship and the ability of school-age children to establish peer relationships of their own (Gallagher, 2015). The study hypothesized mothers with a positive partner relationship will have a better relationship with their child, and this will lead to the child displaying more pro-social behaviors and establishing better peer relationships. 1, 364 families participated in this 10-year study that examined the correlation between child- care experiences, the environment the child was raised in, and their developmental outcomes. Data was taken at three separate phases, Phase 1 being from birth to 36 months, Phase 2 from 36 months to first grade, and Phase 3 from second grade to sixth grade. 1, 077 families remained by Phase 3 due to other families missing important data. Parent-child interaction was documented by video observation to obtain information on maternal behavior, and the quality of the children’s peer relationships was assessed using two different peer relationship questionnaires. In addition, teachers were asked to evaluate their students’ positive behavior with peers in order to measure their pro-social behavior. All of the data collected was then entered into a factor analysis. The results of the data analyses were all statistically significant and provided support that there was a significant association between partner relationship quality, maternal parenting behaviors, and the child’s quality of peer relationships (Gallagher, 2015). Not only does this study confirm that parenting styles and behaviors impact a child’s social development, but that the quality of the relationship between partners can model the way that a child thinks they should establish peer relationships of their own.

The Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences also published a study that measured the association between parenting styles, and practices, and children’s social, academic, and cognitive development in Latino families (Jabagchourian, 2014). The study did not hypothesize specific outcomes due to unclear findings in prior research, but instead just examined the relationships between parenting styles, and practices, and different outcomes of the children. The study took 73 Latino fifth grade students from public schools in California. The children filled out various questionnaires to collect data on what type of parenting style was used in their homes, and both children and teachers evaluated the parenting practices of the students. Teachers evaluated a variety of child outcomes including self-regulation, social competence, and perspective taking. Additionally, the teachers reported the grades and levels of academic involvement of the students. Results of this study concluded that authoritative parenting was positively associated with all outcomes described above (Jabagchourian, 2014). The hypothesis that authoritative and involved parents have an impact on their children’s social competence and overall development of social skills is supported by this study. The overall findings suggest that positive parenting is related to positive child outcomes while negative parenting is associated with negative child outcomes. Not only does this relate to the child’s social development, but also to academic performance and achievement as well. This leads us to the next part of this literature review.

PARENTAL IMPACT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND ACHIEVEMENT

Researchers have examined the impact of parent-child relationships in association with various parenting styles and the impact on academic performance.. A study published in the North American Journal of Psychology compared the influence of parenting on academic achievement of school age children in the United States and Japan. It was predicted that authoritative parenting would be associated with higher academic achievement motivation among modern American children, while in Japan, authoritarian parenting would produce higher academic achievement motivation. The differences in hypotheses in these two countries was explained by different cultural values, and different approaches to the importance of academic success, as well as prior research conducted on which parenting styles yielded the best results for academic achievement in both places. The study took 208 American school-aged children, and 312 Japanese school-aged children, and examined the orientation of academic achievement motivations and the children’s parental attitudes and behaviors. The measures used were two surveys completed by the students and included a more simplified version of the Parental Authority Questionnaire, which obtained information regarding the parenting styles the children were exposed to, and the Achievement Goal Questionnaire, which helped the researchers understand the guiding force behind the children’s motivation to be academically successful. Overall, what the studies showed were that children in America had higher academic achievement motivation in both authoritative and authoritarian parents, while the authoritarian parenting of Japanese children did not seem to have an association with higher academic achievement motivation (Watabe, 2014). The findings of this study show that involved parents do have an impact on whether or not a child will have the determination to perform well in school. As a result, students who are more motivated will more likely than not have higher academic achievement and an overall more positive educational experience. On the other-hand, children who have neglectful and uninvolved parents lack the push they need to want to achieve academic success, and may exhibit a negative attitude towards learning and school in general.

A study published in the Journal of Early Adolescence aimed to further investigate the proposal by the contextual model of parenting that there is a correlation between parent practices and adolescent school outcomes, in addition to relationships between parenting practices and other aspects of a child’s development. 184 middle school students from two schools in Maryland and Pennsylvania were surveyed in terms of their perceptions of their parents’ educational values and aspirations for their children, parenting styles, and parental involvement in relation to school. The students also filled out questionnaires to measure their own academic achievement, motivation behind succeeding in school, and overall mindset towards learning and performing well in school compared to their peers. The significant findings of this study confirm that there is a strong connection between parenting practices and academic success of the child (Spera, 2006). This study confirms that parents who are encouraging and involved in monitoring their child’s academic experience will ultimately have higher academic success in addition to the child being more likely to actually enjoy going to school to learn. Those who have uninvolved or neglectful parents will have a harder time performing well academically and being motivated to learn and be successful in school.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Overall, the research reviewed in this literature review does support the notion that parental involvement does impact a child’s social development and competence, in addition to academic performance and achievement. More specifically, those with involved, authoritative parents who provide a warm nurturing environment for their child will respond better in social situations and have a more positive and successful academic career. On the contrary, those with uninvolved, permissive, authoritative parents will have a harder time establishing peer relationships and will lack the motivation to learn perform well academically. This information is helpful to those working with children because if a child happens to be struggling socially or scholastically, teachers and other child professionals can try to piece together what is at the stem of the problem by reaching out to the parents to see what is practiced at home and if this may be impacting the child’s development in the school setting. Although there are other factors that contribute to a child’s social and academic development, this literature review shows that a great deal of where this development comes from is by parental model of behavior and overall parental involvement. The results of the research that I found did not surprise me because it makes sense children learn from their parents and ultimately model their developmental behaviors based on the effectiveness of how they were parented. A parent-child relationship is one of the first relationships a child engages in, thus it sets the framework for all other relationships the child will make on their own. A child is also likely to model their work ethic and values based on what they observe at home, which also explains why parents who place an importance on education and academic achievement have children who strive to succeed in school. I think more longitudinal studies that examine the association between parent-child relationships and overall development would be beneficial because this would help pick apart the other factors that may contribute to social competence or academic achievement, rather than just establishing a cause based on the correlations found. Longitudinal studies would also get an overall picture of the impact of parenting on a child’s development throughout middle childhood, rather than just a snapshot. Middle childhood makes up a critical period for development and it is evident that parents have an impact on the outcome of their child’s development.