Parental styles, conscientiousness, and academic performance in high school: a three-wave longitudinal study.

Full Abstract

This article assesses whether perceived parental style influenced the extent to which adolescents became increasingly conscientious and whether changes in conscientiousness influenced academic grades 1 year later. Parental styles, conscientiousness, verbal, and numerical ability at Time 1 were measured. One year later conscientiousness was again assessed, and 1 year after that end-of-year exam results were obtained. More than 784 students (mean age=12.3 years, SD=0.49) participated in the 1st year. The data of 563 students were matched across the 3 years. Conscientiousness tended to decrease from Time 1 to Time 2. Structural equation modeling showed that adolescents with more authoritative parents experienced less of a decrease in conscientiousness at Time 2 than did students with less authoritative parents and the same baseline level of conscientiousness at Time 1. Additionally, the decrease in conscientiousness at Time 2 predicted worse grades at Time 3, even after controlling for baseline levels of academic achievement.

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Author information

Author/s: Heaven, Patrick C L (PC); Ciarrochi, Joseph (J);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia. pheaven(-atsign-)uow.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Personality and social psychology bulletin (Pers Soc Psychol Bull), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Apr; vol 34 (issue 4) : pp 451-61

Dates: Created 2008/03/14; Completed 2008/07/08;

PMID: 18340031, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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