Influence Of Parenting Styles And Parents' Self-Efficacy On Preschool Children's Academic Achievement

Abstract

The study examined the influence of parenting styles and parents' self-efficacy on preschool children's academic achievement in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. Four research questions guided the study. This study was a descriptive survey design. The target population was 962 teachers in the 68 public pre-primary schools in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. Random sampling technique was used to select 200 pre-primary school teachers that participated in the study. Structured questionnaire, which had the reliability of 0.94 after correlating the two set of scores from pilot studies with Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, was used as instrument for collection of data. The questionnaire was given to three (3) experts. The researcher and the research assistants collected necessary data from the teachers in each school. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation. The data presentation was done in order of research questions. The findings showed that preschool children raised by authoritative parents scored very high academically. Permissive parents do not discipline their preschool children, thus they scored very low academically. Authoritarian parents use threats on the preschool children which make them score very low academically. There is a significant relationship between parents' self-efficacy and parenting style of pre-primary school children in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. Recommendations were made based on the findings that since authoritative parenting style yield good performance in preschool activities, policy makers at the Ministry of Education should develop policies that would encourage parents to adopt it as the appropriate parenting styles. The researcher suggests that further studies should be carried out on the effects of parenting styles on children's development.