The Influence of Parental Authority on Social Skills Improvement and Academic Motivation among Urban High School Students in Jinan, Shandong

Abstract

The way that parents treat and discipline their children has a major effect on the development of adolescents, especially in the context of urban education, wherein the pressure is so great both academics and socially. There has been hardly anything done on the subject of the impact of parenting authority through social skills and academic motivation on Chinese urban high school students. The purpose of the this study is to determine the relationship between parenting authority classifications permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative and social skills as well as school motivation of urban Chinese high school students in Jinan, Shandong, China. The study design employed was the correlational design which worked with 384 high school participants as the research sample, who underwent stratified random sampling. The methods of collecting data included a structured questionnaire used to assess parenting authority, social skills, and school motivation. The examination of the relations between the variables was done by correlation and regression analyses. Results indicated a strong positive correlation between parenting authority and social skills (r = 0.630, p < 0.01) and a very strong positive correlation between parenting authority and academic motivation (r = 0.792, p < 0.01). Results of the regression analysis showed parenting authority to account for 39.7% of the variance in social skills and the significant variance of motivation towards school. The findings give an explicit presentation of the undeniable influence of authoritative parenting. Parent adolescent relationships are so crucial that the rejection of an authoritative parenting style. Participants from highly structured and supportive families appear to be more motivated and have better social skills. In schools with high-stressed settings, parental education programs as well as policy makers are raised as the support for the development of authoritative parenting behaviors of parents. Further studies should try to figure out variations of factors in culture values, peer effects, and electronic parenting.