Impact of Mother-child Interactiono on Academic Achievement of High School Students

This study examined the role of maternal parent interactions with child in academic achievement of school students. The purpose of the study was to determine how maternal authoritative, permissive and authoritarian parenting styles as well as parent's child relationship influence the academic achievement of students at high school level. The main objective is to find out predictors of academic achievement among high school students. The total sample (400) for the study involved 200 mothers and 200 high school students between the age range of 14 and 16 years. The parents were assessed with Parent Child Relationships scale (PCR) and Parenting Authority Questionnaire (PAQ-R). Academic achievement score of the students were taken as the average percentage of marks obtained by the students in previous two years in their annual examination conducted by their respective boards/schools. The data were analyzed with the correlation and regression (stepwise). The results showed that (i) authoritarian and permissive parenting style and academic performance have negative correlations. (ii) Parent's child relationships like Acceptance and Realistic Role Expectation have significant positive relationship with academic achievement whereas Carelessness and Lenient Standards have negative relationships with academic achievement (iii). The stepwise regression analysis found four pertinent predictors of academic achievement among high school students, i.e., permissive parenting style, authoritative parenting style, parental acceptance and over protection of parents. All four predictors jointly explained 29.6% of total variance in dependent variable.