Associations of Parenting Styles and Dimensions with Academic Achievement in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-analysis

Parents and researchers alike are interested in how to promote children's academic competence. The present meta-analysis integrates the results of 308 empirical studies on associations of general parenting dimensions and styles with academic achievement of children and adolescents assessed via grade point average or academic achievement tests. Parental responsiveness (warmth), behavioral control, autonomy granting, and an authoritative parenting style were associated with better academic performance both concurrently and in longitudinal studies, although these associations were small in a statistical sense. Parental harsh control, and psychological control, as well as neglectful, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles were related to lower achievement with small to very small effect sizes. With three exceptions, parenting dimensions and styles also predicted change in academic achievement over time. Moderating effects of child age, ethnicity, reporter on parenting and academic achievement, quality of the parenting and achievement measure, and publication status were identified. It is concluded that associations of academic achievement with general parenting dimensions/styles tend to be smaller than associations of school-specific parental involvement which have been addressed in previous meta-analyses.