The Most Effective Kinds of Parents on Children’s Academic Achievement

One of the most important determinant aspects of children’s outcome is parenting. The baby who is born doesn’t have any knowledge about the world so the family can be considered as a first teacher.The objective of this research was to determine the relationship between Baumrind’s three perceived paternal and maternal parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian & permissive) with academic achievement among Iranian high school students who were between the ages 15 to 17. The total numbers of participants were 546 who included 249 males and 297 females. Participants were selected using proportional stratified and multi-stage cluster random sampling. They filled two questioners, Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) developed by Buri (1991), and self-demographic report which included their current Grade Point Average. In this study academic achievement was dependent variable and subscales of parenting style were independents ones. A noteworthy positive relationship between authoritative parents with academic achievements was shown by Pearson’s correlation. Authoritative parents were determined as the best predicator for dependent variables by standard multiple regression. In contrast, based on students’ academic achievement, the approximate mean score of the three paternal and maternal parenting styles were similar. By considering students’ academic achievement, an independent t-test expressed no differences between male and female students. There are several implications for the Ministry of Education, Administrators of schools, and Parents, which are discussed at various levels.


Introduction
Family is one of the most important factors that affect human life.The first and the most durable element that affects the character, health, mental health and humanethics is nothing but family environment (Shariatmadari, 1983).The social and cultural elements of the group in which children are growing up highly affect their reaction to the environment.Considering family as a social unit, it has significant effect on a child because all merits and social elements are transferred by it (Mohseni & Vahedi, 1998).Sociologist believe that in all societies, the society itself is the second reason for deviation and the family is the first.Ghemi (1985) reported the sociologist comments as follow: If families have done it the right way (raising children), God will give them a great reward, and if not, it is hoped that God remises them.Raising children is important and necessary for humans.When a baby is born, it does not have any knowledge about this world and it is the family that first teaches things to a child.
Today's children are the future's parents, so rearing canbe also another important period of social life.Children as members of an adult society have effect on various affairs such as politic, society and economy as well as behavior.In an economic view, rearing has an important role in making jobs, improving the number of experts, facilitating productions, improving incomes, and generally making the better life.In a political view, rearing can play an important role in making political opinions and extending the spirit of justice.No one can ignore the role of family since it's an introduction for the social life.
A good family can be define as the best school (Gahemi, 1985).The amount of improvement in a society is highly dependent to the way youth were raised.It's good to know that good environment, good education and condition are necessary for making the child a creative person.Not only the family is the basic unit of human society but also its very important environment for children's bringing up.No one can ignore the other factors besides parents which affect children, so the parents' methods for raising and educating children will deeply affect their behaviors.Various terms were used in parenting styles' research for instance, parenting attitudes, parenting way, parenting style and parent-child relationship.
These terms with slight differences convey sort of the same meaning.Parents bring up their children according to rearing practices and parenting attitudes; it is an important factor that is reflected in their parenting and parent-child relationships (Luo, 1996).
One of the most important psychological discussions is related to the relationship between parents and children.Creativity in children is highly dependent on environment, innovation and also right educational method.Most of the psychologists and experts in the educational science found today that the first step for the improvement of knowledge is preparing suitable conditions in the family and of course training.In spite of many factors, the most effective one which influences the academic achievement is family's emotional environment.
There is a significant relationship between parenting style (paternal & maternal) and academic achievement among high school students.
1) There is a significant relationship between authoritative parents (paternal & maternal) and academic achievement among high school students.
2) There is a significant relationship between authoritarian parents (paternal& maternal) and academic achievement among high school students.
3) There is a significant relationship between permissive parents (paternal & maternal) and academic achievement among high school students.
There is a significant amount of variance in dimension of parenting styles for the possible effect of academic achievement among high school students.
There is a difference between mother and father in the academic achievement among high school students.
There is a difference between girls and boys in the academic achievement among high school students.
Stuart 2010 stated that, "they interestingly found that parenting is the most important factor influencing character development in rich and poor families".This study focused on the relationship between parenting styles with academic achievement among high school students.
The number of Iranian studies about the relation between the parenting style and academic achievement are not enough.(Tahmassian, 2006).According to Catuara (2008), "Parenting behaviours are generally thought to be passed on from one generation to another.Within a more volatile environment, learned patterns of negative parenting may be transmitted from a parent to a child and may be replicated by the child upon becoming a parent of their own".Unlike, Littlewood (2009) believed that parenting styles are not continuing from generation to generation, but it's a changing phenomenon over the time even from generation to generation within families.In addition, Shariatmadari (1983) said that although in the past, authoritarian styles were the most common forms of Iranian parenting styles; this process has recently changed towards a permissive pattern of parenting.Past studies revealed that permissive parenting had negative influences on academic achievement (Mhrafrvz, 1999;Ayrapetyan, 2005;Hillstrom, 2009;Dewar, 2010).While in 2009, Garcia and Gracia found that in Spain adolescents who grew up in permissive homes had strong academic achievement with less probability of high-risk activities.So it's clear that focusing on parenting styles and its influences on children is important for the future and provident people.In 1991, Lamborn et al. who studied 4000 American families, reported that adolescents who were raised by permissive parents achieved less than the others at school with less probability of high risk activities.Miller (2002) supported prior studies and found that these adolescents had more social conflicts and negative emotions.
Nevertheless, there is an enormous gap in the effect of parental child rearing methods on the children's families' and societies' future.In addition current study provided data for analysis of the level of academic achievement among the group evaluated, and also the effect of different levels of parenting styles on the other variables were explained.The researcher was unable to find any relevant data available in the Iranian high schools to use as a basis for this study on the variables.Totally current study sought to add the database of research that has studied the link between parenting styles and academic achievement in adolescents.

Review of Literature
Kamins and Dweck (1999) by an experimental investigation found that authoritarian approaches interfere with learning.In current study it was shown that the common tactic of authoritarian caregiving of shaming a child for poor performance can make kids perform more poorly on problem-solving tasks (Cited in Dewar, 2010).Other studies reported correlations between authoritarianism and lower school achievement.In addition, Dewar recalled another study of adolescents in San Francisco which found that the authoritarian parenting style was linked to lower school grades for all ethnic groups (Dornbusch et al., 1987).The findings of similar studies by Steinberg et al. (1989) and Steinberg et al. (1992) also supported previous results.Dewar (2010) reported that authoritative parents raised children with special characteristics, such as independency, self-reliance, social acceptance, academic success, and well-behaviour.Actually, more of these children had high levels at school.Dewar also quoted that Fletcher et al. (1999) suggested that having at least one authoritative parent could make a big difference.In addition, Dewar stated, "some studies have reported ethnic differences-that for African-American and Chinese-Americans, there is little or no difference in academic performance between kids from authoritarian and authoritative homes" (Dewar, 2010).He also stated that in many studies, the permissive parenting style, contrary to authoritative parenting style, has been connected to adolescent behaviour problems.It can be mentioned that Susie Lamborn and colleagues surveyed over 4,000 American families and disclosed that adolescents with permissive parents grew up less than other adolescents at school and were more likely to engage in self-destructive activities, like drug or alcohol use (Lamborn et al., 1991).In contrast, Garcia and Gracia (2009) conducted a study about effective parenting style and academic achievement in adolescents in Spain.They explained that permissive parenting in Spain is connected to strong academic performance and relatively few behaviour problems.Nurmi et al. (2000), who studied Parenting styles and adolescents' achievement strategies, corroborated the results of Steinberg et al. (1992).
Three hundred and fifty four 14 year old adolescents were used as participants in this study, for completing a strategy and attribution inventory and a Family Parenting style Questionnaire.And also analogous questionnaires were filled by the adolescents' parents.Accordingly, the adolescent's report of the parenting styles identified four types of family (Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive & Neglectful parenting styles).At the end it was found that the most capable adolescents of adapting achievement strategies were those from authoritative families described by low levels of failure anticipations, task-irrelevant behaviour and submissiveness, and the use of self-rising attributions.Also, it was shown that adolescents from neglectful families, in return, were characterized by poor adaptation strategies characterized by high levels of task-irrelevant behaviour, submissiveness and a lack of self-rising attributions.The conclusions provided a basis for comprehending some of the processes by which parenting styles may affect adolescents' academic achievement and performance.
Another research was conducted concerning the relationship between the mother's attitude toward parenting styles (Authoritative, Authoritarian & Permissive) by another researcher in 1999 with the location of control and academic achievement of boys from the fourth grade of primary school in Education Region 17 in Tehran.398 students were selected by Mhrafryz in this study through a multistage cluster sampling and their mothers who had literacy as samples.Data analysis showed that there were positive and significant relationships between maternal parenting style approaches (Authoritative) with the academic achievement (grade point average and science score) of students.However, although there was a negative and significant relationship between maternal parenting style approaches (Authoritarian) with the academic achievement of students, it did not find any relation between maternal parenting style approaches (permissive) with the academic achievement of students.Unlike above research results, Elias and Huey Yee (2007) reported that there was no relation between parenting style and academic achievement.They selected 247 high school students (101 male & 146 female) from two high schools in Malaysia.Elias and Huey Yee (2007) found that most participants had authoritative parents followed by authoritarian and permissive.The results expressed that there was a positive relation between maternal parenting styles and paternal parenting styles.In addition, in 2009 White supported the above results with Caucasian students; White reported that authoritative parenting was most often related to academic achievement, while gender and ethnicity impacted the academic achievement in Caucasian students.
In Iran, one research was done by Bagheri (1993) which was the relationship between parenting styles and male students motivated the development in elementary schools in Ahvaz.In this study, 108 male students were selected as multi stage random sampling based on social-economic levels (high, medium & low).For data analysis, multi regression, descriptive methods and torque Pearson correlation methods were used.Data analysis indicated a significant negative correlation between achievement motivation and parenting style.In other words, he found a significant negative relationship between other variables, namely, learning care, mastery and independent with academic achievement.In addition, a positive significant relationship was found between achievement scores and motivation scores.Likewise, Hillstrom (2009) conducted a research concerning the effect of acculturation and parenting styles on the academic achievement of Latino students.This cross-sectional research stated the falling of Latino students compared with their Caucasian classmates in regard to their academic achievement.In this research, second generation high school students in Los Angeles were checked concerning whether the acculturation level and parenting styles were related to academic achievement, as measured by plans to go to college and grade point average.In fact, the quantitative study used parenting styles, as conceptualized by Diana Baumrind (authoritative, authoritarian & permissive parenting).Thus, 122 Mexican-American 11th and 12th grade students aged 15 to 19 years were chosen from a large high school in East Los Angeles.They filled the Parental Authority Questionnaire and the edited Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican-Americans, the results of which indicated significant relationships between authoritative parenting style and improved academic achievement.There was no significant relationship between parenting style and acculturation academic achievement (GPA).Students illustrated significantly higher GPAs in comparison with the students who planned to attend a vocational school or community college.
Furthermore, in 1998, a study was done by Gardner which determined the relevancy between maternal and paternal influence on children's academic achievement.The objective of this study was to look carefully at the effects of the interaction of parenting style and grade level on behaviour, academic achievement, and the self-concept of sons in grades three, five and seven.For this study, 69 male high school students were selected from urban and suburban areas.In conclusion, parenting style showed a significant effect on son's academic achievement and self-concept.Generally, sons of authoritarian fathers acquired significantly lower scores in academic achievement and self-concept than the sons of authoritative fathers.Furthermore, in seventh grade, the sons of authoritarian fathers obtained higher scores than the sons of authoritative fathers.In addition, in the seventh grade, academic achievement was most affected by parental parenting style, while the biggest distinction in grade point average existed between the seventh grade sons of authoritative fathers and seventh grade sons of authoritarian fathers.Babiarz (2009) accomplished a research about the relationship between parenting styles of teachers and achievement in the schools around the Los Angeles County (of African American & Latino students) for two lessons (Language, Arts & Maths).This research was made based of Baumrind's typology and explored three categories, namely, authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting style.The teacher participants were taken from nine schools around the Los Angeles County.The researcher found that there was a significant positive relationship between two variables -Authoritarian parenting style of a teacher and academic achievement -of African American and Latino students in maths.However, the maths score in the authoritarian parenting style of a teacher was higher than the maths score in the permissive and the authoritative parenting style of a teacher.In contrast, there was no significant relationship between authoritarian, permissive and authoritative parenting style of a teacher and language arts CST scores of African American and Latino students.
Temple (2010) reported that the best outcomes in the African-American students are from authoritative and authoritarian homes.He carried out a qualitative study on eight middle school students with the use of formal interviews.Temple showed that teachers' and parents' who were authoritative and authoritarian are most associated with academic achievement in the African-American students.Moreover, Ayrapetyan (2005) investigated the relationship between parenting style, parental education, parenting efficacy and Armenian American students' academic efficacy.The sample of this research was 72 parent-child dyads.All the children were in the 8th grade and were chosen from four American schools in Los Angeles.The researcher selected 66 mothers and 6 fathers among the participating parents.Analysis of statistics models used Pearson's product moment to measure the relationship between predictor variables and critical variables.In conclusion the results illustrated that there was no significant relationship between students' academic efficacy beliefs and parenting efficacy beliefs.In addition, there was no significant relationship between parents' educational level and students' academic efficacy beliefs.Finally, the results exhibited a significant positive relationship between self-report grade point average (GPA) and authoritative parenting style, and a significant negative relationship between permissive parenting styles and students' self-report GPA.
Another research that studied the above topic was done by Kapiniaris Tan (1999).This research illustrated the influence of parenting style and other sociocultural aspects on the academic achievement in Cambodian youth.
Participants (204 students) were chosen from all six Long Beach Unified Schools (high school).The results in this study showed that most students were raised in authoritarian homes (75% of the upper GPA students and 60% of the lower GPA students); the remaining (25%) of the upper grade point average students grew up in authoritarian-authoritative homes, while the remaining lowest grade point average students (40%) were raised in authoritarian-permissive homes.Actually, in Cambodia, there was a positive relationship between authoritarian parenting style and academic achievement.
In 1998, a research based on structural family therapy (SFT) and Baumrind's parental prototypes was delineated by McNeely.This research examined the difference between parenting style and academic achievement and also examined the differences between parenting style and academic achievement after combining each of the variables with ethnic, parental emphasis and gender on school attendance and academic achievement.The participants were chosen from two schools (school A -high school sophomore and junior students from a large, urban and upper middle class high school; and school B -a midsize, urban and technical high school).Finally, the results showed that there was a positive relationship between higher academic achievement and mothers' authoritative parenting, but there was no significance between academic achievement and fathers' parenting style.More of the current participants lived with their mothers than their fathers.After combining the mothers and fathers' parenting style, a slight significance was found between academic achievement and parenting style .
A study that reflected McNeely's results in 2009 was conducted by Hines.This study explored effective parenting styles on children's academic achievement.In other words, this study explored the effects of parental variables, parenting style, and ecological factors as independent variables on academic achievement as the dependent variable.The participants were chosen from two high schools (153 African American male students) in the northeast section of the United States, who enrolled in grade eleven or twelve.As a result it was found that there was a significant positive relationship between fathers' educational level and a two-parent home with African American male achievement.As a matter of fact, fathers' educational level and a two-parent home are predictors of academic achievement of the African American male students.However, fathers' educational level for African American male achievement was a negative predictor.
To determine the factors of raising academic achievement, in 2000, a qualitative and quantitative research about the relation between Hispanic single mothers and the increase of academic achievement and the fathers' role in the increase of academic achievement was studied by Rueda-Alvarez.This research was a qualitative and quantitative study using a survey and interviews of ten Hispanic single mothers (from Puerto Rican and Mexican descent) and their adolescent children.All adolescents (boys & girls) were successful in high school; the study used a total of twenty semi-structured interviews.The mothers, as participants, were exposed on three different levels of acculturation, which was calculated based on years of residence, use of English in the home, and economic advancement.As a result Rueda-Alvarez found a relationship between the mothers' perspectives and adolescents.In addition, analysis of the narratives concluded a strong relation between two variables (mothers' and adolescents' comprehension of impressive practices to help student achievement).Furthermore, analysis of the narratives explained that fathers and adolescent narrowly perceived the fathers as sources of help and support.
Finally, this research found that not only were Hispanic adolescents relying on great motivation to achieve success, but also on the support of their family and parents .
LaBauve (1998) used a survey to assess the effect of parenting style (demandingness & responsiveness) on academic achievement in children in grades 4 through 6.In this study, the convenience sampling method was used.Participants were chosen from 65 students of two different schools in Northeast Texas, in which their teachers and parents completed questionnaires.The results illustrated a positive significance between academic achievement, demandingness and responsiveness.According to Maccoby and Martin (1983), as noted in chapter 1, both high demands and responsiveness are a symptom of authoritative parenting style.In fact there was a positive significance between academic achievement and parenting style.
In a previous research, in 2009, Kusterer demonstrated a relation between parenting style and parental involvement concerning the academic achievement of students (high school & university).A total of 136 students were selected -64 from a suburban high school and 72 from an undergraduate population in Long Island University -who completed self-report questionnaires.This study evaluated the relationships between four parenting styles (authoritarian style, authoritative style, indulgent parent & neglectful parents) based on the dimensions of acceptance and strictness and academic achievement as well as the mediating effect of three types of parental involvement (Family Environment Scale, Parental Involvement Measure & Parenting Context Questionnaire).Furthermore, the relationships between academic achievement and personal characteristics were explored, and also between academic achievement and peer orientation.The results indicated the moderate significant effect of parenting styles on academic achievement in undergraduate students.Contrary to the researcher's anticipation, the results showed a negative correlation between authoritative parenting style and academic achievement, as well as a positive correlation between neglectful parenting style and academic achievement in senior high school students.Leung et al. (1998) examined the cross-cultural generalizability of the relationships between four parenting styles and academic achievement in schoolchildren in Hong Kong, the United States, and Australia.The results demonstrated that both Chinese and American parents in academic authoritarianism were higher than Australian parents.Although there was no relationship with academic authoritativeness in any of the three cultures, academic achievement was negatively related to academic authoritarianism.In concluding, there was a positive relation to academic achievement and general authoritarianism in Hong Kong and among children from Australia and the United States whose parents did not have any college education.In addition, there was only a positive relation to academic achievement and general authoritativeness in the two English-speaking groups.Finally, in the United Stateshigh academic achievement is typically associated with higher parental authoritativeness and lower parental authoritarianism.
To confirm previous research, Turner et al. (2009) undertook a research concerning the effects of parenting style on undergraduate students' academic achievement.This investigation explored the relationship between authoritative parenting style, academic performance, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation.Participants were a sample of undergraduate students from the south western United States (N = 264) who enrolled in psychology courses in university.In the study, to allow for the appropriate interpretations of the distribution and analyses, descriptive statistics were examined, such as linear regression to examine the relations between study variables at the alpha level 0.05; also, gender and ethnicity were two control variables that were entered for all regression analyses to control for variances related to those variables.In addition, to determine the relationship between parenting styles, academic self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and academic performance, Pearson correlations were conducted.They examined whether the authoritative parenting style would predict academic performance in the current study.The results showed that authoritative parenting significantly predicted students' academic performance (F = 3.26, p = 0. 022, R^ sup 2^ = 0. 037, β = 0. 127).Finally, the results illustrated that authoritative parenting style and academic self-efficacy were significant predictors of academic performance, F = 5.53, and also authoritative parenting, self-efficacy, and the interaction term (self-efficacy × authoritative parenting) were significant, F = 6.88.Gidey (2002) conducted a study concerning the interrelationship between parenting style, academic achievement and psychosocial adjustment.Parenting style, parental education, family structure, sex, and ethnicity were independent variables, while self-reliance, work orientation, social competence, psychosocial adjustment, and academic achievement were the dependent variables.To choose the participants proportional allocation stratified random sampling was used, that was based on sex and grade level.A total of 300 high school students were selected (153 males and 147 females) from grade 9 & 10 (grade 9 = 197 students & grade 10 = 103 students) in Addis Ababa.The analysis statistics models used multiple regression and analysis of variance at α = 0.05 level.Both parental acceptance and parental control were statistically significant and contributed to self-reliance, academic achievement, and work orientation.In other words, it was only parental acceptance that contributed significantly in the case of social competence, among the parenting dimensions, and also both parental acceptance and parental control directly influenced students' academic achievement.In addition, in school achievement tests, students with authoritative parents achieved the highest scores and students with neglectful parents had the lowest scores.Another result exhibited that psychosocial adjustment scores varied as a function of parenting style; students with authoritative parents showed the most positive level of psychosocial adjustment, while students with neglectful parents had the lowest scores.Furthermore, the results of the ANOVA illustrated that high school students who rated their parents as non-authoritative were lower in academic achievement and measures of psychosocial adjustment than their counterparts who described their parents as authoritative.
Another research about the perception of academic achievement was done in Iran.Javedan (2004) conducted a study about the relationship between parenting style and their perception of academic achievement in high school students (male & female).In this study, the researcher selected 763 high school students (401 females, 362 males) who enrolled in first to third grade using cluster sampling methods.Furthermore, correlation matrix, independent sample t-test and two-way variance were used for analysis of data.As a result, the study illustrated that there was a statistically significant relationship between parenting style and perception of academic achievement.In addition, the results demonstrated that there was no difference in perception of academic achievement factors (internal & external) in males and females.Although there was a statistically significant relationship between dimension of parenting style (acceptance & control) and perception of internal academic achievement, there was no statistically significant relationship between interactive effects acceptance and control on the perception of external academic achievement.
Finally, in 2008, a research by Johnson was carried out concerning the usefulness of the model in understanding parental impact on school readiness skills in 4 year old children.The study examined the potential influence of parents' beliefs about their parenting abilities (e.g., parental self-efficacy) in predicting young children's school readiness skills.Participants were 171 preschool children who were between the ages of 39 and 66 months.The results of the supplemental analysis illustrated that there were significant direct and indirect (via parental goals) relationships between parents' self-efficacy to elevate learning and children's preschool readiness scores.
Contrary to the aforementioned findings, some researchers have not found any relevancy between parenting style and academic achievement (Slaten, 2006;Rivers, 2008;Elias, 2009;Hernandez, 2009;Olige, 2009).According to a study by Slaten (2006) on the effect of parenting style and family structure on adolescent academic achievement in a rural setting, there were positive significant relationships between different variables.Three kinds of parenting style (authoritative, authoritarian & permissive) and six kinds of family structures -biological parents, single mother or father, and others -were compared to the self -report grade point average of 193 high school students as participants.For data analyses and to determine that there was no significant difference between different types of parenting styles and student's grade point average, all variables were looked at by using a single factor analysis of variance.In addition, for family structure and student's grade point average, single factor analysis of variance was used; the result exhibited that there was a significant difference between student's grade point average and family structure.Furthermore, student's grade point average and family structure were looked at to see if there was an interactive effect on a student's grade point average using a multiple factor analysis of variance.Finally, the results exhibited that there was a three way reciprocal action between family structure, mother and father for child rearing .
To determine the effects of parenting style on academic achievement, Jewrell Rivers ( 2008) conducted a research that examined the relationship between the mediating effects of motivation, goal orientation and academic self-efficacy.In addition, Jewrell Rivers selected 148 high school students from rural, south central Georgia.For analyses of data correlations, hierarchal multiple regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for the study.The researcher found that there was no significant correlation between parenting style and academic achievement, but found a significant correlation between parenting style and the motivation subscales.Moreover, after using the hierarchal regression analysis, a significant amount of incremental variance in explaining academic achievement was found and the motivation subscales were mediated by parenting style.Additionally, in exploring lessons GPA, it was illustrated that there was no difference in the maths GPA, English GPA, science GPA and grade point average as a function of race.However, with gender, it was found that English GPA differed according to sex.
Elias ( 2009) supported Slaten's study through his research on the relationship between perceived paternal and maternal parenting styles based on Baumrind's typology (permissive, authoritarian & authoritative) in two categories (paternal & maternal) and students' academic achievement (form three public examination results).
The sample included 247 students from two urban high schools in the district of Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
For data collection, a questionnaire was used.The results showed that the majority of the students perceived authoritative parenting styles for both their father (n = 200) and mother (n = 197).The findings suggested that perceived paternal authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles did not correlate with students' academic achievement.In addition, regarding maternal parenting styles, there was no significant relationship between perceived maternal parenting styles and academic achievement.In fact, this result suggested that perceived maternal authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles did not correlate with students' academic achievement .
Hernandez reflected the same results as Elias.In 2009, he conducted a research concerning the relationship of parenting dimensions based on Baumrind's, such as neutrons/warmth and monitoring/control, and also Academic Self-concept (ASC), and acculturation with a grade point average (GPA) in a sample of 148Latino (Mexican or Mexican American) community college students.In exploring the relationship between nurturing and monitoring parenting dimensions and actual academic achievement, it was illustrated that the independent variables included both mothers' and fathers' nurturing and monitoring parenting dimensions.The criterion variable was the participant's academic achievement (GPA).In concluding, the results illustrated that the separate parenting dimensions were not significant predictors of academic achievement or GPA.In addition, a simultaneous multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between academic self-concept, as the independent variable, and grade point average (GPA), as the criterion variable.There was a significant academic self-concept as a predictor for GPA, β = 0. 32, p< .001.In other words, academic self-concept explained a significant 10.1% of the variance in GPA.
Another research concerning the influence that parenting styles and parental involvement have on student academic achievement was conducted by Olige in 2009.The participants in this research were 378 students from a high school in a rural area of Tennessee.All student participants' perceptions were collected using two questionnaires based on parenting styles and perceived academic support.Two methods were used, namely, the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and Perceived Parental Academic Support Scale (PPASS).This study analysed whether parenting styles and parental involvement predicted academic achievement in high school students.For exploring this question, a quantitative research approach was used in this study as well as correlation statistics for analysis of the present data.The results of the study did not indicate a significant relationship between parenting style and academic achievement in students; in other words, the results illustrated that parents at the researched high school had no influence on student academic achievement.Finally, the results of the study found unconvincing evidence that parents at the researched high school had an effect on student academic achievement.Dumka et al., in 2008, undertook a research concerning the effect of parents and academic performance.This study was done according to developmental contextual theories, which highlighted parents' roles in regulating children's proximal development texts.They selected 560 Mexican students who were enrolled in the seventh grades and their parents who were recruited in three cohorts.The results showed that fathers and mothers have potentially important roles to play in influencing their teens' school success.Other results showed that there was a positive significant relationship between mothers' harshness and girls' higher school grades.Researchers on other parenting practices reported that, "perhaps harshness of those mothers was because of being serious in expecting their daughters to apply themselves in school".However, the results illustrated that the warmth of fathers appeared to be particularly salient for boys' classroom behaviour.
Curtis-Fields ( 2010) conducted a study concerning the impact of parental involvement on academic achievement.The researcher selected 300 students aged 15 to 19 years old from the 10th to 12th grade to participate in the study.The results showed that there were statistically significant differences for high achieving students with higher scores than those students in the low achieving group for the three measures of parental involvement (parent structure, time management, and school attendance).
Nelson ( 2010) through his study said that a, "great deal of research on the academic achievement of African-American students has shown that socioeconomic (SES) is significant in influencing educational outcomes; however, when SES is controlled for, familial processes have been shown to have a considerable effect on educational outcomes.Differences in parenting characteristics, including parenting style and parental involvement, have been observed between students of high and low achievement levels; however, much of this research has been done comparing students from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds" (Garg, Levin, Urajnik & Kauppi, 2005;Lunggarn & Luster, 2005;Hortascu, 1994;Foucault, 2005).Nelson studied the effects of African-American parenting style and parental involvement with their children.Participants for this research were 198 mothers or female caretakers of predominantly 8th grade students in southwest Louisiana.In this research, Nelson found that there were positive significant relationships between maternal parenting style and academic achievement.

Method
Current study is the quantitative and descriptive one which explored the relation between parenting style and academic achievement among Iranian high school students who enrolled in second level.By considering time and financial limitations, a quantitative, correlation research design was selected.A correlation study looks at already existent conditions; hence, this design is one in which the independent variables are not manipulated.Instead, measures of association are used to study the relationship between these variables (Leedy & Ormrod, 2001;Vogt, 1999).
And also, a non-experimental, descriptive research design was employed in order to use survey techniques, while the independent variable was not manipulated, no treatment or intervention was provided to the participants thereby making this type of research design appropriate.
In current study 546 participants (249 males & 297 females) were selected from Educational region 4 of Tehran.
The official permission was maintained from the Department of Education region 4 and then the number of students (from approximately 41,050 students, 546 students1.33%,were chosen) and number of schools required were determined.Coordination with the high school administrators was made for daily visits of the school and arrangements were made in order to explain the importance and objectives of this study to the students.Questionnaires were given to the students and the desired information was collected.It was necessary for the questionnaire to be filled completely; if even one question was not answered the whole questionnaire was excluded and only data from complete questionnaires were entered and collected by SPSS.

Data Analysis and Results
Bivariate regression was used in order to predict scores on one variable from scores on another variable.Before using bivariate correlations between the variables of mother authoritative, mother authoritarian, mother permissive, father authoritative, father authoritarian, father permissive, academic achievement scatterplots were created to explore the relationship between these variables, and compared as only linear relationships are suitable for correlation analyses.
The scatterplots could describe whether the variables were positively or negatively related or if the variables are related in a linear or curvilinear form and also determine the variables direction.In another word, scatterplots supply a general demonstration of the strength of the relationship between two variables (that is, clustering of scores around an imaginary straight line) indicating a strong relationship.In this study, Pearson Product-Moment Correlations was calculated in order to examine the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables, using SPSS; the level of confidence for all calculations was set at alpha 0.05.For the variables; Mother Authoritative, Mother Authoritarian, Mother Permissive, Father Authoritative, Father Authoritarian, Father Permissive, and Academic Achievement; an inter-correlation matrix was created.In spite of the fact that the researcher anticipated finding statistically significant relationships between these variables, as demonstrated by the research hypotheses, the statistics used tested if the null hypotheses were supported or if they must be rejected.The rejection of the null hypotheses indirectly indicates that the above noted variables are related.
In order to determine if first hypotheses (1-1, 1-2, 1-3) are rejected or accepted, bivariate correlations and standard multiple regression between the variables of mother authoritative parenting style and academic achievement, mother authoritarian parenting style and academic achievement, mother permissive parenting style and academic achievement, father authoritative parenting style and academic achievement, father authoritarian parenting style and academic achievement, father permissive parenting style and academic achievement were calculated at the p < 0.5 level.Pearson's product coefficients explored that neither mother authoritative parenting (r = 0.198), nor father authoritative parenting (r = 0.179) was significantly correlated with academic achievement in this study, that suggested that the first hypothesis (1-1) was supported.
In addition, Pearson's product coefficients revealed that neither mother authoritarian parenting (r = -0.089),nor father authoritarian parenting (r = -0.067)was significantly correlated with academic achievement in current study (although mother authoritarian parenting with -0.089 coefficient correlated at the p < 0.5 level was significant but it was ignored due to the low coefficient of correlation), which suggests that the first hypothesis (1-2) was not supported.
Finally, Pearson's product coefficients illustrated that both mother permissive parenting (r = -0.133),as well as father authoritative parenting (r = -0.116)were significantly correlated with academic achievement in this study, which suggests that the first hypothesis (1-3) was supported.In explore second and third hypothesis, standard multiple regression showed that authoritative parenting is the best predictor because approximately 21 percent of academic achievement in the sample can be predicted by father authoritative parenting.In addition, mother authoritative parenting can be predicted 22 percent of academic achievement in their children.In order to determine if fourth hypothesis is rejected or accepted, an independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the academic achievement scores for male and female students.Tables 2 illustrate that the Levene's test (F = 2.42) for equality of variance was not significant (0.120); this means that the variances for the two groups (males & females) are the same.Therefore, in this part, equal variance was assumed.There was no significant difference in scores for males (M = 3.98 SD = 0.84), and females (M = 4.10 SD = 0.76); t (544) = -1.73.The magnitude of the differences in the means was very small (eta squared = 0.005).This result suggests that the fourth hypothesis was not supported.In the current study there was no statistical difference in the mean academic achievement scores for males and females (see table 3).

Discussion
The results expressed that statistically there was a significant positive correlation between both authoritative mother and authoritative father and children's academic achievement.And also there wasn't any relation between authoritarian mother and authoritarian father with children's academic achievement.In contrast, the findings showed a clear statistically significant negative relation between both permissive mother and permissive father with children's academic achievement.Gidey (2002) illustrated that high school students who had non-authoritative parents were lower in academic achievement than their counterparts who had authoritative ones.
Furthermore other results illustrated a relation between parenting style in two categories (maternal & paternal).Interestingly, the results of the current study showed a significant positive relationship between mothers' parenting style and fathers' parenting style.A strong overlap was found between parental behaviour in the present sample, which meant authoritative mother and father showed a powerful positive correlation; and also authoritarian mother and father had a significant positive correlation.Moreover, the results illustrated a strong significant relation between permissive mother and father.Authoritative Father only had a positive relation with permissive father, with the exception of authoritarian mother, which was mentioned before.
Actually, there were no correlations between authoritative father with authoritarian father and mother as well as with permissive mother.Elias and Huey Yee (2007) reported same parenting styles in Malaysian students 'parents.The similarity in the present results and Elias and Huey Yee's results may be was for the influence of a same religion, because most people in Iran and Malaysia are Muslim, and in the Islam it is recommended to choose the homologous spouse.And also the second reason could be Asian culture.Unlike Kim's findings (2008) which showed a difference in the behaviour of Korean parents.As noted above, culture may be the most important factor for the different results.The current study illustrated that authoritarian father did not have a positive relation with permissive mother or fatherwhile, there was no correlation between authoritarian fatherswith authoritative mothers.Likewise, permissive father with authoritative mother and authoritarian mother showed a positive relation.However, although authoritative mother did not show a relation with authoritarian mother, there was a positive significant relation between authoritarian mother and permissive mother.

Conclusion
Baumrind (1991) believed that, parenting style was investigated using two factors -Parental responsiveness and Parental demands -while parental responsiveness was defined using three items -individuality, self-regulation, and self-assertion.
In addition, parental demands are explained by maturity demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts, and willingness to confront the child.As noted in this study's results before, authoritative mother and father had a positive correlation with academic achievement in high school students.Authoritative parenting style in Baumrind's theory is determined by high responsiveness and demands, and also individuality, self-regulation, and self-assertion is high in their children.Parents are supportive in authoritative homes.This characteristic is very important for improving academic achievement in children.In other words, these parents help their children to complete homework and other school responsibilities.Also, parents have reading time, which is important to improve the academic ability of their children.Families with high in authoritative parenting attend school functions, and their children have some autonomy, with high but attainable standards.The parents also guide their children to work better at school.This is similar to Rothrauff et al. (2009) who reported that there was a statistically positive significant relation between authoritative parenting style and wellbeing.Therefore, authoritative parents may have a partial influence on children better growing up.As illustrated before, authoritarian parenting is high in demandingness and low in responsiveness according to Baumrind's theory.It seems that children in authoritarian homes grow up obedience to parent's orders or those of other adults; in fact, when it comes to problems these children are more obedient rather than making a decision themselves.Although, recent results do not illustrate a correlation between mother authoritarian and academic achievement, also a weak negative correlation was illustrated between father authoritarian and academic achievement.Similarly, permissive parenting is clearly related to low demands and high in responsiveness.The most permissive parenting is non-traditional and lenient.Children who grow up in permissive homes make decisions when confronted by a problem.Although making decisions is a useful way to increase academic achievement, in the current study and previous studies, a negative relation between permissive parenting and academic achievement was found, probably those children do not have a certain program for doing their daily chores.They are usually rude and do not listen to their teachers; this is another reason for the negative correlation between permissive parent and academic achievement in their children.
Despite entrance exams, girls (67%) more than boys are accepted at university (Mehr News Agency, 2011).In the current results, the independent t-test analysis showed that there was no difference in the mean score of academic achievement, hence; it seems that the difference in the university entrance exam is not related to academic achievement.Hashemi (2008) reported males have a vision in their mind about the future and think about choosing the better way for their future.Consequently, they prefer working instead of going to the university.It was shown that probably fewer males attend the entrance exams for university and continue education.

Table 1 .
Correlations between parenting style and academic achievement of high school student * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level(2-tailed)

Table 2 .
Regressions between parenting style and academic achievement of high school students

Table 3 .
Independent sample t-test to compare differences in academic achievement between boys and girls among high school students