The perception of the parent-child relationship and its relationship to academic achievement and classroom conduct.

摘要

This study investigated aspects of the parent-child relationship as predictors of academic achievement and classroom conduct. The study was limited to consideration of the perception of the relationship between the child and their primary female caretaker. The study also examined whether or not significant differences existed between boys' and girls' perception of their relationship with their primary female caretaker. Participants in the study were 106 fifth grade elementary school students from the Hillsborough County School District in Florida. The Family Assessment Measure-III-Dyadic Relationship Scale was used to assess the child's perception of communication, involvement, and control between themselves and their primary female caretaker. Academic achievement was measured using a grade point average calculated from the children's fifth grade report card (calculated for the entire year). Academic achievement was also measured using the children's standardized reading and math scores from the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. Classroom conduct was calculated from the child's fifth grade report cards using the Work Habits and Social Development sections. Teachers placed checkmarks into specific areas when a child needed improvement. The number of check marks a child received was placed over the total number of possible checks to generate a decimal that represented classroom behavior for the school year. Nonverbal Intelligence was used as a control variable and was measured by the Matrix Analogies Test-Short Form. Regression analyses were used to test hypotheses related to prediction of academic achievement and classroom conduct by the parent-child relationship variables. An ANOVA analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis regarding sex differences on the parent-child relationship variables. Findings from the analyses failed to support the proposed hypotheses. The lack of sex differences supported the use of group analysis for the purposes of prediction. However, the lack of support for the hypotheses indicated a, possible, waning of parental influence in the measured areas as they related to the child's school performance for children of this age. In addition, implications of the large percentage of Hispanics in the sample and recommendations for future research were discussed.