parental discipline
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PARENTAL DISCIPLINE AND
PARENTS DESIRE FOR
CHILDRENS SCHOOL SUCCESS
Rachel Pasternak
ABSTRACT
Purpose This chapter presents a new model for the classification of
parental discipline styles (PDS), constructed in an attempt to understand
the relationship between parenting and childrens school success. The
model includes six PDSs, based on four criteria: making demands,
enforcement, punishment, and responsiveness to childrens requests.
Methodology Methodology includes quantitative research based on
self-report questionnaire.
Finding The findings indicate that (1) PDS has a crucial effect on a
childs academic achievement even after controlling for parents and
childrens demographic characteristics; (2) The progressive authoritative
style has the greatest effect on academic achievement, whereas the
punitive style has the smallest effect; and (3) punishment has a negative
effect on academic achievement, whereas responsiveness to childrens
requests has the greatest positive effect.
Economic Stress and the Family
Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Volume 6, 123146
Copyright r 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing LimitedAll rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1530-3535/doi:10.1108/S1530-3535(2012)0000006008
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Originality/value PDS is distinguished from the broader conceptparenting style in its reference to the daily behaviors that comprise the
exercise of discipline.
Practical implications Awareness of the salience of discipline for
improving academic achievement can influence patterns of parenting in
general, and PDS in particular.
Social implications PDS indicates the quality of the education and
socialization being transmitted. It has a crucial impact on childrens
school success that is crucial for occupational and economic success.
Keywords: Parental discipline style; parenting styles; parental
authority; academic achievement; occupational success;
authoritative style
INTRODUCTION
Childrens school success has been the subject of intensive research in the
past two decades since academic achievements are necessary conditions
for professional standing and economic success. In a capitalist economy
that is based on a wide participation of citizens in the labor force, academic
credentials are both in the interest of individuals and of society. There is
evidence that academic achievements, even during childhood and adoles-
cence, are a key determinant of future occupational success (Dubow,
Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009;Flashman, 2012). International comparative test
results in science, mathematics, and reading comprehension, based onresponses from elementary school students, indicate mediocre achievement
among this age group in some Western democracies such as the United
States and the United Kingdom when compared with Far Eastern countries
such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan or Finland (PISA, 2011). These
data, which indicate a growing threat to sustaining a stable economy in
capitalist countries, have motivated research on ways in which to improve
childrens academic achievements. Although this issue represented the main
focus of research primarily by education and learning experts in the past,
current research is interdisciplinary in character, involving sociologists,economists, psychologists, and even philosophers. Scholars are now delving
into the sources for this situation as well as attempting to develop tools for
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its reversal. One result of this change in direction is the increased attentionbeen paid to the family as a factor contributing to childrens school success.
The current chapter discusses parents contributions to childrens school
success from a perspective previously neglected in the literature. Parents are
considered as an agent of socialization and, in their ordinary practice, are
the subjects of acts of construction of the social and cultural reproduction
(Nash, 1990). This study examines the effect of what we call Parental
Discipline Style (PDS) on achievement, that is, it investigates whether
parental imposition of discipline as a part of the socialization process
supports their childrens learning. Our subject is positive discipline (Devall,2004), directed at the child within an educational process meant to prepare
the foundations for learning. We assume that the absence of positive
discipline undermines the childs proper functioning in school. It is worth
noting that positive discipline can be implemented in every family,
irrespective of its socioeconomic status.
Parenting Style and Discipline
The claim that parents play a meaningful role in the inculcation of discipline
and academic achievement as a valued goal has been intensively studied
under the rubric parenting style. parenting style is composed of a range
of components, including parents general behavior, much of which entails
the exercise of parental authority, interpreted here as the imposition of
discipline. A critical, analytical reading of the scores of studies examining
the influence of parenting style on childrens and adolescents education and
socialization indicates that parenting style is defined and measured by
several elements. An analysis of the components comprising the criteria fordetermining parenting style indicates their distribution into two main
categories. The first refers to family characteristics, expressed in the home
environment, parental involvement (Hickman, Greenwood, & Miller, 1995;
Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992) and family cohesion
(Hern & Lewko, 1994) as well as parental control, discipline strategies,
warmth, and authoritativeness (Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling, Mounts, &
Dornbusch, 1994; Steinberg et al., 1992; Steinberg, Mounts, Lambon, &
Dornbusch, 1991). The second pertains to elements related to parental
behavior toward their children: parentchild interaction and communica-tion, emotional attachment to their children, and level of involvement in
their childrens lives. Taken together, these components represent aspects of
educating ones offspring.
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Baumrind, whose research has inspired numerous studies, examined theparenting style according to components characterizing the exercise of
discipline but within a wide sphere of reference. Her research led to the
recognition of variation in parenting style according to the balance achieved
between measures of authoritativeness and those expressing warmth and
support. In her studies, Baumrind (1966, 1967, 1971, 1991) made use of
components such as authority, communication, control, and authoritative-
ness. She used the dimensions of control/demandingness (C) and warmth/
responsiveness (W) to derive a fourfold classification of parenting styles: the
authoritarian (high C, low W), the authoritative (high C, high W), thepermissive (low C, high W), and the neglecting (low C, low W).
In her later studies,Baumrind (1996, 2005)determined parenting style on
the basis of an imbalance in parents demandingness/responsiveness ratio.
Doing so allowed her to add four additional styles: authoritarian/directive,
nonauthoritarian/directive, democratic, and neglecting/rejecting. A review
of these styles indicates that the pivotal component determining parenting
style tends to be the demandingness/responsiveness ratio as expressed in
behavior. This means that the main components of parenting style tend to
be demandingness and responsiveness.The models constructed on the basis of Baumrinds research can be
differentiated by the degree of authoritativeness exercised by parents toward
their children. Research investigating the relationship between parenting
style and educational achievement has generally found a positive correlation
between authoritativeness and academic achievement (Baumrind, 1991;
Chao, 2001;Dornbusch, 1987;Hickman, Toews, & Andrews, 2001;Turner,
Chandler, & Heffer, 2009; Yang, 2009). Alternatively, the exercise of
excessive authority, as expressed in the Authoritarian style, has been found
to be negatively correlated with academic achievement (Baumrind, 1991;Dornbusch, 1987).
Parental Authority, Discipline, and Academic Achievement
Authority is the ability to impose discipline. As such, it is one of the tools at
the parents disposal when socializing and educating their children.
Historically, parental authority became the subject of empirical study
primarily after its deterioration (Baumrind, 2005;De Forest, 2009;Steutel &Spiecker, 2000).
The imposition of discipline on children is expressed by the ability to
place boundaries between the permitted and the prohibited, to inculcate
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appropriate social behavior and learning habits. This imposition might havesome difficulties when parentchild relations become too liberal (Lee &
Tseng, 2008;Williamson, Bondy, Langley, & Mayne, 2005).
In the current research we distinguish this type of authority from that
exercised by teachers while focusing on the necessity of its exercise in the
education of children, the consolidation of self-identity (Berzonsky, 2004),
the internalization of discipline and mental health (Dwairy, 2004), the
legitimation of authority and its implications for parentchild conflicts
(Darling, Cumsille, & Pena-Alampay, 2005) as well as childrens attitudes
toward authority (Daddis, 2008; Smetana, 2000; Smetana, Crean, &Campione-Barr, 2005). Several of the studies that examined authority from
a cultural perspective have found that youngsters from societies as desperate
as that of the Chinese (Zhang & Fuligni, 2006), the Brazilian (Milnitsky-
Sapiro, Turiel, & Nucci, 2006), and the Vietnamese minority in the United
States (Nguyen, 2008) are dissatisfied with the broad scope of authority
wielded by their parents.
The Western worlds interest in the correlation between parental authority
and academic achievement was stimulated by international test results. One
explanation was the weakening of parental authority. Yet, despite the wealthof studies conducted with parental authority and its effect on children
in numerous spheres, the research literature was initially rather meager
with respect to academic achievement. The few studies conducted on the
subject did find a direct and positive correlation between parental authority
and academic achievement or motivation (Frey, Ruchkin, Martin, &
Schwab-Stone, 2009); its effect was in fact found to be stronger on home-
work completion among girls (Chan & Chan, 2007).
Baumrinds (1991, 2005) classic model, which has been studied in
numerous cultures, spawned the now burgeoning research on the impactof an authoritative parenting style on academic achievement. It is interesting
to note that an absolute majority of studies have found a significant and
positive correlation between the two sets of behavior in a broad assortment
of cultural groups: the Chinese (Pearson & Rao, 2003;Wei, Den, & Zhou,
2009), Afro-Americans (Mandara, 2006), and Caribbean immigrants to the
United States (Roopnarine, Krishnakumar, Metindogam, & Evans, 2006),
collectivist and individualist cultures (Sorkhabi, 2005) as well as students of
college age (Abar, Carter, & Winsler, 2009;Turner et al., 2009) and those
attending middle school (Suldo, Mihalas, Powell, & French, 2008). We cantherefore conclude that the exercise of authority over children contributes to
their academic achievement. This being said, the issue of whether authori-
tativeness is the only salient feature of parenting has remained open.
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The positive and supportive role played by the exercise of authority inaffecting childrens achievements has raised questions as to the precise
character of those parental behaviors that express authority. Which parental
behaviors are included in the exercise of authority? What components of
parenting style determine the exercise of authority? Whereas authority is
defined as the parents power to dictate and model appropriate behavior,
discipline is defined as the practical, daily exercise of authority in the varied
spheres comprising childrens lives. The specification and analytic focus of
these activities is likely to contribute to theoretical and practical knowledge
about the influence parents exert on their childrens education and learningpotential.
In the current research, the concept authority was conceptualized as
behavior that expresses the exercise of discipline. Instead of examining the
discipline as a component of parental authority or of an authoritative
parenting style, we focused on the concept PDS. PDS was distinguished
from the broader concept parenting style in its reference to the daily
behaviors that comprise the exercise of discipline. PDS was likewise based
on the components demandingness and responsiveness, but again, contrary
to parenting style, the component behaviors were directed solely at parentsattempts to inculcate discipline.
The concept PDS has received little attention in the literature. When
mentioned, the authors have generally referred to it as an overall parental
behavior aimed at imposing discipline rather than as a structured behavior
pattern culminating in parenting style (Gallagher & Cartwright-Hatton,
2008). In order to investigate this style, we constructed a new, targeted
questionnaire (the PDS questionnaire or PDSQ), based on available
questionnaires devised to identify the parenting style but with the addition
of new criteria as described below.
Parental Discipline Style and Its Components
As a concept, PDS relates to the approach taken by parents when imposing
discipline on their children. It refers to the degree to which parents exercise
their authority regarding the imposition of discipline and inculcation of
appropriate social behavior. We offer four new components comprising
this style: making demands, enforcing, punishing, and responsiveness to thechilds requests. These components were selected on the basis of theoretical
and empirical arguments originating in theories from the fields of education,
learning, and the sociology of education.
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Two behavioral patterns requisite for good parenting support andcontrol have received particular stress (Maccoby & Martin, 1983).Control
is expressed in making demands, enforcing them, and punishing children for
failing to comply. These three components likewise represent the founda-
tions of learning and behavior formation as conceptualized by sociological
and behavioral theorists (Bandura, 1977; Pasternak, 2002; Rollins &
Thomas, 1979). Alternatively, support, as expressed in responsiveness to
the childs requests, represents an equilibrating component. Support causes
children to feel at ease and relaxed in relations with their parents, to be
readily accepted, and to effortlessly express their wishes and needs.Supportive behavior expresses warmth, sensitivity, and acceptance (Coplan,
Hastings, Lagace-Seguin, & Moulton, 2002;Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994).
The related empirical arguments evolved from the fact that these concepts
have already been researched as components of teacher and parent behavior
and correlated with academic achievement. We believe that the incorpora-
tion of the four components into one conceptual framework can facilitate
the modeling of parental behavior focused on the exercise of discipline,
that is, a PDS. We next describe these factors and their relationship to
discipline.
Making Demands
Making demands refers to the claims parents make on children to become
integrated into society, transmitted through behavior regulation, direct
confrontation and maturity demands (behavioral control) in addition to
supervision of childrens activities (monitoring) (Baumrind, 2005, p. 61).
Such behavior expresses the degree to which parents require that their
children complete a variety of the daily tasks deemed necessary for proper
socialization and learning. Making demands represents a key concept in theeducation field, although, beyond its inclusion as a component of parenting
style (Baumrind, 1991, 2005; Steinberg et al., 1991, 1994), it is usually
examined as either a distinct variable (Howland, Anderson, Smiley, &
Abbott, 2006) or as an educational policy (Kissel, 2009;Reback, 2008).
Enforcement
Enforcement relates to the degree to which parents effectively monitor
fulfillment of their demands. This component is especially important in theexercise of discipline because making demands is ineffective without it.
Enforcement has generally been investigated as a component of punishment
rather than as a distinct concept.
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PunishmentPunishment and its effect on childrens normative behavior as well as
academic achievement have been widely discussed in the literature. This rich
body of research has focused on the punishment meted out by teachers and
its negative influence on academic achievement, especially in the form of
corporal punishment (Docan, 2006; Guskey, 2004; Little & Akin-Little,
2008). Alternatively, research on the effect of parental punishment is
relatively poor. We should note here that our subject is not corporal or
physical punishment but educational punishment, which includes denial of
rewards or gratifications (Devall, 2004).Sociological theories on the inculcation of social norms and the
acquisition of social roles and learning, such as behavior formation theories,
explain the emergence of behavioral patterns through reward (for good
behavior) and punishment (for deviant behavior) (Pasternak, 2002, 2003).
We therefore consider punishment to be a response to childrens
noncompliance with parental demands, expressed in the denial of rewards
such as watching television, access to computers, purchase of a desired
object, going out, and so forth. Although responsiveness appears in
Baumrinds (2005) model, she makes no mention of punishment. In orderto complete our analysis of PDS, we suggest focusing specifically on the
punishment due to its role in social learning as supported by theory.
Responsiveness to the Childs Requests
Responsiveness refers to the extent to which parents acquiesce to childrens
requests. Baumrind (1991, 2005) includes responsiveness in her model of
parenting style while stressing its sensitivity to the child and honoring his
or her requests, characteristics that bear witness to the parents warmth,
support of the childs autonomy, and reasoned communication. This parti-cular behavior, other than its inclusion as a component of parenting, is
rarely mentioned in the research literature. A wealth of research does exist
in reference to a broader concept, warmth (Bronstein-Burrows, 1981;
Meteyer & Perry-Jenkins, 2009; Shanahan, McHale, Crouter, & Osgood,
2007). We nonetheless argue that children need responsiveness; this quality
should therefore be included among the components of a PDS. Parental
responsiveness to the childs requests introduces reciprocity into parentchild
relations: responsiveness to a childs request provides a measure of
legitimation to parental demands at the same time that it helps imposediscipline. The message children receive is: I demand and expect you to
comply; at the same time, you request and I respond. For these
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Participants
Participating in the research were 129 women from middle upper social
class, between the ages of 30 and 50 (most were aged 3545). We referred to
women since they are mostly more involved with the socialization process.
The majority (91%) were married and had acquired a high school or
academic education (about 85%). Among participants with an academic
education, the majority (91.5%) had earned at least a masters degree. The
women in the sample generally earned average or above-average incomes
(95.7%); the majority were Jewish (91.5%), with about half identifyingthemselves as secular (54%); a bit more than half were of European origin
(59.2%). The participants were asked to report about aspects of their
behavior toward those of their children who were in the 2nd to 6th grade
and aged 811 (about 85% of their children were in the 4th to 5th grade,
aged 811). The majority of these children were boys (57.4%); none were
reported as diagnosed for learning disabilities. If we compare this sample to
national-level statistics, we see that only 55.6% of the citizens are part of the
civilian labor force compared to Sweden (64%), Holland (65%), and United
States (66%) (Landa & Even, 2009). Also, in Israel, nearly 78.3% of thewomen are in the labor force (men, 77.7%), and they are better educated
than men in all the levels of education, and more than a third of them have
academic degrees. So, the sample is similar to more than a third of the
women in Israel (Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2011).
Participants were recruited by means of convenience (students 77.5%)
and snowball sampling (others 22.5%). The majority of the women
completed the questionnaire during a class session held in the academic
institution where they were students. Completion of the questionnaire was
voluntary and not part of the course requirements.
Data Collection
Data were collected over a period of three months. Each participant in the
research received a structured, anonymous self-completion questionnaire, to
be returned upon its completion. The questionnaire included items on PDS
in addition to items on their childrens educational achievements. The
mothers were given definition of each of these components in thequestionnaire. The sociodemographic portion of the questionnaire con-
tained items such as the childs gender, parental behavior, family income,
and so forth.
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The response rate for the structured and anonymous self-completionquestionnaire was 90%.
The Research Variables and Their Measurement
The research focused on one main dependent variable: academic achieve-
ment. The data on academic achievement were collected by means of
mothers reports of their childrens grades for each of the four selected
subjects arithmetic, Hebrew language skills, English as a foreign language,and science as they appeared on report cards transmitted at the end of the
school year. (Grades are given on an annual basis in Israel.) The responses
were scored on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (poor mastery) to 4
(complete mastery), exactly as they appeared in the report cards. The
questionnaire was completed about a week after their transmission. These
variables were then coded as four dummy variables: mastery of a subject
(complete mastery and mastery, each of which received a value of 1) and no
mastery (partial and no mastery, each of which received a value of 0).
The Israeli education system is divided into three stages: primary school 1st to 6th grade, junior high 7th to 9th grade, and high school 10th to
12th grade. In so called good schools or in schools of the middle upper class,
parents are involved in school (Pasternak, 2004). The academic performance
in mathematics and science, as reflected in the scores achieved in inter-
national comparative tests such as PISA is not satisfactory. By 2009 Israel
was ranked 41st out of 64 in mathematics, 36th in reading comprehension
and reading, and 41st in science, with scores of 2049 points below the
average of all the countries participating in the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) (PISA, 2011). These achievementsare a threat to the occupational possibilities and the economic situation
in Israel. Because of this situation, the Israeli government allocates a big
budget for reforms in order to improve the academic achievements.
The main independent variable, PDS, was measured by means of a
questionnaire specially developed by the author for the current research.
The questionnaire contained 40 items aimed to identify parents specific
PDS by means of the four behavioral components: making demands,
enforcement, punishment, and responsiveness to the childs requests. Ten
items were assigned to each dimension and described common behaviorstaken from the daily routines of children aged 811: brushing teeth,
washing, watching television, permitted computer time, coming home on
time, preparation of homework at fixed hours, arranging their room,
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removing dishes from the table, taking down laundry, and politeness whenconversing with parents. The behaviors were selected on the basis of a pilot
study. Fifteen mothers (other than those participating in the research) of
children aged 811 were asked to list 15 daily behaviors that raised issues of
compliance. To prevent cultural bias (given that the research was conducted
in Israel) and ensure the questionnaires universality, three mothers each
were chosen from five countries: Israel, France, England, Canada, and the
United States. The mothers were randomly selected as part of a convenience
sample based on indirect acquaintance. Ten behaviors were selected from
the list compiled. The criterion for selection was a behaviors mention bymothers from at least three countries. The 129 mothers participating in the
research were asked to rank three of the four PDS components on separate
Likert scales: how often they made demands, ranging from 1 (never
demanded) to 5 (always demanded), their level of enforcement, ranging
from 1 (never enforced) to 5 (always enforced), and their level of punishment
(educational, not corporal) meted out for noncompliance, ranging from 1
(never punished) to 5 (always punished).
Ten items were then provided that expressed the fourth component,
responsiveness to their childrens requests: purchasing clothes, purchasingshoes, purchasing toys, purchasing games, purchasing other expensive items,
purchasing favorite foods, subscribing to a sports club (gym), trips abroad,
family outings, and release from chores. For each of these items, the
mothers were asked to describe their responses on a Likert scale ranging
from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Although some of these requests require
financial outlays, the majority of the mothers reported average or above-
average incomes, a fact that neutralized the potential socioeconomic bias.
Sociodemographic background data were collected in order to control for
their influence on the dependent variable and thus enable isolation of theeffect of PDS on the achievements. The data were obtained by means of
additional questions directed at the mothers age, childs gender, family
status (married/divorced, etc.), education, average family income, religios-
ity, nationality, and ethnicity. In addition to their childrens grades, parents
were asked whether their children had been diagnosed for learning
disabilities; if so, at what age and whether the child was receiving treatment.
(In Israel learning disabilities include a range of diagnoses such as ADHD,
ADS, Conduct disorder, and other mental disabilities); if so, at what age
and whether the child was receiving treatment. With the exception of age,which is a continuous variable, all the other responses were coded as dummy
variables: childs gender (1 male; 0 female); marital status (1married;
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0
all others); education (1
academic; 0
non-academic); and religiosity(1observant; 0 secular).
Tools
The 58-item Questionnaire included 40 statements for the purpose of
identifying PDS, 5 questions regarding academic achievement, and 13
questions referring to intervening sociodemographic variables.
The empirical validity of the questionnaire was determined by means of aprinciple components analysis. This analysis indicated that each of the four
posited components of PDS obtained Eigenvalues of at least 1.0. making
demands was found to explain 86% of the variance with an internal
reliability coefficient ofa .98; enforcement was found to explain 84.6% of
the variance, with a .98; punishment explained about 87.7% of the
variance, with a .98; responsiveness explained about 72.4% of the
variance, with a .95. Total explained variance reached 86.4%.
Findings
The research was able to identify six PDSs: authoritarian, authoritative,
progressive authoritative, permissive, neglectful, and punitive. Four of these
styles Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, and Neglectful are found
in the literature; the remaining two styles Progressive Authoritative and
Punitive are newly identified and represent an innovative contribution of
the research.
PDSs were found to be distinguished by different combinations of thefour posited components (i.e., making demands, enforcement, punishment,
and responding to the childs requests). Each parent in the sample was
assigned a standardized score for each of the four components based on the
PCA conducted earlier. Based on each components distribution, values for
high, medium, and low levels were calculated: making demands: low (.68
and below), medium (.67 to .76), and high (.77 and above); enforcement:
low (.62 and below), medium (.61 to .64), and high (.65 and above);
punishment: low (.37 and below), medium (.36 to .65), and high (.66 and
above); responsiveness: low (
.59 and below), medium (
.58 to .54), andhigh (.55 and above).Table 1describes the six PDSs in terms of the weights
of the four components.
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Table 1 shows how the different PDSs diverge from one anotheraccording to the weight, or stress, given to each factor. For example, the
progressive authoritative style is distinguished from the Authoritarian style
by the stress placed on punishment; whereas the Authoritative style involves
making demands, enforcing those demands, responding to a childs request,
and inflicting severe punishment for infractions. Adoption of a progressive
authoritative style requires making high demands, enforcing them,
responding to the childs requests but inflicting only a good measure of
punishment. Table 1 also indicates the distribution of the various PDSs,
with the most common being Authoritative (33.3% of the sample), followedby, in descending order, Neglectful (17.8%), Authoritarian (14.7%),
Progressive Authoritative (13.2%), Punitive (11.6%), and Permissive
(4.7%).
A corollary hypothesis investigated (No. 1) was that PDS is correlated to
childrens achievement in a range of subjects.Table 2shows the distribution
of childrens level of mastery in the four subjects examined: arithmetic,
Hebrew language skills, English as a foreign language, and science for each
PDS.
Table 2 reveals a clear trend indicating that specific PDSs appear toincrease childrens chances for success in their studies. Among the six styles,
children of parents adopting the Authoritative and the Progressive
Authoritative PDSs show higher levels of mastery in every school subject
investigated. Children of parents adopting the Authoritarian style showed
partial success in all four subjects; in the majority of subjects, about one-
fourth of these children exhibited little or no mastery. It appears that two-
thirds of the children of parents adopting a Permissive or Neglectful style
did not achieve mastery in any of the subjects tested. The PDS associated
with least mastery of the subject matter was the punitive style: Between 73%and 93% of the children with parents adopting this style achieved no
Table 1. Parental Discipline Style Components.
Authoritarian Authoritative Progressive
Authoritative
Neglectful Permissive Punitive Total
Making
demands
High High High Low Low Low
Enforcement High High High Low Low LowPunishment High High Low Low Low High
Responsiveness Low High High Low High Low
% of sample 14.7% 33.3% 4.7% 17.8% 13.2% 11.6% 100%
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Table 2. Distribution of Childs Level of Mastery in the Four Subjects for
Subject Parental Discipline Style
Authoritarian
(n19)
Authoritative
(n43)
Permissive
(n6)
Neglectful
(n23)
B.P. G.P. B.P. G.P. B.P. G.P. B.P. G.P.
Arithmetic 31.6% 68.4% 0% 100% 66.7% 33.3% 65.2% 34.8%
English as a foreign
language
26.3% 73.7% 3% 97.7% 66.7% 33.3% 52.2% 47.8%
Science 21.1% 78.9% 0% 100% 83.3% 16.7% 69.6% 30.4%
Hebrew language skills 26.3% 73.7% 0% 100% 83.3% 16.7% 34.8% 65.2%
Note: pr.05; pr.01.
B.P., Low mastery; G.P., High mastery.
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mastery in arithmetic, English as a foreign language, or science, whereasonly about 50% achieved mastery over Hebrew language skills. The data
shown inTable 3support these findings.
In order to identify which of the four components of PDS (making
demands, enforcement, punishment, and responsiveness to requests) best
explains a childs achievement in each of the subjects examined while
controlling for sociodemographic or background variables, we performed a
linear regression analysis for each academic subject separately. The
regression model included sociodemographic variables together with the
four components of PDS. Calculation of the regression was performed inorder to (1) assess the contribution of each PDS to the prediction of
academic achievement while controlling the contribution made by socio-
demographic variables, and (2) estimate the contributions of each socio-
demographic variable as compared with the contributions of the
components of PDS to predicting achievement in each subject. The results
of the linear regression analysis can be seen inTable 3.
The results of the regression analysis indicated that the predictive power
of the model was relatively strong for arithmetic (55.7%), science (60.3%),
and English as a foreign language (45%) but relatively weak for Hebrewlanguage skills (32.2%). That is, we found that three of the four components
of PDS do affect achievement in each subject beyond the effect exerted by
parental background variables. Responsiveness was found to be the only
component affecting achievement in all four academic subjects: arithmetic
(b .313), English (b .259), language (b .225), and science (b .277).
Alternatively, punishment had no predictive value regarding success in the
four subjects tested. This finding supports previous results indicating that
children of parents adopting a punitive style achieve the least in all school
subjects.The other two components had a range of effects on achievement, by
academic subject: enforcement had a positive effect on achievement in
English (b .497) and science (b .469), while making demands had a
positive effect on achievement in arithmetic (b .146) and the Hebrew
language (b .491). The findings confirm the second research hypothesis.
An additional interesting finding obtained by the regression analysis is the
very poor contribution of the social-demographic variables to the explained
variance. The sociodemographic variables contributed a significant effect
only in the model predicting achievement in arithmetic (Religiosity: b
.16;Education: b .146). These findings appear to support the argument that
PDS components have a greater effect on achievement than do socio-
demographic variables. Stated differently, after controlling for background,
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Table 3. Predicting Academic Achievement: Regression Analys
Variable Arithmetic English Hebrew Langu
B SE
B
b B SE
B
b B SE
B
Parents age .03 .07 .03 .01 .01 .01 .00 .01
Family status .08 .06 .08 .02 .07 .02 .02 .07
Religiosity .14 .05 .16 .08 .06 .09 .00 .06
Ethnicity .11 .06 .12 .02 .07 .02 .13 .07
Childs gender .14 .06 .02 .05 .07 .00 .08 .07
Education .20 .06 .14 .02 .07 .06 .20 .07
Requirements .04 .08 .44 .22 .09 .05 .04 .09
Enforcement .02 .04 .01 .05 .05 .49 .01 .05
Punishment .14 .03 .01 .11 .04 .12 .09 .04
Responsiveness .03 .00 .31 .00 .01 .26 .00 .01
F 16.57 10.79 6.29
% of explained variance 55.7 45 32.2
Note:
pr.05;
pr.01.
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PDS components had a significant effect on academic achievement in allfour subjects. Those findings also confirm the third research hypothesis.
We can therefore conclude that the research findings confirm all three
research hypotheses.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
This research has shed additional light on the concept PDS by describing six
such styles, each of which was differentiated according to four components:making demands, enforcement of demands, punishment for noncompliance
with those demands, and responsiveness to a childs request. These
components were constructed on the basis of behaviors commonly observed
among children aged 811. The research found that PDS does indeed exert a
meaningful influence on childrens academic achievements beyond what can
be explained by sociodemographic background variables such as the
mothers education, family income, ethnic origin, and the childs gender.
The research hypotheses, that were all confirmed by the data, are also
outgrowths of the two theories sociological and learningbehaviorformation (Bandura, 1977; Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Pasternak, 2002,
2003; Rollins & Thomas, 1979). The PDS found to contribute the most to
academic achievement was the progressive authoritative style, which
involves high levels of making demands, enforcement as well as respon-
siveness to a childs request, together with low levels of punishment. The
influence of this parenting style fits the theory on the inculcation of social
norms and social roles through rewards for good behavior and punishment
for deviant behavior (Pasternak, 2002, 2003). This finding somewhat deviates
from that commonly found in the research literature on parenting styles(Abar, Carter, & Winsler, 2009; Suldo et al., 2008; Turner et al., 2009).
Whereas the Authoritative style was previously considered to have the
greatest influence on achievement (Baumrind, 1991;Chao, 2001;Dornbusch,
1987; Hickman et al., 2001; Turner et al., 2009; Yang, 2009), the current
research identified an essentially new style, that of the progressive authori-
tative style, which represents a specific combination of components belonging
to the broader category of PDS. We can therefore conclude that high levels of
punishment do not contribute to a childs success in school. This finding
supports the findings obtained in the research on punishment in the educationsystem (Docan, 2006;Guskey, 2004;Little & Akin-Little, 2008).
The Authoritative style was also found to contribute to academic
achievement although less so than did the progressive authoritative style.
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The Permissive, like the Neglectful PDS, contributed little to a childsachievement, with the clear majority (about two-thirds) of the children with
parents practicing this parenting style demonstrating low levels of academic
success. The punitive style, which entails high levels of punishment,
contributed least to success in school, with the majority of children of such
parents failing to show any mastery in any subject area. These findings
likewise support the main research hypothesis.
The corollary hypothesis was also confirmed: The greatest impact of PDS
was observed in arithmetic; the most influential component has been making
demands. It appears that the higher the level of demands made, the greaterthe academic achievement the child will attain. Arithmetic is a subject that
demands control, practice, and the preparation of homework; parents play a
central role in motivating young children aged 811 to complete these tasks.
Importantly, the findings indicated that this influence was not affected by
the childs gender.
Based on these findings, we can now reach a number of conclusions about
the relationship between childrens academic achievements and parental
behavior as expressed in PDS.
First, high levels of punishment clearly do not support childrensacademic achievement. Parents tend to think that they can force children
to invest in their studies through punitive actions. The findings indicate that
such behavior is superfluous or ineffectual. A polar behavior, responsiveness
to a childs request during childhood, appears to be the component
contributing most to creating a positive relationship between parents and
children while inspiring children to succeed in their studies.
Second, making demands of children is necessary for childrens success in
school. Its effect is felt most strongly in the acquisition of arithmetic and
Hebrew language skills. When few demands are made, such as in thePermissive and the Neglectful styles, very low levels of academic achieve-
ment can be anticipated.
Third, enforcement of the demands was the parental behavior found to
contribute to achievement especially in English as a foreign language and in
science.
The findings therefore do support the theoretical argument underlying
the research. Parents do exert a meaningful influence on their childrens
success in school. Our research corroborates the literature in showing
that one of the crucial factors in this process is what we have called PDS, abroader pattern of behavior including components such as making demands,
enforcing demands, punishing, and responding to a childs request. Import-
antly, it is the different combinations of these four components that
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structure the various PDSs and influence childrens achievements in theindicated directions. For instance, we found that about 61% of the parents
in our sample made high demands but also strictly enforced those demands,
while about 60% inflicted punishment and about 50% responded to their
childrens requests. making demands, enforcing them, and responding to a
childs request were found to be the most meaningful and statistically
significant variables. Nonetheless, the determining factor for academic
achievement was the degree to which each of these components was
expressed in behavior.
These results deserve special attention because they are based oninformation submitted by parents (mothers in the current research)
themselves. Although it could be argued that the mothers participating in
the research geared their responses to the researchers expectations because
they were anxious to be socially acceptable, we would respond that such
motivation may have influenced the strength of the reported behaviors but
not the trends themselves or their direction.
However, the results of this study should be regarded with caution. The
families were well educated and had middle to high incomes. Thus,
extrapolating from these results and conclusions to other social-culturalcontexts may be limited. On the basis of these limitations, future studies are
recommended, such as referring to younger children or teenagers, fathers,
and families from different levels of income and education.
The research findings also have practical implications. Awareness of the
salience of discipline for improving academic achievement can influence
patterns of parenting in general, and PDS in particular. When viewed from a
broader social perspective, we can conclude that PDS indicates the quality
of the education and socialization being transmitted; hence, it has a crucial
impact on childrens school success that is crucial for occupational andeconomic success.
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