Maternal parenting and teaching strategies: relations with children’s academic competence

ABSTRACT

We evaluated whether maternal parenting strategies (maternal achievement-oriented control and maternal monitoring) and maternal teaching strategies are related to children’s academic competence in middle childhood. We also assessed whether the relations of maternal parenting strategies with children’s academic competence are mediated by maternal teaching strategies. Children (N = 112, 10-13 years old) reported on maternal parenting strategies and their own academic competence. Mother-child dyads participated in an interaction task coded for positive and negative maternal teaching strategies. Results reveal that mothers who use less achievement-oriented control have children with higher academic competence. Mothers who monitor their children’s whereabouts more and use fewer negative teaching strategies also tend to have children with higher academic competence. Observed maternal teaching strategies did not act as mediators between maternal parenting strategies and children’s academic competence. These findings advance our understanding of how maternal factors relate to children’s academic competence in middle childhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Mother-child relationship
• parenting
• developmental issues
• academic competence

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Colleen M. Bucci Liddy

Dr. Colleen M. Bucci Liddy is graduate of the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University. She is currently a Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on children’s and adolescent’s psychological well-being, achievement self-efficacy, and cognitive abilities.

Laura E. Brumariu

Dr Laura E. Brumariu is an Associate Professor at Adelphi University. Her research evaluates parent-child relationships and models of anxiety and adjustment in childhood and adolescence.

Loredana R. Diaconu-Gherasim

Dr. Loredana R. Diaconu-Gherasim is a Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania. Her research focuses on parental characteristics related to children’s well-being and motivational beliefs, and mechanisms explaining the relations between parenting and children’s emotional and motivational adjustment.

Dietra M. Hunter

Dietra M. Hunter, MA is a graduate of the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University. Her research interests include factors related to academic competence and motivation.