Parent-Child Relationships and Effective Academic Motivation

Summary

Among 233 boys and 300 girls, all teenagers, it was found that traits related to achievement from the Test of Effective Academic Motivation were related to parent-child relationship factors from the Children's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory. For both sexes, parents who were perceived as being more Acceptant and as using less Hostile Psychological Control tended to have children with higher achievement traits. This was especially true for the traits of Obedient and Law Abiding, Works Hard and Effectively, and Ambitious. For boys, but not for girls, parental Firm Discipline was also associated with these achievement traits. There were no statistically significant differences in the correlations observed between same-sex and opposite-sex parent-child relationships and the achievement related traits.