The Interrelationship between Self-Discipline, Parenting Styles, and  High School Students’ Academic Achievement in Kermanshah

S. Farahmand, M.A.

S. Hosseinian, Ph D

S. M. Yazdi, Ph D

The present research was undertaken to investigate the relationship between parenting styles, self-discipline and students’ academic achievement. The population of the study comprised the entire high school girls and boys in Kermanshah, including 29745 students in 2012-2013 academic year. From among them 400 students were selected through Morgan’s Table. For observing the appropriate proportion of girls to boys, random stratified sampling method was used which led to the selection of 180 males and 220 females. The instrumentation consisted of Zand-e Karimi’s self-discipline questionnaire (2011) and Naghashian’s Parents’ Behavioral Aspects Questionnaire (1979). Results of the study indicated that there was a positive relationship between academic achievement and authoritative parenting style. In addition, there was a positive relationship between academic achievement, self-discipline, and levels of internalizing and identification, whereas a negative relationship was observed between immoral level of self-discipline and academic achievement (p<0.01). Furthermore, the results showed that in comparison with authoritative parenting style, self-discipline could explain more variance in academic achievement (24.7% vs. 4%). Generally speaking, self-discipline, especially level of internalizing should be reinforced in order to promote students’ academic achievement and parents should receive training in authoritative parenting style.

Key words: self-discipline, parenting styles, academic achievement