IMPACT OF PARENT CHILD RELATIONSHIP AND PARENTING STYLES ON ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT OF ADOLESCENCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The Adolescence is a fascinating stage of development full of many physical, cognitive, social, and emotional changes. To Blackwell, Trzesniewski, Kali and Dweck (2007), this stage or period is sensitive and a critical time with important implications for school achievement. Also, the increase in academic demands and the complexity of the school structure make the task of academic success for adolescents even more difficult (Patrikakou, 2004).

Achievement is almost the most important issue for adolescents in education in any country and this is why many key people ranging from educators to psychologists and to sociologists have focused research attention and efforts towards identifying the reasons why some students perform well academically while others fail and drop out. Recently, nations such as Canada, has noted an increase in children with risk factors that may compromise their present achievement and future success, and approximately 27.6% or 1 in 4 students is considered to be at risk for school failure (Jordan, 2006). Belfield (2007) also found out that across the 21.9 million adults in California, 2.19 million males and 1.96 million females (20% of the students) were dropouts. Ghasemi (2010) in a study found that 22% of the students in Iran suffer from low academic achievement due to family problems and personal factors.

Besides factors such as parental, school, teacher and environmental factors; personal factors such as self-efficacy, engagement in academic work and personality also have significant positive relationships with adolescent’s academic achievement (Multon, Brown, & Lent, 1991; Fredrik, Blumenfield, & Paris, 2004). Among these personal factors is the main variable of consideration in this study which is academic engagement which is really emphatic among the contributing personal factors to academic achievement and personal development of adolescent students in schools. Such engagement can be described as the level of commitment and involvement or the amount of time, energy and effort that students put into their educational learning activities (Stewart, 2007).

Researchers have recently used the term engagement to refer to the extent to which students identifywith and value schooling outcomes, and participate in academic and non-academic school activities (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), 2003). The definition of engagement usually comprises a psychological component pertaining to students’ sense of belonging at school and acceptance of school values, and a behavioural component pertaining to participation in school activities (Finn, 1993; Finn & Rock, 1997; Goodenow, 1993; Goodenow & Grady, 1993; Wehlage, Rutter, Smith, Lesko, & Fernandez, 1989). The psychological component emphasizes students’ sense of belonging or attachment to school, which has to do with feelings of being accepted and valued by their peers, and by others at their school (OECD, 2003). Another aspect of the psychological component concerns whether or not students value school success – whether they believe that education will benefit them personally and economically (Johnson et al., 2001). Students who do not feel they belong at school, or reject school values, are often referred to as alienated or disaffected. The participation component of engagement is characterised by factors such as school and class attendance, being prepared for class, completing homework, attending lessons, and being involved in extra-curricular sports or hobby clubs (OECD, 2003).

Academic engagement in the words of Willms (2003) entail investing quality time and energy by students in educationally purposeful activities and being persistent in the pursuitof academic success; it is an indicator that combine academic identification (getting along with teachers, having an interest in the subject matter and related behaviours  and attitudes) and academic participation (students work effort  both inside and outside of school including hours spent on homework, meeting deadlines and not skipping classes). Taylor & Lundy (2016) refers to academic engagement as the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to their level of motivation and progress in education.Svanum and Biggatti (2009) points out that a student is academically engaged when the said student takes advantage of learning opportunities provided by their institution both inside and outside the classroom and involves course related activities such as class attendance and completion of assignment. In line with the foregoing, Horstmanshoff and Zimitat (2011)defined academic engagement in terms of university students as a measure of student’s involvement with university studies.

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