Poster #101 - Parental Practices, Parental Warmth, and Adolescents’ School Outcomes: Exploring the Integrative Model of Parenting

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Background:
Academic success during adolescence has been linked to many positive outcomes, including physical health, positive peer associations, and higher social mobility later in life (Gordon & Cui, 2014). School-related parenting practices are one important factor in adolescent academic success and a growing body of research has sought to more fully understand the processes behind this relationship (Spera, 2005). The Integrative Model of Parenting (Darling & Steinberg, 1993) posits that parenting style moderates the relationship between parenting practices and youth academic outcomes and as such, warm parent-child relationships are hypothesized to increase the effectiveness of positive parenting practices on adolescent school outcomes. Although recent studies have found some support for this interaction (Lowe & Dotterer, 2012), no study to date has examined mother’s and father’s level of warmth concurrently. This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of parental warmth profiles on the relationship between parenting practices and adolescent school outcomes.

Methods:
Public-use data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were used for this analysis. A subsample of high school students (n = 2306) with two parents (residential and biological) was selected. Model variables were constructed from composites of youth-reported survey items that measured parent-youth relationship warmth, frequency of school-related parenting practices (e.g. talked about school), adolescent GPA, and school engagement behaviors (e.g. relating with friends and teachers). Latent profile analysis was used to identify parental warmth profiles. After assessing latent profile differences across sociodemographic characteristics, multiple linear regression was used to explore the moderating effects of these profiles on the relationship between parenting practices and school outcomes.

Results:
Based on absolute and relative model fit measures, a 5-profile solution of parental warmth was identified as optimal. Three congruent profiles (high, moderate, and low warmth) and two incongruent profiles (high-mother/low-father warmth, low-father/lower-mother warmth) were identified. Lower parental warmth profiles predicted poorer GPA and school engagement among adolescents. School engagement outcomes were poorer when low levels of parental warmth co-occurred with incongruent parental warmth. School-related parenting practices were statistically associated with better adolescent school engagement and GPA; however, parental warmth profiles were not found to be a significant moderator of the relationship between parenting practices and adolescent outcomes. Lower marital happiness significantly predicted membership in profiles with lower levels of overall parental warmth, warmth incongruency between parents, or both.

Conclusions:
Our study indicates that school-related parenting practices and warmth of mothers and fathers are associated with adolescent school functioning as measured by school engagement behaviors and GPA. Although parental warmth profiles did not significantly moderate associations between school-related parenting practices and adolescent school outcomes in this sample, continued investigation into the nuanced relationship between parenting practices, parenting styles, and adolescent school outcomes could be fruitful. This study suggests refining Integrative Model of Parenting to include direct contributions of parental style to youth outcomes. Future research should explore different facets of parenting styles to identify pertinent moderators of academic success which could inform interventions to enhance the relationship between parental practice and adolescent school outcomes.

Authors

• Gerard Chung, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Jonathan Phillips, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Todd Jensen, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author