Parenting Styles and Academic Achievement: Mediating Role of Self-Concept or Self-Esteem

This research was aimed to examine the mediating role of self-esteem and self-concept in the relationship between parenting styles and academic achievement on the basis of a causal model in a sample of 304 fourth-grade students (152 females, 152 males) in Tehran and their parents. The students completed the Children Self-Concept Scale (Piers, 1986) and Pop Self Esteem Questionnaire (Pope & McHale, 1988) and the parents completed the Parenting Styles Questionnaire (Baumrind, 1973). The results of path analysis indicated that 1) direct effects of all three permissive, authoritarian and authoritative styles on academic achievement were significant, 2) direct effect of self-esteem on academic achievement was significant but direct effect of self-concept on academic achievement was not significant, and 3) self esteem mediating only the relationship between permissive parenting style and academic achievement. Results were discussed in terms of conceptual and functional structures differences between self-esteem and self-concept, and the roles of parents in self-esteem and self-concept formations.