Parental Encouragement

 

Dr. Vimal Kishor

 

ABSTRACT:

The main objective of the present investigation was to study the influence of parental encouragement on students’ academic achievement of high school students. The sample comprised of 200 high school students out of which 100 students from government schools and 100 from private schools. For the present study, the parental encouragement scale developed and standardized by Dr. R.R. Sharma was used to meet the objectives. To test the hypotheses descriptive statistics, ‘t’ test and product moment coefficient of correlation has been used. The results revealed that government and private high school students differ significantly on their parental encouragement and academic achievement. Further, the study revealed that there is a significant and positive relationship between parental encouragement and academic achievement of government and private high school students.

 

 

1. INTRODUCTION:

In this fast paced time, life becomes too complex due to advancements in the world of science and technology. With the pressure of international economic competition, and an increased focus on technology, parents, educators, business, local communities, state and national governments are all struggling to encourage improvement in education to help our children prosper. Parents play a very vital role in the life of a child. The involvement of a parent on a child determines the future of such child. Family is the first environment where child feels, observes and learn the emotional relationships. Parenthood contains the skills like struggling against the various dangers that children may face and guiding them in a good way. When schools and families work together to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in schools but throughout life.

 

Parental encouragement is one of the aspects of parent treatment patterns. In recent years, to improve the academic achievement of their students, the parents help and guide them so that the students may not feel disheartened at a particular point of difficulty. Parent participation in school activities can enhance student’s learning, behavior and also lowers down their workload. Aspects of family functioning, such as parent-child relationships, relationships between parents, parents behaviour with children and children’s perception of parents, seems to be related to educational outcomes and expectations. Parents’ attendance at extracurricular activities and adolescents’ perceptions of parents’ personal educational support seems to influence adolescents’ educational expectations.

 

Thus, in encouragement, the parent help the child, guide him/her so that he/she may not feel disheartened at the time of difficulty and provides the proper home environment for the psychological as well as the academic development of their children. The children who are encouraged by their parents towards studies and other activities are found to be show better performance in test scores, academic achievement, attitude and behaviour than those who are rejected by their parents.

 

The present study focuses on the academic achievement of high school students in relation to their parental encouragement, and therefore, the researcher feels that the parents and students will be the forerunners who will benefit immensely from the study. A good number of studies have been conducted by the researchers to see the relationship between parental encouragement and academic achievement of the children. Studies as conducted by Agarwal (1975), Agarwal (1986), Salunke (1979), Devi and Kiran (2002) depicts that the parental encouragement and academic achievement are positively related to each other. On the other hand Pyari (1980), Arora (1988), Gupta (1989), and Samal (1990) found that there is no significant effect of parental encouragement on the academic achievement of the students. Further, Grover (1979), Agarwal (1989), Neeraj(2002), and Sharma (2002) found that there is a significant difference between parental encouragement and academic achievement of students. Lakshmi and Karimulla (2007) and Kaur (2010) found that the parents have favorable attitude towards girl’s education. Hence, this study is undertaken by the investigator to examine the influence of parental encouragement on the academic achievement of the high school students. The researcher believes that the present study will encourage the parents of high school students to introspect and to find out whether they encourage their children effectively.

 

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The objectives of the study are as follows-

1.     To study the parental encouragement and academic achievement of government and private high school students.

2.     To study the parental encouragement and academic achievement of boys and girls studying in private and government high schools.

3.     To establish the relationship, if any, between parental encouragement and academic achievement of high school students.

 

3. HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY:

The following hypotheses were formulated to realize the above objectives-

1.      There is no significant difference between the academic achievement of private and government high school students.  

2.      Boys from private and government high schools do not differ significantly in their academic achievement.

3.      Girls from private and government high schools do not differ significantly in their academic achievement.

4.      There is no significant difference between the parental encouragement of private and government high school students.  

5.      Boys from private and government high schools do not differ significantly in their parental encouragement.

6.      Girls from private and government high schools do not differ significantly in their parental encouragement.

7.      There does not exist any significant relationship between the students’ parental encouragement and academic achievement. 

 

4. METHODOLOGY:

In order to accomplish the objectives of the present investigation the researcher has used the survey method of descriptive research.

 

5. SAMPLE:

A sample of 200 high school students of class X was selected purposively from tehsil Padhar of district Mandi of Himachal Pradesh. It includes both male and female from private and government schools. There were 100 students from government schools and 100 from private schools.

 

6. TOOLS USED:

The Parental Encouragement Scale (PES) developed and standardized by Dr. R. R. Sharma (1988) was used to collect the data. For ascertaining the academic achievement of the students the investigator has taken the marks scored by the each respondent in the class IX school annual examination.

 

7. STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES USED:

‘t’ test was used to find out the significance of difference in parental encouragement and academic achievement of government and private high school students. Further, product moment coefficient of correlation was used to find out the relationship between parental encouragement and academic achievement of high school students.

 

 

 

 

8. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

Table-1 Mean, SD, and t -value showing differences between government and private high school students on academic achievement

 

Table-2 Mean, SD, and t -value showing differences between government and private high school students on parental encouragement

 

Table-1 depicts the mean, standard deviation, standard error of difference and significance of difference scores both government and private high school students with gender wise break up on academic achievement. An analysis of the table reveals the ‘t ’ratios of 5.16, 3.11 and 5.44 in case of government vs. private, government boys vs. private boys and government girls vs. private girls high school students respectively. When these values were subjected for the testing of their significance, the ‘t’ ratios were found to be significant at .01 level. Thus, the null hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 are rejected.  It means that private high school students have better academic achievement than those from government high school students.

 

Table-2 depicts the mean, standard deviation, standard error of difference and significance of difference scores both government and private high school students with gender wise break up on parental encouragement. An analysis of the table reveals the ‘t’ ratios of 6.58, 3.25 and 2.43 in case of government vs. private, government boys vs. private boys and government girls vs. private girls high school students respectively. When these values were subjected for the testing of their significance, the‘t’ ratios were found to be significant at .01 level. Thus, the null hypotheses 4, 5 and 6 are rejected.  It means that private high school students have better parental encouragement than those from government high school students.

 

Table-3 Product moment coefficient of correlation between parental encouragement and academic achievement

Group	N	df	r	p
Parental Encouragement	100	198	0.347	< .01
Academic Achievement	100

 

To find out the relationship between total parental encouragement scores and academic achievement of high school students Pearson’s product moment coefficient of correlation was calculated. Table 3 shows that there is a positive relationship between parental encouragement and academic achievement of government and private high school students. The coefficient of correlation between parental encouragement and academic achievement of government and private high school students is 0.347.

 

9. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS:

In the present study it is found that private high school students have better parental encouragement and academic achievement than those from government high school students. Further, the study reveals that there is a positive and significant relationship between parental encouragement and academic achievement of government and private high school students. The findings were in agreement with the findings of Agarwal (1975), Agarwal (1986), Agarwal (1989),  Grover (1979), Salunke (1979), Neeraj(2002), Devi and Kiran (2002) and Sharma (2002).

 

10. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS:

In view of the findings of the study the investigator is inclined to give the following educational implications for the present study:

 

-         The children should be encouraged by their parents towards their studies so that they can have the higher degrees of academic achievement.

-         Parents should come to school regularly to know the well beings of their children, it reinforces the view in the child’s mind that school and home are connected and that school is an integral part of the whole family’s life.

-         As the child grows his needs and aims also changes so that the parents should encourage their children accordingly.

-         Proper motivation should be provided to the children by their parents so that to be better in their academics.

-         The parents should be friendly in nature so that the children can share their school problems with them and they can find their solution.

-         Over-ambitious attitude of parents and teachers affect the academic achievement thus parents and teachers should not curb student’s interest and potential.

-         Guidance services should be provided to parents as well as students related to their problems to enhance their academic achievement.

-         There should be healthy interaction between students and teachers and teachers and parents so that they can share their ideas, views with each other.     

 

11. REFERENCES:

1.       Agarwal, K. L. (1986). A Study of Effect of Parental Encouragement upon the Educational Development of Students. In Fourth Survey of Research in Education (1983-1988). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, Vol. 1, p. 332.

2.       Agarwal, Kusum (1989). A Study of the Effect of Parental Encouragement on the Educational Development of Students (Secondary Stage). In Fifth Survey of Research in Education (1988-1992). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, Vol. 2, p. 11.

3.       Agarwal, S. K. (1975). A Psycho-Social Study of Academic Underachievement at Secondary School Level in the State of Rajasthan. In Third Survey of Research in Education (1978-1983). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, pp. 657-658.

4.       Arora, Reeta. (1988). Role of Parent-Child Relationship and teach student relationship in the Academic Achievement of Higher Secondary School Students of both sexes. In Fifth Survey of Research in Education (1988-1992). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, Vol. 2, p. 1860.

5.       Devi, M. Sarda, and Kiran, Kavitha (2002). Family Factors Associated with Scholastic Backwardness of Secondary School Children. Indian Educational Abstracts, January 2003, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 65-66.  

6.       Grover, S. (1979). Parental Aspiration as Related to Personality and School Achievements of Children. In Fourth Survey of Research in Education (1983-1988). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, Vol. 1, pp. 823-824.

7.       Gupta, Anuradha (1989). The Effect of Family Attachment on Parental Values, Creativity and Educational Achievement of Girls of Small and Big Families. In Fifth Survey of Research in Education (1988-1992). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, Vol. 2, pp. 1703-1704.

8.       Kaul, Lokesh (2010). Methodology of Educational Research. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.

9.       Kaur, Jagpreet (2010). Gender Differences in Perceptions of Home Environment of Adolescents. Journal of Community Guidance and Research, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 337-342.

10.     Lakshmi, L. Bhagya and Karimulla, Shaik (2007). Attitude of Rural Parents towards Girls Education. Edutracks: A Monthly Scanner of Trends in Education, , Vol. 7, No. 2, pp.31-32.

11.     Mondal, A. K. (2002). Achievement in Mathematics at the Elementary Level in Rural Bengal-A Survey. In Indian Educational Abstracts, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 78-79.

12.     Neeraj (2002). A Comparative Study of Family Environment, Achievement Motivation and Self-Esteem of Students of Vocational and Academic Streams. Indian Educational Abstracts, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 87.

13.     Pyari, S. (1980). Feeling of Security, Family Attachment and Values of Adolescent Girls in Relation to their Educational Achievement. In Third Survey of Research in Education (1978-1983). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, pp. 681-682.

14.     Salunke, R.B. (1979). A Study of Home Environment, Socio-Economic Status and Economic Management in Relation to the Academic Achievement of First Year College Students of M. S. University, Baroda. In Third Survey of Research in Education (1978-1983). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, pp. 685-686.

15.     Samal, N. (1990). Relationship Between Planning and Academic Achievement of Boys and Girls; Effect of Home Environment Variables. In Fifth Survey of Research in Education (1988-1992). New Delhi: NCERT, Sri Aurbindo Marg, Vol. 2, p. 1911.

16.     Sharma, R.A. (2000). Fundamentals of Educational Research. Meerut: Loyal Book Depot.

17.     Sharma, R.R. (1988). Manual for Parental Encouragement Scale. Agra: National Psychological Corporation. 

18.     Sharma, S. Nidhi (2002). A Study of Effect of Parental Involvement and Aspirations on Academic Achievement of +2 Students. Indian Educational Abstracts, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 61-62.