Expressed Parental Attitudes Toward Child Rearing in Relation to Study Habits, Study Attitudes and Study Skills Achievement in Early Adolescence

Problem. Parents' attitudes toward child rearing are considered to be a major factor affecting their children's study habits, study attitudes, and study skills achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a correlation between parental attitudes toward child rearing and the study skills, study habits, and study attitudes of early adolescents toward their schoolwork. Method. The student population used in the study were the 103 seventh- and eighth-grade students who were enrolled in Andrews Junior Academy at Berrien Springs, Michigan during the 1977-78 school year. The parents included in the study were the parents of these same early adolescents. The parents were asked to respond to the Maryland Parent Attitude Survey by Donald K. Pumroy (1966), while the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes, Form H, by Brown and Holtzman (1968), and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Form 6 were administered to the students. In order to maintain anonymity for all the respondents, the parental test numbers were matched with the student test numbers by a responsible person who, in turn, did not receive the final parental responses. Six hypotheses were formulated and projected for the study. Two of these dealt with maternal attitudes toward child rearing and their correlation with the student study habits, study attitudes, and study skills achievement. Two hypotheses were concerned with the paternal attitudes toward child rearing as they are correlated with the student study habits, study attitudes, and study skills achievement. The other two hypotheses included both maternal and paternal attitudes toward child rearing and combined these attitude variables with the study habits, study attitudes, and study skills achievement of the early adolescents. The study employed the canonical correlation comparison using a combination of sets of variables, and only those variables in any set whose weight was at least 50 percent of the maximum of that set were included. Findings. The data analysis for the six ...