Analysis: MUSANGU MUZAZA
PARENTING style is among the home variable that has solid effect on children’s academic achievement.

As defined by Bradley and Caldwell (1995), parenting style is the control of conduct and improvement of the children with the aim that they can carry on with a socially desirable life, adjust to their environment, and pursue their goals. As such, child rearing is the socialisation procedure through which parents transmit to their children social esteem, conviction, custom, and standard. In addition, parents transmit socially alluring conduct to their children. This they do so that their children become good citizens of the society that are equipped with adult competences.
During adolescence parental monitoring to the degree that they become acquainted with the activities their children are engaged in outside the home and school assumes an important role in adolescence outcomes (Kim, 2008). This is especially obvious when teenagers perceive genuine care from their parents. Kim (ibid) noted that parental monitoring is related with less school problems, less substance abuse, and decreased misconduct. In such manner, parental monitoring is emphatically connected to social advancement and school achievement, for example, focusing and inspiration to perform well in school.
Kulas (2014) distinguished three sorts of parenting styles, i.e. authoritative, authoritarian and permissive. Authoritative parenting style is characterised by high expectations and support for the children (Mgbemere and Telles, 2013). This implies that authoritative parenting style makes the most advantageous condition, and a profitable connection between parents and their children. Furthermore, Bradley and Caldwell (1995) noted authoritative parenting know and comprehend their children’s autonomy henceforth engage them in verbal correspondence, and family basic leadership. Additionally, Bradley and Caldwell (ibid) noted that authoritative parents urge their kids to logically embrace greater duty regarding responding to the requirements of other individuals in the family within their capacities. This means that parents who are authoritative ordinarily have high passionate connection and support for their children. Such parents frequently take part in a two-manner correspondence with their children. Above all, authoritative parents are consistent in executing rules set up as a family.
Permissive parenting style is a greatly loose approach where parents are by large warm, supporting and tender (Walton, 2012). In this parenting style, parents excessively have a tendency to acknowledge their children’s conduct, regardless of whether great or awful. Mgbemere and Telles (2013) stated that permissive parents set couple of conflicting and unstructured guidelines that make their children grow up with minimal self-control and discretion. In this perspective, parents normally feel that their children are fit to make their own decisions with minimal parental direction. This influences permissive parents to be viewed as being delicate to their children. By virtue of this, Verial (2013) battled that permissive parenting style tends to make a child’s social life difficult to oversee as he is probably going to be caught off guard for dismissal. As a rule, permissive parenting style is portrayed by high responsiveness and low demandingness.
Concerning authoritarian parenting style, Mgbemere and Telles (2013) noted that the style is described by high parental requests without responsiveness to their children’s needs. Along these lines, authoritarian parenting takes into consideration minimal open discourse with their children while anticipating that they should take after a strict arrangement of rules and expectations. This style makes parents to rely too much on punishment as a way to demand for obedience from their children. For instance, when a 3-year-old child gets a toy from her companion, an authoritarian parent would tell the child to take back the toy promptly. In another case, when a 5-year-old demands an extra snack, an authoritarian parent would quickly deny the demand since that is seen to violet the one snack rule. As indicated by Hatter (2017) authoritarian parents tend to love their children, however, their children may not frequently feel that adoration since it is hidden behind the discipline and demand.
An investigation by Goodman and Gregg (2010) uncovered that discrepancies in parenting styles and rules such as regular bed times, family meals times are connected to poverty. For instance, Isaacs (2012) found that mothers living in poverty for the most part have higher rates of discouragement and weakness that makes them exhibit lower parenting abilities in specific measurable areas than more well-off mothers. For this reason, Goodman and Gregg (2012) asserted that lower socioeconomic status is connected to child rearing techniques such as hostility and non-supportive. Such conducts by parents negatively influence their children’s academic execution. It is believed that parents model their behaviour, occupation and even social class to their children. This suggests that parents of different occupations and social classes often employ different parenting styles. Most of the time, it reflects in the way parents discipline and react to their children. In view of this, Stambler (2017) speculated that parents in the lower socio-economic strata tend to be more authoritarian. Conversely, high socioeconomic status parents practise authoritative parenting.
Various studies in the recent past have been undertaken to figure out which parenting style predicts academic achievement of children. For instance, authoritative parenting style emphatically and fundamentally predicts academic achievement of the children. On the other hand, permissive and authoritarian parenting styles do not have any critical association with the academic achievement of the students. This implies children raised by authoritative parents when contrasted with those raised by authoritarian usually have a high academic achievement. Zahedani et al (2016) examined the influence of parenting style on academic achievement and career path of the children. With a specific end goal to acquire significant information, Baumrind’s Parenting Style and Moqimi’s Career Path surveys were administered to respondents. Data obtained from the respondents was correlated with their transcripts utilising Pearson correlation coefficient. The outcomes showed that there was a huge positive connection relationship authoritative parenting style and students’ academic achievement. This investigation also revealed that the relationship between permissive parenting style and students’ achievement was not factually noteworthy. In addition, the investigation uncovered that the connection between authoritarian parenting style and academic achievement of students was fundamentally negative. Nearly, these factual figures showed that authoritative parenting style was more predictive of students’ academic achievement.
Having, given the background, I wish to advise parents in Zambia to check what kind of parenting they use when controlling their children’s behaviour. Whatever action we take on our children affects their cognitive such that their perception of learning in class vanishes. Teachers are also important figures that should check their methods of disciplining children. It is not always right to beat or call a child names.
I end by encouraging the government and NGOs to scale up deliberate skills training and enhancement programmes at which parents would be enlightened on how their own actions at home could affect their children’s academic performance. For example, seminars, workshops and lifelong skills targeting parents of lower socio-economic status can be initiated.
The author is a PhD student at the University of Malaya, Malaysia and first secretary- Education at the Zambian Embassy.