Rozumah Baharudin

Factors Related to the Quality of the Home Environment and Children's Achievement

This study tested Belskys model of the determinants of parenting. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), the study focused on 898 mothers (African Americans, n = 347; Caucasians, n = 551) and their 6- to 8-year-old children. Consistent with Belskys model, mothers who provided better quality home environments had higher levels of education, intelligence, and self-esteem. Mothers with higher family incomes, fewer children, and higher marital quality provided more supportive home environments. In addition, age and gender of the children were significantly related to the quality of the childrens home environments. Additional analyses indicated that the quality of the home environment that mothers of both ethnic groups provided was related to their childrens achievement.

Fathers’ Parenting Behaviors and Malaysian Adolescents’ Anxiety Family Income as a Moderator

The present study examined the moderating role of family income on the relationships between perceived paternal parenting behavior and adolescents’ anxiety among economically and ethnically diverse sample of adolescents. A total of 1,200 participants aged between 12 and 17 years were selected for the study. A self-administered questionnaire, including Quality of Parenting Behavior Scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory–Malay were used to collect the data. The results obtained indicate that there was a significant relationship between paternal hostility (β = .34, p < .001) and paternal monitoring (β = −.29, p < .01) with adolescents’ anxiety. A multigroup analysis using structural equation modeling also demonstrated that family income level moderated the relationship between parenting and adolescent outcomes. The findings revealed that paternal consistent discipline and paternal monitoring behavior reduced adolescent anxiety in high-income families. Finding advanced understanding on how the associations between fathers’ parenting behaviors and adolescent anxiety could be quite varied when family’s financial circumstances were taken into account.

Perceived Parenting Style of Fathers and Adolescents’ Locus of Control in a Collectivist Culture of Malaysia: The Moderating Role of Fathers’ Education

ABSTRACT The authors investigated the moderating role of fathers education on the associations between perceived paternal parenting styles and locus of control among 382 Malaysian adolescents with an average age of 14.27. Data were collected by means of adolescents’ self-report using standardized instruments (i.e., parental authority questionnaire and Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale for Children). Results revealed that there were significant negative relationships between fathers’ authoritative parenting style (r = −.243, p < .001) and authoritarian parenting style (r = −.130, p < .01) with adolescents’ internal locus of control. Furthermore, the findings indicated that fathers high level of education moderated the relationship between perceived paternal authoritarian parenting and locus of control (b = −0.147, p < .001). The findings underscore the need to include the role of parents’ education when assessing the links between parenting styles and adolescents’ locus of control.

Parenting Behavior of Mothers and School Adjustments of Adolescents in Malaysia

We utilized a structural equation model to validate a hypothesized model on the role of maternal parenting (i.e., warmth, hostility, consistent discipline, and monitoring) on adolescents’ school adjustments. Gender invariance of the model was also tested. The sample comprised 2,868 school-going adolescents selected via probability proportional to size cluster sampling. A self-administered questionnaire gathered information on the adolescent’s perception of their mother’s parenting behavior, school connectedness, trouble in school, and academic achievement. The full-fledged model after respecification showed that all fit indices were well within the accepted range; thus, data from the study fitted the revised model. Quality of maternal parenting with the exception of maternal hostility contributed positively to adolescents’ school adjustments. Further analysis found the structural model to be stable across gender indicating that perception on the quality of maternal parenting and its impact on school adjustments does not differ between male and female adolescents. Implications elucidating the links between maternal parenting behavior and adolescent’s adjustments in school are further discussed.