The effect of Gender on parenting styles, language development and self-efficacy beliefs: A study on

Abstract

This study involved (114) Foundation to year (6) students, their care-givers and teachers, examining the effect of gender on parenting styles, language development, and self-efficacy beliefs. Operational definitions were achieved through surveys relevant to the constructs: a) Parental Questionnaire Revised (Reitman et al., 2002) b) Academic self-efficacy beliefs (Liew et al., 2008) c) Teacher rating of Oral Language and Literacy (Dickinson, 1997). Collated statistics indicated no significant relationships between parenting and literacy development including reading and self-efficacy. However academic self-efficacy and TROLL scores were significantly related (p<.05). When the K-3 students (81) were examined in isolation, results were similar to the K-6 sample. However reading showed authoritarian parenting attributed to children scoring higher in outcomes (p<.05). The findings also demonstrated a relationship between academic self-efficacy and TROLL scores (p<.05). The limitations of the study included sample size, geographic demographics and data collection.