The role of parenting styles and teacher interactional styles in children's reading and spelling development

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Abstract

This study examined the associations between parenting styles, teacher interactional styles, and children's reading and spelling skills. The sample consisted of 864 Finnish-speaking children and their parents (864 mothers, 864 fathers) and teachers (N = 123). Children's risk for reading disabilities and reader status were assessed in kindergarten. Children were also tested on reading and spelling skills in Grades 1 and 2. Parenting styles and teacher interactional styles were measured using parents' and teachers' self-reports in Grade 1. First, the results indicated that both an authoritative parenting style and authoritative teacher interactional style positively predicted children's spelling skill development. Second, authoritative parenting was particularly beneficial for the spelling skill development of children who were at risk for reading disabilities. Third, authoritative teaching promoted spelling skill development particularly among children who were nonreaders in kindergarten but had no risk for reading disabilities. Finally, some evidence was found that authoritative teaching could compensate for the negative impact of nonauthoritative parenting on reading development among kindergarten nonreaders.

Introduction

Interaction with parents and teachers constitute important interpersonal contexts for children's learning and school achievement (Pianta, Nimetz, & Bennett, 1997). For example, previous research has shown that authoritative parenting characterized by high responsiveness and high demandingness is linked to children's high academic achievement (e.g., Baumrind, 1989, Steinberg et al., 1994, Steinberg et al., 1992). Similarly, authoritative teaching has been connected to children's good academic skills (Walker, 2008). Previous research on parenting styles and teacher interactional styles, however, has three major limitations. First, only a few attempts have been made to investigate both of these in the same study (see Paulson, Marchant, & Rothlisberg, 1998 for adolescent perceptions of parenting and teaching styles), and thus little is known about their eventual cumulative and compensative effects. Second, most of the earlier research has concentrated on general academic achievement (e.g., Baumrind, 1989, Boon, 2007, Weiss and Schwarz, 1996) rather than specific academic skills, such as reading and spelling. Third, little is known about the extent to which the impacts of parenting and teaching on children's reading and spelling skills differ according to children's individual characteristics. The present longitudinal study in a Finnish sample investigated the unique and interactive contributions of parenting styles and teachers' interactional styles on the development of children's reading and spelling skills from Grade 1 to Grade 2 and whether children's early reading ability, risk for reading difficulties, and sex moderate these associations.

Learning to read and spell is crucial for all academic learning. One of the goals of research on reading and spelling has been early identification of children at high risk for developing reading and spelling difficulties at school. The strongest predictors of reading difficulties have repeatedly been shown to be low levels of letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and naming speed both in languages with consistent (e.g., Finnish; Lerkkanen et al., 2011, Puolakanaho et al., 2007) and in those with inconsistent orthographies (e.g., English; Gallagher et al., 2000, Lonigan et al., 2000, Scarborough, 2001, Snow et al., 1998, Wimmer et al., 1998, Wimmer et al., 2000). Sex differences favoring girls have also been reported in literacy tasks in the early school years (e.g., Chatterji, 2006, Gambell and Hunter, 1999, Logan and Johnson, 2009). For example, when analyzing the K-8 national longitudinal data of United States children, Robinson and Lubienski (2011) showed that girls scored significantly higher than boys at the beginning of kindergarten, although the sex gap diminished from kindergarten through Grade 5. Moreover, reading and spelling difficulties have been found to be more prevalent among males than females (Hawke et al., 2009, Rutter et al., 2004).

The present study was carried out with Finnish children. One important feature of the Finnish language and its writing system is that it consists of only 29 grapheme–phoneme combinations, all of which are wholly consistent in both spelling and reading. Due to the consistent nature of the Finnish orthography, about 25% of children learn to decode words during the kindergarten year (e.g., Lerkkanen, Rasku-Puttonen, Aunola & Nurmi, 2004) and the majority of children learn to read during the first semester of Grade 1 (Leppänen et al., 2004, Lerkkanen et al., 2004). However, even a highly consistent orthography does not guarantee efficient literacy acquisition for all children. In Finnish, reading difficulties are typically identified in fluency rather than accuracy (e.g., Holopainen, Ahonen, & Lyytinen, 2001), as has also been reported in other orthographically consistent languages (e.g., van Daal and van der Leij, 1999, Wimmer, 1993). Spelling problems also characterize many children with reading deficit in Finnish (e.g., Torppa, Lyytinen, Erskine, Eklund, & Lyytinen, 2010).

Parenting styles are among the most investigated predictors of childhood outcomes. A four-fold classification of parenting styles, with two primary dimensions (demandingness and affection) has been proposed (Baumrind, 1991, Maccoby and Martin, 1983). Demandingness refers to the extent to which parents show control, maturity demands, and supervision in their parenting. Affection (i.e., responsiveness), in turn, refers to the extent to which parents show affective warmth, acceptance, and involvement. Authoritative parents are both demanding and affectionate; authoritarian parents are demanding but not affectionate; permissive parents are affectionate but not demanding; and disengaged parents are not affectionate and not demanding. More recently, it has been suggested that the demandingness dimension can be divided into two different types of control, that is, behavioral and psychological control (Barber, 1996, Barber et al., 2005). Behavioral control refers to a parent's attempt to control the child's behavior by means of limit setting and maturity demands, whereas psychological control refers to attempts to control the child's thinking and emotions through psychological means, such as withdrawal of love and induction of guilt.

Most previous research has focused on mothers' parenting styles. The few studies that have investigated both mothers' and fathers' parenting styles have indicated low to moderate congruence between mothers' and fathers parenting styles (Forehand and Nousiainen, 1993, Silva et al., 2007). Typically, mothers have been shown to be more authoritative than fathers, whereas authoritarian parenting seems to be more typical of fathers than mothers (Aunola et al., 1999, Hopkins and Klein, 1993). Forehand and Nousiainen (1993) suggested that adolescents' cognitive competence is best supported if both mothers and fathers show a high level of acceptance typical of authoritative parenting. As both mothers and fathers play an important role in creating the parenting climate in a two-parent home (Forehand and Nousiainen, 1993, McKinney and Renk, 2008), the present study focused on the interactional climate in the family inclusive of the parenting styles of both mothers and fathers.

Previous studies have shown that authoritative parenting is related to children's and adolescents' high school performance, both cross-sectionally (Baumrind, 1989, Baumrind, 1991, Boon, 2007, Chen et al., 1997, Dornbusch et al., 1987, Lamborn et al., 1991) and longitudinally (Steinberg et al., 1989, Steinberg et al., 1994, Steinberg et al., 1992). In contrast, nonauthoritative parenting, such as authoritarian, permissive, and disengaged parenting, has been linked to low school performance (e.g., Chen et al., 1997, Dornbusch et al., 1987, Ginsburg and Bronstein, 1993, Shumow et al., 1998). Psychological control has also been negatively associated with children's academic learning, particularly when combined with high affection (i.e., ambivalent parenting style; Aunola & Nurmi, 2004). The positive effect of authoritative parenting on general school performance has been explained by parental encouragement of children's independent problem solving and critical thinking (Gray and Steinberg, 1999, Grolnick and Ryan, 1989, Hess and McDevitt, 1984). It might also be assumed that parenting styles play a role in children's literacy skills because these styles also reflect parents' sensitivity to their children' s learning needs (Aram, 2007). Among the few earlier studies on the role of parenting styles that have included specific academic skills rather than focusing purely on general school achievement, Roopnarine, Krishnakumar, Metindogan, and Evans (2006) found that for English-speaking children in kindergarten, a nonauthoritative parenting style was negatively associated with children's receptive language skills and vocabulary. The particular focus of the present study is to investigate the possible beneficial effects of authoritative parenting on children's literacy performance in Grades 1 and 2.

Teaching in childhood settings bears a resemblance to parenting (e.g., Gerber et al., 2007, Pianta et al., 1997, Wentzel, 2002). The interactional style of teachers, like that of parents, can be defined as a constellation of attitudes, behaviors, and nonverbal expressions that characterize the nature of teacher–child interactions across different situations (see also Walker, 2008). When teachers have warm and supportive relationships with their students and when they show sensitivity toward students' individual learning needs, students are more easily able to use their teachers as resources for developing their academic competencies, including reading and spelling skills (Birch and Ladd, 1997, Connor et al., 2004, Perry et al., 2007).

In contrast to the extensive literature on parenting styles (for a review, see Darling & Steinberg, 1993), studies focusing on similar dimensions related to teaching are rare (for exceptions, see Dever and Karabenick, 2011, Kleinfeld, 1975, Walker, 2009). Most previous research has investigated the effects of teacher affection and demandingness on learning outcomes independently. These studies have indicated that warm, close, and supportive relations between teachers and students are linked not only to high overall academic achievement (e.g., Hamre and Pianta, 2001, O'Connor and McCartney, 2007, Pianta et al., 2002) but also specifically to good reading skills (Baker, 2006, Connor et al., 2005). Children have also been reported to show more rapid language and literacy skill development (Curby et al., 2009, Hughes and Kwok, 2007, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network [NICHD-ECCRN], 2000) when the quality of the teacher–student relationship is high. Furthermore, consistent classroom management, including clear expectations for behavior and well-established routines (Cameron et al., 2008, Wharton-McDonald et al., 1998), and high instructional quality (Guo et al., 2010, Mashburn et al., 2008) have been positively linked to children's literacy learning. Less is known about how teacher affection and demandingness simultaneously contribute to students' reading and spelling outcomes and the extent to which both dimensions are necessary for optimal outcomes.

There is some evidence to suggest that an authoritative interactional teaching style, characterized by both high affection and high demandingness, is connected to the highest levels of general academic achievement among children (Walker, 2008). In turn, nonauthoritative teaching has been connected to lower achievement (Kleinfeld, 1975, Walker, 2008). Recently, Graue, Clements, Reynolds, and Niles (2004) found that preschool programs that were high in teacher-directed instruction in specific content areas and at the same time high in child-centered practices showed more positive short- and long-term academic and social child outcomes than did programs that emphasized one over the other or neither of these practices. This view is supported by an observational study by Connor et al. (2005) who found that children whose teachers were more warm and responsive to children's individual learning needs and who spent more time in academic activities demonstrated stronger vocabulary and decoding skills at the end of Grade 1. However, not all studies have shown a significant effect of authoritative teaching on achievement (see Dever & Karabenick, 2011, for teaching styles and math achievement among adolescents). The present study is among the first to investigate the role of authoritative teaching in children's reading and spelling skills in an orthographically consistent language (i.e., Finnish).

Characteristics of the interactional styles of adults in the home and school contexts may interact, producing cumulative effects, compensatory effects, or both types of effects (see also Crosnoe, Elder, & G. H, 2004) on children's literacy acquisition. For example, experiencing parenting and teaching styles that are both nonauthoritative might cumulatively undermine a child's literacy development. On the other hand, it is possible that an authoritative interactional style in one social context might compensate for the negative impact of a nonauthoritative interactional style in another context. For example, a teacher who provides high-quality emotional and instructional support may foster resilience in children who have problematic relationships with their parents (see also Burchinal, Peisner-Feinberg, Pianta, & Howes, 2002).

Although comprehensive theoretical models on the interaction between parent–child and teacher–child relationships have been proposed (Sameroff, 1993, Sameroff, 2009), only a few empirical studies have been conducted on the cumulative and compensatory effects of parenting and teaching (Furrer and Skinner, 2003, Paulson et al., 1998, Pianta et al., 1997). Similarly, little is known about the possibility that child-related risk and protective factors, such as risk for reading difficulties and early reading ability, may moderate the effects of parenting styles and teacher interactional styles on children's literacy development (Curby et al., 2009). As an exception, a few previous studies have shown that children at risk for school failure who receive high instructional and emotional support from the teacher do better than children at risk for school failure who do not have such support (Burchinal et al., 2002, Downer et al., 2007). Yet, as far as we know no previous studies have investigated whether children's reading-related skills would moderate the associations between authoritative parenting, authoritative teaching, and literacy skill development.

The first aim of the present study was to investigate what kinds of parenting styles and teacher interactional styles can be identified along the dimensions of affection, behavioral control, and psychological control. On the basis of the well-established typology of four parenting styles (e.g., Baumrind, 1991, Maccoby and Martin, 1983), we expected (Hypothesis 1a) to identify the following types of parenting styles: (a) authoritative parenting, (b) authoritarian parenting, (c) permissive parenting, and (d) disengaged parenting. In addition to these four parenting styles, we expected (Hypothesis 1a; Aunola and Nurmi, 2004, Aunola and Nurmi, 2005) to identify a fifth parenting style, that is, ambivalent parenting (involving high affection and high psychological control). Psychological control was expected to be at particularly high level only in this subtype. Further, it was expected that the authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and disengaged interactional styles would be detected among teachers as well (Hypothesis 1b, see also Baumrind, 1991, Walker, 2008, Walker, 2009). Due to scarce previous research on teachers' psychological control (for exception, see Soenens, Sierens, Vansteenkiste, Dochy, & Goossens, 2012), no hypothesis was set for detecting the possible ambivalent interactional style among teachers.

Our second aim was to examine the extent to which authoritative parenting and authoritative teaching predict the development of children's reading and spelling skills from Grade 1 to Grade 2. We expected that authoritative parenting (Hypothesis 2a; see also Baumrind, 1989, Dornbusch et al., 1987, Gray and Steinberg, 1999) and authoritative teaching (Hypothesis 2b; see also Walker, 2008, Walker, 2009) would positively predict reading and spelling development. Because family SES has also been shown to be associated both with children's literacy skills (e.g., Connor et al., 2005) and with authoritative parenting (e.g., Campbell et al., 1991, McLeod, 1998), the effect of parental education was controlled.

Our third aim was to investigate the extent to which authoritative parenting and authoritative teaching have interactive effects on the development of children's reading and spelling from Grade 1 to Grade 2. We expected, first, that having both an authoritative family and an authoritative teacher would cumulatively promote children's reading and spelling skills (Hypothesis 3a, see also Paulson et al., 1998). Second, it was expected that an authoritative interactional style in one of the two social contexts of home and school would compensate for the possibly negative impact of a nonauthoritative interactional style in the other on children's reading and spelling skills (Hypothesis 3b, see also Burchinal et al., 2002).

Our fourth aim was to investigate whether children's reading-related skills in kindergarten moderate the associations between authoritative parenting and authoritative teaching on reading and spelling skill development from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Our hypothesis (Hypothesis 4) was that authoritative parenting and teaching would act as protective or compensatory resources, and hence promote literacy-related skills, particularly among children who show a risk for reading disabilities in kindergarten (cf., Hamre and Pianta, 2005, Ng et al., 2004). As girls have been shown to perform better than boys in literacy tasks in the early school years (e.g., Logan & Johnson, 2009), we also investigated a moderating role of sex.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

This study is part of a longitudinal First Steps Study (Lerkkanen et al., 2006) of 1880 children from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of Grade 4 (2006–2011), with simultaneous gathering of data from parents and teachers. The sample was drawn from four municipalities in different parts of Finland; in three of these municipalities, the whole age cohort participated, and in the fourth municipality, the participants comprised approximately half of the age cohort. To be included in the

Parenting style subtypes

The goodness-of-fit indices of the LPAs for parenting styles (i.e., affection, behavioral control, psychological control) suggested that the four-group solution fitted the data best (Table 1). The average individual posterior probabilities for being assigned to a specific latent class in the four-class model were .83 (SD = 0.16), .80 (SD = 0.16), .73 (SD = 0.17), and .70 (SD = 0.18); the fact that these were greater than .70 indicates a sufficiently clear classification for interpretation of the

Discussion

The present results showed that both authoritative parenting and authoritative teaching positively predicted children's spelling skill development from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Authoritative parenting was positively associated with spelling skill development, particularly among children who were identified as at risk for reading and spelling disabilities in kindergarten. Authoritative teaching, in turn, was positively associated with spelling skill development, particularly among children who were

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a grant from the Academy of Finland for the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Learning and Motivation Research (#213486 and #126043) and other grants from the same funding agency to Noona Kiuru (#7133146), Minna Torppa (#2106311), and Kaisa Aunola (#7119742). Funding sources have had no role in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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