NCJ Number
216242
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 29 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2006 Pages: 813-828
Date Published
October 2006
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examined adolescents’ perceptions of parenting practices and extended kinship support in relation to academic adjustment among African-American and European-American adolescents in high school.
Abstract
As anticipated, perceptions of extended kinship supported the relationship to academic adjustment. Consistent with qualitative and ethnographic accounts of African-American families, African-American teens, having positive relations with extended family members related to stronger beliefs in the importance of school, closer connections to teachers, and a stronger work orientation. Findings also suggest that extended kinship support is important for European-American adolescents. European-American adolescents with strong extended family relationships reported feeling closer to teachers and having a stronger work orientation. These results show that extended kinship support relates to adaptive functioning in European-American adolescents. Taken together, these findings suggest that each of the parenting practices of acceptance, behavioral control, and psychological control had specific linkages to different types of academic adjustment. Parenting practices are associated with various aspects of adolescents’ academic adjustment. However, examining the broader context of the family beyond parents is also important for understanding youth adjustment, especially for African-American adolescents. This study of 104 African-American and 60 European-American high school students takes an important step in synthesizing 2 somewhat separate research areas on family functioning. It examined the three parenting practices of acceptance, behavioral control, and psychological control along with extended kinship support with adolescents’ academic adjustment. The main objective of the study was to evaluate whether extended kinship support related to adolescent academic adjustment after parenting practices and family demographics were taken into account. Table, references