The Mediating Role of Anxiety between Parenting Styles and Academic Performance among Primary School Students in the Context of Sustainable Education

Abstract

The importance of parenting styles for the necessary fulfilment of the developmental needs of children and eventually improving their quality of life is frequently treated in the literature. Despite there being many studies that examined the relationship of parenting styles and academic performance, there is a lack of measurement of the relationship in the Romanian sample. This study analyzed the relationship between parenting styles and academic performance, along with cognitive test anxiety as a mediating variable. In order to identify how assessment anxiety influences the relationship between parenting styles and academic performance, we conducted a study on a sample of 231 students from rural and urban backgrounds. A questionnaire-based survey (to measure anxiety and parenting style) and assessment tests were used. The undertaken study highlighted the existence of a negative correlation between the level of assessment anxiety and the level of academic performance of students. At the same time, we found that poor supervision on behalf of parents negatively correlates with students’ performances in Romanian Language and Literature and in Mathematics. On the other hand, the results of the mediation analysis show that assessment anxiety partially mediates only the negative relationship between poor supervision and school performance.