Predicting Students’ Academic Achievement through Teaching and Parenting Styles: Self-Concept as a Mediator

Understanding how individual, school, and social factors interact to shape students’ academic achievement gives a better insight into the relative effects of these factors in the presence of other variables. The current study (N = 604) utilized a mediation model to examine the mediation role of two dimensions of students’ self-concept (academic and social) in the relationships between teaching and parenting styles and students’ Mathematics achievement. The researchers used a non-Western sample of middle school Omani students. Direct significant effects were found for permissive mothers, permissive teachers, and Mathematics self-concept on students’ Mathematics achievement. Mothers’ parenting styles’ effects were more pronounced than fathers’ styles on children’s self-concept and Mathematics achievement. All three teaching styles significantly predicted Mathematics achievement directly or indirectly through self-concept. Mathematics self-concept acted as a mediator in this model while social self-concept did not. The findings are discussed within a cultural context.