This research examines the relationship between parenting patterns and children’s school performance in Greek society, making it easy to understand that there is a high risk of negative parental involvement, behavior, and practices that could undoubtedly affect children and their school performance. Children, due to their sensitive age, are struggling to manage parental intervention in their school and personal lives; as a result, they often react and are influenced negatively. It is time to realize that parents’ behavior regarding children’s school performance and grades has associated risks. There is a lack of studies directly focused on the link between risk and parental practices, as these practices affect mainly the child’s behavior and their educational advancement in general.
According to the literature, parenting style and parenting practices are important indicators of children’s wider accomplishments. The following studies have shown that parental behaviors apply differently to each ethnicity or culture. According to
Shumow et al. (
1998), African–American parents are inclined to be less permissive and harsher than white parents, while
Kokkinos and Vlavianou (
2019) cited that Greek parents are overly involved in their children’s rearing and are overprotective and severe. According to
Darling and Steinberg (
1993), parenting practices (PP) refer to particular behaviors that parents use in order to develop their children’s social skills. For example, parents enact daily socialization practices (e.g., assisting with children’s homework, participating in teacher–parent meetings, etc.) in order to help their children succeed in school. Regarding school outcomes, these practices can be distinguished into three constructs: parental involvement; parental goals, aspirations and values; and parental monitoring (
Spera 2005). Several studies have shown that parental involvement is a complex construct that has been defined in several ways (
Gugiu et al. 2019). Based on
Grolnick and Pomerantz (
2022), parent involvement in children’s schooling facilitates children’s motivation, engagement, and learning, especially when such involvement is autonomy-supportive and affectively positive. However, parent involvement can have costs for children when it is controlling and affectively negative (
Grolnick and Pomerantz 2022).
Parental styles (PSs) are essential variables that have been linked to school success. PSs are a concept first introduced by
Baumrind (
1971). Baumrind used the term ‘parenting style’ to describe beliefs and values regarding the child-rearing process, which disclose a parent’s emotions for their children, the children’s nature, and child-rearing practices.
Darling and Steinberg (
1993) defined PSs as expressions of parents’ behaviors that establish an emotional climate during child-rearing; essentially, they are parental characteristics that remain stable over time and cultivate the emotional context for unfolding parenting practices. Complementing this approach,
Kuppens and Ceulemans (
2019) adopted a more person-centered approach, which engaged in patterns within individuals and suggested that PS accounts for assorted parenting practices within the same person at the same time.
Dettemers et al. (
2019), declared that the parental provision of autonomy and competence support tends to satisfy the basic needs of their children (autonomy and competence) and, in turn, it might thus result in improved well-being.
Baumrind (
1971), based on extensive interviews and observations, suggested that there are three types of parenting styles: the authoritative style, which is characterized by warmth, caring, and responsiveness; the permissive style, which is expressed as indulgent and warm; and the authoritarian style, which is expressed with high levels of parental control and poor responsiveness. Complementary to Baumrind’s theory,
Maccoby and Martin (
1983) introduced a four-style typology; essentially, they also added the neglectful style. As stated above, the main characteristics of the authoritative parenting style are responsiveness and warmth. This type of parenting has high maturity demands but provides a lot of support and affection when fostering children in pursuing and exploring their interests. These parents tend to communicate and explain their expectations and behaviors while encouraging children’s independence. Authoritative parenting has been related to positive outcomes in children such as resilience, social competence, self-esteem, optimism, and academic achievement (
Masud et al. 2015). A study examining the role of Greek fathers in children’s psychosocial development found that children who considered their fathers to be authoritative showed greater levels of self-esteem and empathy when compared to children who described their fathers as authoritarian (
Antonopoulou et al. 2012). Conversely, according to
Steinberg (
2001), an authoritarian style has consistently been associated with negative developmental outcomes in youths; this parental style may cause several behavioral and psychological problems in adolescents, such as anxiety, depersonalization (
Wolfradt et al. 2003), and aggression (
Hoeve et al. 2011). This style of parenting is neither responsive nor warm to the child; such parents tend to be strict and intolerant of selfishness. They expect obedience and they do not hesitate to assert power when they consider that their child has misbehaved (
Baumrind 1978). Authoritarian parents have high expectations and maturity demands and express them through orders and rules without communicating the rationale behind these orders to their children (
Maccoby and Martin 1983). In a study among the Mexican population,
Calzada et al. (
2015) revealed that authoritarian practices were highly associated with children internalizing and externalizing behavioral dysfunction at home. These significant findings stem from
Hyojung et al. (
2012) and
Murray and Mulvaney (
2012), who predicted an association between an authoritarian parenting style and higher scores in math and reading. The third parenting style, according to
Baumrind (
1978), is the permissive parent, defined as being moderate in responsiveness toward children; they tend to be unconcerned, dismissive, and lax in their tolerance of children’s misbehavior and expectations. Studies on permissive (or indulgent) parenting have shown that children subjected to this style are more likely to suffer from depression, externalizing problems, school misconduct, lack of self-confidence, and poor social competence (
Wolfradt et al. 2003). Additionally, parental experiences of guilt and shame regarding their children’s academic efforts are likely to be an influential factor shaping parental style (
Moè et al. 2020). In their study,
Steinberg et al. (
1992) examined relations between parenting style, parental involvement, and children’s academic achievements. They found that children’s academic functioning was positively related to authoritative parenting, although this relation increases when mediated by parental involvement. Furthermore, they highlighted the reverse relation of involvement and parenting style, finding that the less authoritative parents are, the less beneficial the influence of involvement in school performance is. One year later and based on the above evidence,
Darling and Steinberg (
1993) proposed the contextual parenting model. This model suggests that the effectiveness of children’s educational goals set by parents (e.g., higher grades) depends on family climate (how parents encourage and support their children), which refers to the overall parenting style. However, a crucial parameter in school achievement is undoubtedly the intensity of parental involvement.
Grolnick (
2016) notes that, although parents’ direct involvement may predict children’s success in school, these children were found to be more perfectionistic, less creative and with a higher depression risk. Indeed, highly controlling parenting undermines children’s autonomy and reduces their intrinsic motivation to do well in school. The author noted that parents foster motivation when they value their children’s efforts and performance. Equally, the atmosphere that parents create around their children’s schoolwork may provide plenty of opportunities to either enhance or hamper children’s motivational and academic development (
Moè et al. 2020).
Grolnick (
2016) concluded that, instead of a strong control over children’s performance, it is of critical importance for parents to focus on the learning process and not on the outcome. Moreover, a recent meta-analysis concluded that parents’ support for homework is negatively associated with their children’s school achievement. (
Barger et al. 2019).
1.3. The Role of Cultural Differences
Quite a few studies have mentioned the effect of ethnicity on parenting practices.
Shumow et al. (
1998) found that African–American parents tend to be less permissive and harsher than white parents. It has been found that authoritative parenting, along with positive practices, is of significant importance for Latino–American and Asian–American students in comparison to African–American and European–American students. Conversely, European–American students are more influenced by emotional support than Latino–American and Asian–American students (
Rosenzweig 2001); this may also be the reason for the fact that Chinese–American parents were reported to be stricter than European–American parents (
Lin and Fu 1990). For instance, respect and duty are fundamental elements of a Mexican family (
Lindsey 2018) and, according to
Calzada et al. (
2015), hierarchy and family loyalty are placed above an individual’s desires. In other words, Latino parents require deference to adults and obedience, which cultivates and develops an authoritarian parenting style (
Calzada et al. 2015). A recent study conducted by
Filus et al. (
2019) in four different European countries (Norway, Switzerland, Greece, and Poland), each with different cultures, living conditions, and values, found that—conversely to Norwegian, Swiss and Polish fathers—the autonomy-granting and responsiveness of Greek fathers was negatively associated with functional and psychological connectedness.
Filus et al. (
2019) claimed that autonomy-granting plays a significant role in adolescents’ individuation. Individuation is a crucial function for life outcomes and is highly associated with emotional adjustment and academic achievement. In a comparative study conducted in Italy, Greece, and Sweden,
Olivari et al. (
2015) sought to explore differences and similarities among adolescent perceptions of parenting styles. They found that, in all three countries, the dominant style was authoritative. In comparison, Italian parents scored higher in authoritarianism, followed by Greek parents. Meanwhile, Swedish and Greek adolescents perceived their parents as being more permissive than Italian parents. According to
Zervides and Knowles (
2007), Greek culture promotes family loyalty, the cultivation of harmonical relationships among group members, and devotion to group norms. Obedience and conformity to parental rules have been linked with child-rearing austerity. In addition,
Kokkinos and Vlavianou (
2019) found that Greek parents are overprotective and their involvement in child-rearing is excessive; they also highlight that Greek culture promotes severe and controlling parenting practices.