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Nurture to fail? : the links between students’ need achievement profiles and their perceptions of helicopter parenting and academic outcomes
Author
Goh, Kar Whee
Supervisor
Liem, Gregory Arief D.
Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the links between students’ individual differences according to their need achievement profiles (Overstriver, Self-Protector, Optimist, Failure Acceptor) and the students’ perceptions of their parents’ helicopter parenting, academic self-competence, and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 232 secondary-1 to secondary-5 students in the Express, Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams studying in a co-educational neighbourhood school in Singapore. The participants were asked to completed a set of self-report questionnaires that measure the extent of their, 1) perceptions of their mother’s maternal and father’s paternal helicopter parenting practices in their academic lives, 2) achievement goal orientations, 3) fear of failure, 4) academic self-competence and 5) academic achievement. K-means clustering technique was conducted to group the participants according to their need achievement profiles before conducting Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to examine and compare the groups on outcomes (perceived helicopter parenting, perceived academic competence, and self-reported academic achievement). Findings supported the hypotheses that there were significant differences between the four need achievement groups and their perception of helicopter parenting and academic outcomes. Specifically, students with high fear of failure (Overstrivers and Self-Protectors) reported a higher perception of their maternal helicopter parenting in their tests while students with high success orientation but low fear of failure (Optimists) had a more favourable perception of their academic competence. Overstrivers were also found to report higher academic achievement than Self-Protectors. The implications of these findings on parenting practices were discussed.
Date Issued
2017
Call Number
BF311 Goh
Date Submitted
2017