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Differential Parenting of African American Adolescents as an Explanation for Gender Disparities in Achievement
Author(s) -
Varner Fatima,
Mandara Jelani
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/jora.12063
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , birth order , test (biology) , autonomy , differential (mechanical device) , differential effects , african american , academic achievement , demography , medicine , population , paleontology , history , ethnology , engineering , sociology , political science , law , biology , aerospace engineering
Differential parenting based on gender and birth order status was examined as an explanation for the achievement differences between A frican A merican males and females. In a sample of 796 A frican A merican adolescents from the MADICS study, girls were found to have much higher GPA s and test scores compared with boys. Girls reported receiving more monitoring, communication, and rule enforcement, but less autonomy in decision making than later‐born boys. Mothers also reported higher expectations for girls than boys. A significant percent of the GPA and test score gap was accounted for by the parenting differences in both married and single mother–headed households. It was concluded that reducing differential parenting could help narrow gender differences in achievement among A frican A merican adolescents.