Modeling the Relationship between Parental Support, Parenting Style, and Academic Success through the Mediating Role of Self-Regulated Learning
Keywords:
Parental support, parenting style, self-regulated learning, academic success, students, qualitative research, TehranAbstract
This study aimed to develop a qualitative model explaining the relationship between parental support, parenting style, and students’ academic success with emphasis on the mediating role of self-regulated learning. This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. The participants included 24 high school students, parents, and school counselors from Tehran, selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation in gender, grade level, academic performance, and parenting experience. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved; initial saturation occurred after the twenty-first interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to confirm the adequacy and stability of the extracted themes. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using NVivo software. The analysis included initial coding, code refinement, development of subthemes, and construction of main categories. To enhance trustworthiness, member checking, peer review, prolonged engagement with data, and an audit trail were applied. The analysis yielded five main categories: emotional-academic parental support, authoritative parenting versus controlling and permissive parenting, self-regulated learning as a mediating mechanism, multidimensional academic success, and family-school contextual conditions. The findings indicated that parental support contributes to sustainable academic success when it is accompanied by emotional warmth, clear expectations, nonintrusive monitoring, academic dialogue, and opportunities for student decision-making. Conversely, excessive control, inconsistent parenting, or lack of academic structure weakens students’ self-regulated learning and restricts academic success to short-term grade-oriented outcomes. The results suggest that self-regulated learning functions as an interpretive mediating mechanism through which parental support and parenting style are translated into academic success. Therefore, improving students’ academic outcomes requires shifting the focus from mere parental supervision to fostering autonomy, goal setting, planning, monitoring, help-seeking, and reflective learning within both family and school contexts.
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