Impact of Parenting Practices on Adolescent Achievement: Authoritative Parenting, School Involvement, and Encouragement to Succeed Laurenee Steinberg Temple University Susie D. Lamborn University of West Florida Sanford M. Dornbusch Stanford University Nancy Darling Temple University STEINBERG, LAURENCE; LAMBORN, SUSIE D,; DORNBUSCH, SANFORD M,; and DARLING, NANCY, Im- pact of Parenting Practices on Adolescent Achievement: Authoritative Parenting, School Involvement, and Encouragement to Succeed. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1992, 63, 1266-1281, This article examines the impact of authoritative parenting, parental involvement in schooling, and parental encouragement to succeed on adolescent school achievement in an ethnically and socio- economically heterogeneous sample of approximately 6,400 American 14-18-year-olds, Adoles- cents reported in 1987 on their parents' general child-rearing practices and on their parents' achievement-specific socialization behaviors. In 1987, and again in 1988, data were collected on several aspects of the adolescents' school performance and school engagement. Authoritative parenting (high acceptance, supervision, and psychological autonomy granting) leads to better adolescent school performance and stronger school engagement. The positive impact of authori- tative parenting on adolescent achievement, however, is mediated by the positive effect of au- thoritativeness on parental involvement in schooling. In addition, nonauthoritativeness attenu- ates the beneficial impact of parental involvement in schooling on adolescent achievement. Parental involvement is much more likely to promote adolescent school success when it occurs in the context of an authoritative home environment. Several recent studies have demon- et al,, 1989); (3) robust across different con- strated that adolescents who are raised in au- ceptualizations and operationalizations of thoritative homes perform better in scbool authoritativeness (see Dornbusch et al., than their peers (Dornbuscb, Ritter, Leid- 1987; Lamborn et al., 1991; Steinberg et al., erman, Roberts, & Fraleigb, 1987; Lam- 1991); and (4) generalizable across various born. Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbuscb, ethnic, socioeconomic, and family structure 1991; Steinberg, Elmen, & Mounts, 1989; groups (Dornbuscb et al., 1987; Steinberg et Steinberg, Mounts, Lamborn, & Dornbusch, al,, 1991). Additional research, on school 1991). These studies suggest that the link outcomes other than grades, shows that au- between authoritativeness and school sue- thoritative parenting also is associated with cess is (1) causal (Steinberg et al., 1989); (2) increases in a number of attitudinal and be- evident among both younger and older ado- havioral indicators of academic orientation lescents (see Lamborn etal., 1991; Steinberg during adolescence, including a stronger Preparation of this manuscript was supported by a grant to the flrst author from the Lilly Endowment, The study on which this report is based was supported by grants to Laurence Steinberg and B, Bradford Brown from the U,S, Department of Education through the National Center on Effective Secondary Schools at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and to Sanford M, Dornbusch and P, Herbert Leiderman of the Stanford University Center for Families, Chil- dren, and Youth, from the Spencer Foundation, Address correspondence to the first author at the Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, [Child Development, 1992,63,1266-1281, © 1992 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc, All rights reserved, 0009-3920/92/6305-0007$01,00]