Predicting Students’ Academic Achievement through Teaching and Parenting Styles: Self-Concept as a Mediator: Self-Concept as a Mediator

Understanding how individual, school, and social factors interact to shape students’ academic achievement gives a better insight
into the relative effects of these factors in the presence of other variables. The current study (N=604) utilized a mediation model to
examine the mediation role of two dimensions of students’ self-concept (academic and social) in the relationships between teaching
and parenting styles and students’ Mathematics achievement. The researchers used a non-Western sample of middle school Omani
students. Direct significant effects were found for permissive mothers, permissive teachers, and Mathematics self-concept on
students’ Mathematics achievement. Mothers’ parenting styles’ effects were more pronounced than fathers’ styles on children’s selfconcept
and Mathematics achievement. All three teaching styles significantly predicted Mathematics achievement directly or
indirectly through self-concept. Mathematics self-concept acted as a mediator in this model while social self-concept did not.
The findings are discussed within a cultural context.