Abstract:

Academic self-concept represents attitudes and feelings in relation to the student's own intellectual abilities at school compared to other students. Within academic self-concept, we distinguish between affective representations (self-concept represented at the level of emotions, eg "I am proud of myself") and cognitive representations (self-concept represented at the level of description eg "I am wise").

In this study we are focused on cognitive representations of one's own abilities and we rely on knowledge of Schöne et al. (2002), according to which academic self-concept is based on 4 standards: absolute, individual, social and criterion standards. The self concept is created in the stage of socialization when individual is interacting with the social environment. Because social experiences vary from individual to individual, the specific content of self-concept is different from individual to individual. For this reason, the study focuses on exploring the interconnection of two concepts, namely academic self-concept and family parenting styles. Helus (2007) and Balcara (1991) attribute crucial importance to the family in the process of developing an individual's self-concept. They argue that parents are intermediaries between an individual and society. Participation in society depends greatly on the communication between parents and the child, on the parents' attitude towards the child, on psychological support and parents' patterns of behaviour.

The study focuses on exploring the relation between two concepts: school self-concept and parenting styles among pupils of older school age. The aim of the study was to find out:
a) what parenting styles apply parents in pupils of older school age;
b) whether there are differences between boys and girls in school self-concept;
c) the relationship between parenting styles and school self-concept;
d) whether there are differences between mothers and fathers in the relation of parenting styles and school self-concept.
Research group: 173 participants, aged 14-15, 95 girls and 78 boys.

Methods:
1) Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991). Method combines the way of parenting with emotional relation and recognizes 3 types of parenting styles: permissive, authoritative and authoritarian. The questionnaire has 30 items, especially for mothers and fathers.
2) Scale of school self concept SESSKO (Schöne, Dickhäuser, Spinath, Stiensmeier-Pelster, 2002). the questionnaire has 22 items and is intended for pupils from 4th to 9th grade of elementary school. It captures cognitive representations of self-abilities that represent the four subscales of the school self concept: the criterion, individual, social and absolute norm.

Results:
Parents of pupils of older school age prefer authoritative parenting style. There was no significant difference in the level of school self-concept between boys and girls. We found significant positive relation between school self-concept and permissive and authoritative parenting style. Permissive parenting style of mothers is stronger in relation to pupils' school self-concept compared to the intensity of that relationship in fathers. In the case of relation between authoritative parenting style and school self-concept we did not find any differences in the strength of the relation between mothers and fathers. The study support the importance of parenting styles of both parents on the school self-concept of pupils of older school age.

Keywords:

School self-concept, parenting styles, pupils of older school age.