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This study contributes to the understanding of how parenting relates to adolescents' academic outcomes. This study tested the hypothesis that parenting behaviours, including parental warmth, anger, consistency and self-efficacy, are related to adolescents' academic performance and mastery, and that this relationship is mediated by adolescent boys' and girls' perceptions of parenting and their sense of school membership in different ways. Multi-group nested structural equation models were built using the data obtained from Wave 5 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Four measures of parenting behaviours, adolescents' perception of parenting behaviour, adolescents' sense of school membership and their academic performance and mastery were obtained from 1926 boys and 1850 girls and their parents to test this study's hypotheses. The path models showed that girls' perceptions of parenting played a more explicit role in affecting their academic performance and mastery compared to boys. Furthermore, parenting behaviours were mediated by boys' and girls' sense of school membership, as influenced by their perceptions of parenting, in predicting their mastery and performance orientations, though the effects were quite different. The results suggest the roles played by parents in contributing to their children's schooling and academic performance somewhat differ between boys and girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low post-compulsory science enrolments for secondary students have been a growing concern across the Western world. Research has examined factors relating to science curricula and students' attitudes about science, but parental views of science education remain largely unexplored in Australia. Because parents have a strong role in shaping their children's subject selection and career choices, in this pilot study we sought to explore parental attitudes about science education. Results from focus interviews and a survey of 132 Indigenous and non-Indigenous parents demonstrated, for the first time, that regional parents believe the study of society and the environment (SOSE) is a better preparation than science for their children's understanding of socio-scientific issues. Most parents were unclear as to the nature of scientific literacy, believing science as it is currently taught in primary schools, not to be relevant to their children's needs. Structural equation modelling using the survey data confirmed prior researchers' claims and extended ideas about the likely interplay of parental attitudes and beliefs influencing their support of science study for their children. The results highlight an urgent need to explore such parental views across Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the perception of parents on their neighborhood which can influence their decisions including their choice of residence and the place where their children could play in Australia. Parents' idea of public assessable neighborhood includes the quality and accessibility of resources which could influence their children and government programs designed to promote child growth and family environment. The greater awareness was associated with family demographic characteristics including older parents, family income, and dwelling in their own house in a distant region. INSET: Statistical analyses.