Examining the relationship between vocational high school students' academic motivation levels and parental attitudes, and sociodemographic variables

Another important factor affecting students' learning in the school environment and, accordingly, their academic success is the family. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between vocational high school students' perceived parental attitudes and their academic motivation levels. The research was conducted with 418 vocational high school students in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades in three vocational high schools in Adana province Çukurova district in the 2021-2022 Academic Year. In the study, "parent attitude inventory" was used to determine the effect of parental attitudes on the academic motivation process, "academic motivation scale" to determine personal differences in academic motivation levels, and "personal information form" to obtain information about personal characteristics. The data analysis was carried out using the SPPS 25 program in this study. The study group consisted of 418 adolescents aged 14-18 (mean = 15.63 ± 1.32), 28 (6.7%) girls and 390 (93.3%) boys. Research results show differences in academic motivation levels depending on demographic characteristics. Regarding this, the academic motivation levels of vocational high school students differ according to their grade levels; it does not differ in gender, age, department studied, achievement score, mother's education level, father's education level, mother-father status and average monthly income of the family. In addition, it is seen that the predictive effect of parental attitudes on the academic motivation process explains the dimensions of self-transcendence, knowledge use and discovery of perceived democratic parenting in a significant and positive way, but protective-demanding and authoritarian parental attitudes do not have a significant effect on the academic motivation levels of adolescents. The results show that perceived democratic parenting significantly and positively explains the dimensions of self-transcendence, knowledge use, and academic motivation discovery (p < .001). However, it was concluded that protective-demanding and authoritarian parental attitudes did not significantly affect adolescents' academic motivation levels (p >.05). In our study, it is seen that there is a significant difference in the academic motivation levels of the parents' attitudes perceived by the vocational high school students. Creating awareness about attitudes and behaviours by better analyzing the situation of parents, educators, and students is important in determining the factors that cause negative motivation in children and adolescents and, as a result, increase their academic and social skills.