A Longitudinal analysis of parent-child relationships, preference for learning styles, and causal relationships of academic achievement: a multi-group analysis of genders

Objectives This study is to identify the longitudinal causal relationship between cooperative, competitive learning preference, and academic achievement influenced by parent-child relationship and to verify gender difference in their effects. Methods For this study, The structural equation model was conducted with the Amos program, using 5,302 students without missing values among the second, third, and fifth student data of KELS 2013. In addition, a multi- group analysis of genders was conducted to verify whether there were gender differences. Results First, in both groups, parental parenting attitudes and academic support have a positive effect on academic achievement, and interactions with parents have a significant positive effect on the preference for cooperative learning in the first and third years of middle school through indirect effects. Second, the autoregressive effects of cooperative learning preference, competitive learning preference, and academic achievement were positively significant, and the effect was greater in the female group than in the male group. Third, in both groups, academic achievement at the previous time had a positive effect on the preference for competitive learning at the next time. Conclusions The stability of academic achievement was confirmed, and the result that students with higher academic achievement had higher competitive learning preference suggests that it is a competitive educational reality for academic achievement.