Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the trajectories of academic achievement of male Korean high school students over a period of 3 years and the effects of perceived parental overprotection. 539 Participants completed the Korean Version of the Parental Bonding Instrument at the beginning of the study, and their language and mathematics scores from the National Achieve- ment Test were recorded every semester for 3 years (n = 494 for language and n = 493 for mathematics). Latent growth curve models, latent class growth analysis, and multinomial logistic regression analysis were conducted to evaluate the longitudinal data. The results showed an overall decline in academic scores in both subjects; in addition, three latent classes for language scores and four latent classes for mathematics scores were identified. For language, higher maternal overprotection was nega- tively associated only with Time 1 scores, collected at the beginning of the first year of high school, while higher paternal overprotection was negatively associated with Time 1 scores, as well as changes over time. Higher maternal or paternal over- protection increased the possibility of having lower language scores at Time 1. For mathematics, only higher paternal over- protection was negatively associated with Time 1 scores and changed over time, in addition to increased chances of having lower mathematics scores at Time 1. The results indicate that parental overprotection, especially that of the father, negatively affected male high school students’ academic achievement, suggesting a new perspective of interpreting fathers’ role in sons’ academic achievement in Korean culture, in which mothers’ roles have been emphasized.