Applying Baumrind's parenting typology to high schools: toward a middle-range theory of authoritative socialization

I provide support for a middle-range theory of socialization style by applying Baumrind's typology of parenting (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and indifferent) to high schools as socializing agents. In the family literature, findings show that the authoritative style (both responsive and demanding) produces the best results on child behavioral outcomes, and the indifferent style the worst results. The school climate literature suggests that schools that are both responsive and demanding achieve the best results with students. Using data from the High School Effectiveness Study, I test the effect of school style on student disengagement-truancy and dropout. My results indicate that school styles produce outcomes similar to parenting styles: authoritative schools have the best results and indifferent schools the worst results for disengagement, while authoritarian schools have the worst results for dropout.