The purpose of the study is to investigate the relation between parenting style and goal orientation among boys and girls in higher secondary schools of Kerala. Four types of parenting style and five categories of goal orientation. The sample comprised of 467 girls and 365 boys from higher secondary school in Kerala who were selected through stratified random sampling. Chi-square test of independence revealed that negligent parenting develops undefined goals and performance avoidance goals; authoritarian parenting produces more performance orientation and authoritative parenting produces more approach orientations. Also, association between parenting style and goal orientation is significant in case of adolescent boys, but not in case of girls. Findings imply that parents can influence students' goal orientation by promoting their children to set goals other than performance avoidance by changing their styles of parenting. Especially mothers' responsiveness and control have more crucial relation with goal orientation of students, and hence mothers can do more for their boys and girls in this respect.