research about parental involvement in education

Does Parent Involvement Really Help Students? Here’s What the Research Says

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Parental involvement has been a top priority for school leaders for decades, and research shows that it can make a major difference in student outcomes.

But a parents’ rights movement that has captured headlines over the past few years and become a major political force has painted a particular picture of what parents’ involvement in their children’s education looks like.

Policies that have passed in a number of individual school districts, states, and the U.S. House have spelled out parents’ rights to inspect curriculum materials and withdraw their children from lessons they deem objectionable; restricted teaching about race, gender identity, and sexuality; and resulted in the removal of books from school libraries, including many with LGBTQ+ characters and protagonists of color.

The parents’ rights movement has been divisive and attracted the ire of some teachers who feel censored. But it has also opened up the conversation around parent involvement in school, said Vito Borrello, executive director of the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement.

And that’s a good thing, he said.

“The parents’ rights bills in and of themselves, I wouldn’t suggest are entirely focused on best practice family engagement,” said Borrello, whose group works to advance effective family, school, and community engagement policies and practices. “However, what the parents’ rights bills have done is elevated the important role that parents have in their child’s education.”

For decades, research from around the world has shown that parents’ involvement in and engagement with their child’s education—including through parent-teacher conferences, parent-teacher organizations, school events, and at-home discussions about school—can lead to higher student achievement and better social-emotional outcomes.

Here are five takeaways from the research.

1. Studies show more parental involvement leads to improved academic outcomes

When parents are involved in their children’s schooling, students show higher academic achievement, school engagement, and motivation, according to a 2019 American Psychological Association review of 448 independent studies on parent involvement.

A 2005 study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships , for example, showed that school practices encouraging families to support their child’s math learning at home led to higher percentages of students scoring at or above proficiency on standardized math tests.

And research shows that parent involvement with reading activities has a positive impact on reading achievement, language comprehension, and expressive language skills, as well as students’ interest in reading, attitudes toward reading, and level of attention in the classroom, according to a research summary by the National Literacy Trust.

“When parents become involved at school by, for example, attending events such as open houses or volunteering in the classroom, they build social networks that can provide useful information, connections to school personnel (e.g., teachers), or strategies for enhancing children’s achievement,” the APA research review said. “In turn, parents with heightened social capital are better equipped to support their children in succeeding in school as they are able to call on resources (e.g., asking a teacher to spend extra time helping their children) and utilize information they have gathered (e.g., knowing when and how their children should complete their homework).”

2. Parent involvement changes social-emotional outcomes, too

The APA study showed that not only does parental involvement lead to improved academic outcomes, but it also has a positive impact on students’ social and emotional skills and decreases instances of delinquency.

That finding also applies internationally.

A 2014 International Education Studies report on parental involvement among 9th and 10th graders in Jordan showed that parental involvement had a positive impact on students’ emotional engagement in school. That means students with more involved parents are more likely to have fun, enjoy school, have high self-esteem, and perceive school as a satisfying experience.

And when parents visit their children’s school, that contributes to a sense of safety among the students, ultimately improving school engagement, the study said. Although conducted in Jordan, the study provides insight into how parental involvement affects students’ social-emotional development in other countries, including the United States.

Parent involvement also gives teachers the tools to better support their students, Borrello said.

“When teachers understand what their students are going through personally and at home and any challenges they may have, then that improves their teaching,” he said. “They’re able to support their student in ways they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”

3. Not all parental involvement is created equal

Different levels and types of parent involvement led to varying outcomes for students, according to the American Psychological Association study.

For example, school-based involvement, such as participation in parent-teacher conferences, open houses, and other school events, had a positive impact on academics in preschool, middle school, and high school, but the size of the impact was much lower in high school than in preschool. That may be because parents have fewer opportunities to be involved in the high school environment than in younger students’ classrooms where parents might volunteer.

At-home discussions and encouragement surrounding school also have a positive impact on students’ academic achievement at all developmental stages, with that type of parent involvement being most effective for high schoolers, according to the study. Reading with children and taking them to the library have a positive impact as well.

But one common form of parental involvement, helping kids with their homework, was shown to have little impact on students’ academic achievement.

In fact, homework help had a small negative impact on student achievement, but positive impacts on student motivation and engagement in school, according to the APA study.

The research shows the value of encouraging parents to be involved in their student’s learning at home, and not just attending school events, Borrello said.

“In the past, schools either had an event that wasn’t connected to learning or only measured the engagement of a family based on how often they came to the school,” he said. “What families are doing to create an environment of learning and supporting learning at home, is probably even more important than how many times they’re coming to school.”

4. Results of parent involvement don’t discriminate based on race or socioeconomics

Research has shown a consensus that family and parent involvement in schools leads to better outcomes regardless of a family’s ethnic background or socioeconomic status.

Parent involvement has led to higher academic outcomes both for children from low and higher socioeconomic status families.

When comparing the impact of parent involvement on students of different races and ethnicities, the APA found that school-based involvement had a positive impact on academics among Black, Asian, white, and Hispanic children, with a stronger impact on Black and white families than families from other demographics. The finding also extended internationally, with similar effects on children outside of the United States.

5. Schools can encourage parent involvement in person and at home

Parent involvement doesn’t have to end with parent-teacher conferences. There are many ways for schools to encourage parents to be more involved both in school and at home, Borrello said.

The best way to start, he said, is by creating a school culture that is welcoming to families.

“That starts with the principal, and that starts with school leadership that is welcoming to families, from how they’re engaging parents in the classroom to what policies they have in schools to welcome families,” Borrello said.

Parent gathering spaces or rooms in school buildings, scheduled parent engagement meetings and office hours, and at-school events held outside of the school day are all good places to start, Borrello said. From there, schools can work to include parents in more decision-making, give parents resources to support learning at home, and equip teachers with the tools to engage and connect with parents.

“If the school is not welcoming and families don’t feel welcome at the school, then you’re not going to get them to come to school no matter what you do,” Borrello said. “Then it’s really thinking about who you’re creating those relationships with families so that they can be heard.”

Coverage of strategies for advancing the opportunities for students most in need, including those from low-income families and communities, is supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, at www.waltonk12.org . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage. A version of this article appeared in the August 16, 2023 edition of Education Week as Does Parent Involvement Really Help Students? 5 Key Takeaways Based on The Research

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Parental Involvement in Education

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• First Online: 01 January 2015
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• Velma LaPoint 2 ,
• Jo-Anne Manswell Butty 3 ,
• Cheryl Danzy 4 &
• Charlynn Small 5  

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Nationally, there have been continuous calls for and an emphasis on improving the academic achievement and social competence of students in United States (U.S.) schools. Parental involvement in education continues to receive national attention as one type of school and community partnership program that can improve student academic achievement and social competence. Although parents, especially mothers, have always been involved in education, parental involvement in education has changed over time in its expression and emphasis in certain ethnic groups. Over the past 20 years there has been an emphasis on the need for parental involvement in education which has resulted in a proliferation of parental involvement programs and the need to evaluate their effectiveness. Further, there are issues relating to cultural diversity in parental involvement in education, types of parental involvement in education, and whether these are unequivocally required for students to achieve high standards...

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Barge, J., & Loges, W. (2003). Parent, student, and teacher perceptions of parental involvement. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 31 , 140–163.

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Christenson, S. L., & Sheridan, S. M. (2001). School and families: Creating essential connections for learning . New York: Guilford.

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Jeynes, W. (2003). A meta-analysis: The effects of parental involvement on minority children’s academic achievement. Education and Urban Society, 35 , 202–218.

Sanders, M. G. (2001). Schools, families, and communities: Partnerships for success . Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Wright, K., & Stegelin, D. A. (2003). Building school and community partnerships through parent involvement . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Suggested Resources

National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA)— http://www.pta.org/ : This is the website of the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA) that provides national information about Parent-Teacher Associations, information about the NPTA national convention, and resources. Information is also provided in Spanish.

Harvard Research Family Project— http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/about.html : This is the website of the Harvard Family Research Project, that helps philanthropies, policymakers, and practitioners develop strategies to promote the educational and social success and well-being of children, families, and their communities.

National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS)— http://www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/ : The National Network of Partnership Schools is a Johns Hopkins University organization that allows researchers, educators, parents, students, community members, and others to work together to enable all elementary, middle, and high schools develop and maintain effective programs of partnership.

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School of Education, Department of Human Development and Psychoeducational Studies, Howard University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

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Center for Urban Progress, Howard University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

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Prince George's County Public Schools, Prince George's County, Maryland, U.S.A.

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Counseling and Psychological Services, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

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Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers Ph.D. ( Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology ) ( Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology )

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LaPoint, V., Butty, JA.M., Danzy, C., Small, C. (2010). Parental Involvement in Education. In: Clauss-Ehlers, C.S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71799-9_304

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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Effect of parental involvement on children’s academic achievement in chile.

• 1 Department of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Talca, Chile
• 2 Centro de Investigación sobre Procesos Socioeducativos, Familias y Comunidades, Núcleo Científico Tecnológico en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile

Parental involvement in school has been demonstrated to be a key factor for children’s academic outcomes. However, there is a lack of research in Chile, as well as in Latin American countries in general, leaving a gap in the literature about the generalization of findings outside developed and industrialized countries, where most of the research has been done. The present study aims to analyse the associations between parental involvement in school and children’s academic achievement. Cluster analysis results from a sample of 498 parents or guardians whose children attended second and third grades in 16 public elementary schools in Chile suggested the existence of three different profiles of parental involvement (high, medium, and low) considering different forms of parental involvement (at home, at school and through the invitations made by the children, the teachers, and the school). Results show that there are differences in children’s academic achievement between the parental involvement profiles, indicating children whose parents have a low involvement have lower academic achievement. Findings are in line with international research evidence, suggesting the need to focus on this variable too in Latin American contexts.

Introduction

On an international scale, parental involvement in school has long been heralded as an important and positive variable on children’s academic and socioemotional development. From an ecological framework, reciprocal positive interactions between these two key socializing spheres – families and schools – contribute positively to a child’s socioemotional and cognitive development ( Bronfenbrenner, 1987 ). Empirical findings have demonstrated a positive association between parental involvement in education and academic achievement ( Pérez Sánchez et al., 2013 ; Tárraga et al., 2017 ), improving children’s self-esteem and their academic performance ( Garbacz et al., 2017 ) as well as school retention and attendance ( Ross, 2016 ). Family involvement has also been found to be associated with positive school attachment on the part of children ( Alcalay et al., 2005 ) as well as positive school climates ( Cowan et al., 2012 ). Research has also evidenced that programs focused on increasing parental involvement in education have positive impacts on children, families, and school communities ( Jeynes, 2012 ; Catalano and Catalano, 2014 ).

Parent-school partnership allows for the conceptualization of roles and relationships and the impact on the development of children in a broader way ( Christenson and Reschly, 2010 ). From this approach, families and schools are the main actors in the construction of their roles and forms of involvement, generating new and varied actions to relate to each other according to the specific educational context. The main findings in the family-school field show a positive influence of this partnership, contributing to academic achievement and performance, among other positive consequences ( Epstein and Sander, 2000 ; Hotz and Pantano, 2015 ; Sebastian et al., 2017 ).

There is also strong support from international research showing the positive influence of parental involvement over academic achievement, as has been demonstrated in a variety of meta-analyses across different populations and educational levels ( Castro et al., 2015 ; Jeynes, 2016 ; Ma et al., 2016 ). Moreover, although there is a wide range of parental involvement definitions, some more general and others more specifics, there is a consensus among research results about the positive influence of parental involvement over child academic achievement. For example, in the meta-synthesis of Wilder (2014) , where nine meta-analyses are analyzed, this influence was consistent throughout the studies, regardless the different definitions and measures used.

However, most of the studies on parental involvement in education hail from anglophone countries and are based on cross-sectional and correlational designs ( Garbacz et al., 2017 ) while in Latin America research remains scarce. In a recent systematic review of the literature on parental involvement in education in Latin America, only one Mexican study from 1998 was found which was also heavily influenced by interventions from the United States ( Roth Eichin and Volante Beach, 2018 ). Chile has acknowledged the importance of collaborative relationships between families and schools developing a National Policy for Fathers, Mothers and Legal Guardians Participation in the Educational System (Política de Participación de Padres, Madres y Apoderados/as en el Sistema Educativo) in 2002 which was recently updated in 2017 ( Ministerio de Educación, Gobierno de Chile, 2017 ). Since the publication of this policy various local initiatives have sprouted in the country seeking to strengthen school family relations ( Saracostti-Schwartzman, 2013 ). Nevertheless, the majority of research in the country has thus far been of a qualitative nature with a focus on describing relations between family members and their schools, and identifying tensions between these two spheres ( Gubbins, 2011 ).

Thus, this study seeks to advance the analysis of the effects of parental involvement in school on the academic achievement of Chilean students. The study aims to analyse how different parental involvement profiles (based on the main forms of parental involvement identified in literature) influence children’s academic achieved. Parental involvement can take a wide variety of forms, among them, communication between family and school, supporting learning activities at home and involvement in school activities have been highlighted ( Schueler et al., 2017 ), these are included in this study using the scales proposed by Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2005) .

Materials and Methods

Participants and procedure.

The study included 498 parents or guardians whose children attended second and third grade in 16 public schools with high levels of socioeconomical vulnerability (over 85% according to official records of the schools) within three different regions in Chile (Libertador Bernando O’Higgins, Maule and Araucanía). Parents and guardians were aged between 20 and 89 years old ( M = 35.02, SD = 7.02 for parents, M = 59.27, SD = 11.74 for grandparents and M = 43.14, SD = 15.41 for other guardians) and students between 7 and 12 ( M = 8.30, SD = 0.93). The majority of them were mothers (83.9%). The majority of fathers and mothers had completed high school (33.1 and 40.6%, respectively), followed by elementary education (28.1 and 23.3%, respectively), no education completed (17.3% for both), professional title (7.2 and 6.8%, respectively) and university title (4.4 and 4.6%, respectively).

This study is part of a wider project focusing on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at strengthening the link between families and schools. This study has the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Universidad de La Frontera and the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (Acta 066-2017, Folio 036-17). Prior to data collection, after obtaining permission from the schools, informed consent forms were signed by the students’ legal guardians to authorize their participation. The data referring to the students (evaluation of learning outcomes) was compiled through official school records. The data referring to the families (parental involvement) was collected in paper format during parent teacher meetings at the end of the school year considering their behavior during the preceding year. Two research assistants trained for this purpose were present for the applications.

Instruments

Parental involvement was assessed using the five scales proposed by Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2005) that aim to measure the level of family involvement in children’s education in elementary school from the point of view of the fathers, mothers and/or guardians. Scales have been adapted and validated by a panel of experts in Chile ( Reininger, 2014 ). Scales included in this study are: (1) Parental involvement activities at home [five items, such as “ someone in this family (father, mother and/or guardian) helps the child study for test” or “ someone in this family (father, mother and/or guardian) practices spelling, math or other skills with the child” ]; (2) Parental involvement activities at school (five items, such as “someone in this family attends parent–teacher association meetings ” or “ someone in this family attends special events at school ”), (3) Child invitations for involvement (five items, such us “ my child asks me to talk with his or her teacher ” or “ my child asks me to supervise his or her homework ”); (4) Teacher invitations for involvement (six items, such as “ my child’s teacher asks me to help out at school ” or “ my child’s teacher asks me to talk with my child about the school day ”); and (5) General school invitations for involvement (six items, such as “ this school staff contact me promptly about any problem involving my child ” or “ parents’ activities are scheduled at this school so that we can attend ”). The first four scales have a four-point Likert response scale, that indicate the frequency of the items, from 0 ( never ) to 3 ( always ). The last scale has a 5-point Likert scale response, indicating the grade of agreement with the items, from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). Scales can be consulted as Supplementary Tables 1–5 . Internal consistency of all scales was adequate (α = 0.79, α = 0.72, α = 0.72, α = 0.85, and α = 0.87, respectively).

Students’ academic achievement was evaluated thought the final average grade obtained at the end of the school year, recorded in a scale from 1 ( minimum achievement ) to 7 ( maximum achievement ).

Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify parental involvement profiles based on the five subscales of parental involvement scale (typified to avoid the influence of the different scale responses), applying the standardized Euclidian Distance method and using Ward’s algorithm. Cluster analyses results showed that the optimal solution was the grouping of the participants into three groups. In Figure 1 the typified scores of each of the variables considered to calculate the groups are shown.

Figure 1. Parental involvement profiles.

To label the groups, we examined the family involvement profiles by computing a one-way ANOVA on the standardized scores of the five parental involvement scales with the clusters serving as the factors. The result revealed that the clustering variables significantly differed between the involvement scales [Parental involvement at home: F (2,497) = 147.83, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.37; Parental involvement at school: F (2,497) = 148.82, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.38; Child invitation for involvement: F (2,497) = 225.34, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.48; Teacher invitation for involvement: F (2,497) = 84.77, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.26; General school Invitation for involvement: F (2,497) = 53.38, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.18]. Scheffe post hoc multiple comparisons showed the differences were statistically significant between all the parental involvement profiles in all variables, with the first cluster scoring higher than the second and the third in all the scales, and the second higher that the third. Based on these differences and the scores, the first cluster was labeled as High involved parents , representing 144 parents (28.9%) that scored above the mean in all the involvement scales (from 0.54 to 0.91 standards deviations). The second cluster was named Medium involved parent s, including 228 parents (45.8%) that have scores close to the media in all the involvement scales (from -0.14 to 0.16 standards deviations). Finally, the third cluster was classified as Low involved parents , including 126 parents (25.3%) that scored below the mean in all the involvement scales (from -0.61 to -0.91 standards deviations). Table 1 shows demographic information for the clusters.

Table 1. Demographic information of the clusters.

Finally, ANOVA results showed that there were significant differences in academic achievement scores between the three clusters of parent involvement profiles, F (2,430) = 5.37, p = 0.003, η2 = 0.03. Scheffe post hoc multiple comparisons showed that high ( M = 5.97, SD = 0.49) and medium ( M = 6.00, SD = 0.50) involved parents had children with higher academic achievement than low involved parents ( M = 5.8, SD = 0.47). Complementarily, results from correlations between parental involvement and academic achievement scores support these results, showing a significant and positive correlation( r = 0.14, p = 0.003).

From the results presented, we can conclude the existence of three different profiles of parental involvement (high, medium and low) considering different scales of parental involvement (at home, at school and through the invitations made by the children, the teachers and the school). Secondly, results showed that there were differences in academic achievement scores between the parent involvement profiles, where high and medium involved parents had children with higher academic achievement than low involved parents.

As shown, international literature reveals that the degree of parental involvement is a critical element in the academic achievements of children, especially during their first school years highlighting the need to generate scientific evidence from the Chilean context. Most of the studies in this area come from anglophone countries ( Garbacz et al., 2017 ) while in the Latin American context research is still scarce. Results from our study corroborate that parental involvement can contribute alike in other cultural contexts, pointing to the need to also implement policies to promote it.

In this context, Chile has acknowledged the importance of collaborative relationships between parents and schools leading to the development a National Policy for Father, Mother and Legal Guardian Participation. Nevertheless, most of the research in the country has thus far been of a qualitative nature with a focus on describing family-school relations and identifying tensions between these two spheres ( Gubbins, 2011 ). Thus, this study seeks to make progress in the analysis of the effect of parental involvement and children’s and academic achievements of Chilean students.

Ethics Statement

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research with written informed consent from all subjects. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad de La Frontera and the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research.

Author Contributions

MS developed the study concept and the study design. LL substantially contributed to the study concept, and performed the data analysis and interpretation. MS and LL drafted the manuscript. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript. They also agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

This work was supported by FONDECYT 1170078 of the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research of Chile.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01464/full#supplementary-material .

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Keywords : parental involvement profiles, children’s academic achievement, elementary education, family and school relations, child development

Citation: Lara L and Saracostti M (2019) Effect of Parental Involvement on Children’s Academic Achievement in Chile. Front. Psychol. 10:1464. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01464

Received: 29 January 2019; Accepted: 11 June 2019; Published: 27 June 2019.

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Parental Involvement in Your Child’s Education

The key to student success, research shows.

If you could wave a mag­ic wand that would improve the chances of school suc­cess for your chil­dren as well as their class­mates, would you take up that challenge?

For decades, researchers have point­ed to one key suc­cess fac­tor that tran­scends near­ly all oth­ers, such as socioe­co­nom­ic sta­tus, stu­dent back­ground or the kind of school a stu­dent attends: parental involve­ment.

The extent to which schools nur­ture pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships with fam­i­lies — and vice ver­sa — makes all the dif­fer­ence, research shows. Stu­dents whose par­ents stay involved in school have bet­ter atten­dance and behav­ior, get bet­ter grades, demon­strate bet­ter social skills and adapt bet­ter to school.

Parental involve­ment also more secure­ly sets these stu­dents up to devel­op a  life­long love of learn­ing , which researchers say is key to long-term success.

A gen­er­a­tion ago, the Nation­al PTA found that three key par­ent behav­iors are the most accu­rate pre­dic­tors of stu­dent achieve­ment, tran­scend­ing both fam­i­ly income and social status:

• cre­at­ing a home envi­ron­ment that encour­ages learning;
• com­mu­ni­cat­ing high, yet rea­son­able, expec­ta­tions for achieve­ment; and 
• stay­ing involved in a child’s edu­ca­tion at school.

What’s more, researchers say when this hap­pens, the moti­va­tion, behav­ior and aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance of all chil­dren at a par­tic­u­lar school improve. Sim­ply put, the bet­ter the part­ner­ship between school and home, the bet­ter the school and the high­er the stu­dent achieve­ment across the board.

Down­load Our Parental Involve­ment in Edu­ca­tion Report

What Is Parental Involve­ment, and How Is It Dif­fer­ent From Parental Engagement?

Parental involve­ment is the active, ongo­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion of a par­ent or pri­ma­ry care­giv­er in the edu­ca­tion of a child. Par­ents can demon­strate involve­ment at home by:

• read­ing with children;
• help­ing with homework;
• dis­cussing school events;
• attend­ing school func­tions, includ­ing par­ent-teacher meet­ings; and
• vol­un­teer­ing in classrooms.

While both parental involve­ment and parental engage­ment in school sup­port stu­dent suc­cess, they have impor­tant differences.

Involve­ment is the first step towards engage­ment. It includes par­tic­i­pa­tion in school events or activ­i­ties, with teach­ers pro­vid­ing learn­ing resources and infor­ma­tion about their student’s grades. With involve­ment, teach­ers hold the pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty to set edu­ca­tion­al goals. 

But while teach­ers can offer advice, fam­i­lies and care­givers have impor­tant infor­ma­tion about their chil­dren that teach­ers may not know. So a student’s learn­ing expe­ri­ence is enriched when both bring their per­spec­tives to the table. 

With engage­ment , home and school come togeth­er as a team. Schools empow­er par­ents and care­givers by pro­vid­ing them with ways to active­ly par­tic­i­pate, pro­mot­ing them as impor­tant voic­es in the school and remov­ing bar­ri­ers to engage­ment. Exam­ples include encour­ag­ing fam­i­lies to join the fam­i­ly-teacher asso­ci­a­tion or arrang­ing vir­tu­al fam­i­ly-teacher meet­ings for fam­i­lies with trans­porta­tion issues. 

Research has found that the ear­li­er edu­ca­tors estab­lish fam­i­ly engage­ment, the more effec­tive they are in rais­ing stu­dent performance.

Why Is It Impor­tant to Involve Par­ents in School?

It ben­e­fits students.

Chil­dren whose fam­i­lies are engaged in their edu­ca­tion are more like­ly to: 

• earn high­er grades and score high­er on tests;
• grad­u­ate from high school and college;
• devel­op self-con­fi­dence and moti­va­tion in the class­room; and
• have bet­ter social skills and class­room behavior.

In one study, researchers looked at lon­gi­tu­di­nal data on math achieve­ment and found that effec­tive­ly encour­ag­ing fam­i­lies to sup­port stu­dents’ math learn­ing at home was asso­ci­at­ed with high­er per­cent­ages of stu­dents who scored at or above pro­fi­cien­cy on stan­dard­ized math achieve­ment tests.

Stu­dents whose par­ents are involved in school are also less like­ly to suf­fer from low self-esteem or devel­op behav­ioral issues, researchers say. 

And class­rooms with engaged fam­i­lies per­form bet­ter as a whole, mean­ing that the ben­e­fits affect vir­tu­al­ly all stu­dents in a classroom.

It Pos­i­tive­ly Influ­ences Children’s Behavior

Decades of research have made one thing clear: parental involve­ment in edu­ca­tion improves stu­dent atten­dance, social skills and behav­ior. It also helps chil­dren adapt bet­ter to school.

In one instance, researchers look­ing at children’s aca­d­e­m­ic and social devel­op­ment across first, third and fifth grade found that improve­ments in parental involve­ment are asso­ci­at­ed with few­er ​ “ prob­lem behav­iors” in stu­dents and improve­ments in social skills. Researchers also found that chil­dren with high­ly involved par­ents had ​ “ enhanced social func­tion­ing” and few­er behav­ior problems.

It Ben­e­fits Teachers

Because it improves class­room cul­ture and con­di­tions, par­ent involve­ment also ben­e­fits teach­ers. Know­ing more about a stu­dent helps teach­ers pre­pare bet­ter and know­ing that they have par­ents’ sup­port ensures that teach­ers feel equipped to take aca­d­e­m­ic risks and push for stu­dents to learn more. 

How Can Par­ents Get Involved in Their Child’s Education?

• Make learn­ing a pri­or­i­ty in your home, estab­lish­ing rou­tines and sched­ules that enable chil­dren to com­plete home­work, read inde­pen­dent­ly, get enough sleep and have oppor­tu­ni­ties to get help from you. Talk about what’s going on in school. 
• Read to and with your chil­dren: Even 10 – 20  min­utes dai­ly makes a dif­fer­ence. And par­ents can go fur­ther by ensur­ing that they read more each day as well, either as a fam­i­ly or pri­vate read­ing time that sets a good example.
• Ask teach­ers how they would like to com­mu­ni­cate. Many are com­fort­able with text mes­sages or phone calls, and all teach­ers want par­ents to stay up to date, espe­cial­ly if prob­lems arise.
• Attend school events, includ­ing par­ent-teacher con­fer­ences, back-to-school nights and oth­ers — even if your child is not involved in extracur­ric­u­lar activities. 
• Use your com­mute to con­nect with your kids; ask them to read to you while you dri­ve and encour­age con­ver­sa­tions about school. 
• Eat meals togeth­er: It’s the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to find out more about what’s going on in school.
• Pri­or­i­tize com­mu­ni­ca­tion with teach­ers, espe­cial­ly if demand­ing work sched­ules, cul­tur­al or lan­guage bar­ri­ers are an issue. Find out what resources are avail­able to help get par­ents involved. 

Parental Involve­ment Out­side the Classroom

Out­side of the class­room, engaged par­ents more often see them­selves as advo­cates for their child’s school — and are more like­ly to vol­un­teer or take an active role in governance. 

Researchers have not­ed that par­ent involve­ment in school gov­er­nance, for instance, helps par­ents under­stand edu­ca­tors’ and oth­er par­ents’ moti­va­tions, atti­tudes and abil­i­ties. It gives them a greater oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve as resources for their chil­dren, often increas­ing their own skills and con­fi­dence. In a few cas­es, these par­ents actu­al­ly fur­ther their own edu­ca­tion and upgrade their job.

While pro­vid­ing improved role mod­els for their chil­dren, these par­ents also ensure that the larg­er com­mu­ni­ty views the school pos­i­tive­ly and sup­ports it. They also pro­vide role mod­els for future par­ent leaders.

Read­ing and Homework

Very ear­ly in their school career — by fourth grade — chil­dren are expect­ed to be able to read to learn oth­er sub­jects. But recent research shows that about two-thirds of the nation’s pub­lic school fourth graders aren’t pro­fi­cient read­ers .

To make chil­dren suc­cess­ful in read­ing , and in school more gen­er­al­ly, the sin­gle most impor­tant thing you can do is to read aloud with them.

Youth Sports and Oth­er Extracur­ric­u­lar Activities

Par­ents can make or break their child’s rela­tion­ship with sports and oth­er extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, so they should think deeply about how to show chil­dren the fun of mas­ter­ing a new skill, work­ing toward a group or indi­vid­ual goal, weath­er­ing adver­si­ty, being a good sport and win­ning or los­ing gracefully.

Beyond this, par­ents with coach­ing skills should con­sid­er vol­un­teer­ing to get involved. The Nation­al Alliance for Youth Sports notes that only about 5 % to 10 % of youth sports coach­es have received any rel­e­vant train­ing before coach­ing, with most coach­es step­ping up because their child is on the team and no one else volunteered.

Parental Involve­ment in Juve­nile Justice

Par­ents find­ing them­selves involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem on behalf of their kids face a sys­tem that offers many chal­lenges and few resources. 

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive has long sought to sharply reduce reliance on deten­tion, with the aim of decreas­ing reliance on juve­nile incar­cer­a­tion nationwide.

But par­ents whose chil­dren face the judi­cial sys­tem can make a dif­fer­ence. Sur­veys of cor­rec­tions offi­cials note that fam­i­ly involve­ment is one of the most impor­tant issues fac­ing the juve­nile sys­tem, and it is also the most oper­a­tional­ly challenging. 

One well-respect­ed frame­work out­lines the impor­tance of five ​ “ dimen­sions” that mea­sure parental involve­ment, includ­ing recep­tiv­i­ty to receiv­ing help, a belief in pos­i­tive change, invest­ment in plan­ning and obtain­ing ser­vices and a good work­ing rela­tion­ship between the par­ent and the jus­tice system.

What Suc­cess­ful Parental Involve­ment Looks Like

Experts urge par­ents to be present at school as much as pos­si­ble and to show inter­est in children’s schoolwork.

As not­ed in the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion ​ “ Parental Involve­ment in Edu­ca­tion Pol­i­cy” brief, the Nation­al PTA lists six key stan­dards for good parent/​family involve­ment programs:

• Schools engage in reg­u­lar, two-way, mean­ing­ful com­mu­ni­ca­tion with parents.
• Par­ent­ing skills are pro­mot­ed and supported. 
• Par­ents play an inte­gral role in assist­ing stu­dent learning.
• Par­ents are wel­come in the school as vol­un­teers, and their sup­port and assis­tance are sought. 
• Par­ents are full part­ners in the deci­sions that affect chil­dren and families. 
• Com­mu­ni­ty resources are used to strength­en schools, fam­i­lies and stu­dent learning.

How To Avoid Neg­a­tive Parental Involvement

Teach­ers may, on occa­sion, com­plain of ​ “ heli­copter par­ents” whose involve­ment — some­times called ​ “ hov­er­ing” — does more harm than good. One vet­er­an edu­ca­tor recent­ly told the sto­ry of an award-win­ning col­league who quit the pro­fes­sion because of the grow­ing influ­ence of ​ “ a group of usu­al­ly well-inten­tioned, but over-involved, over­pro­tec­tive and con­trol­ling par­ents who bub­ble-wrap their children.” 

What these par­ents fail to under­stand, he said, is that their good inten­tions ​ “ often back­fire,” imped­ing their children’s cop­ing skills and capac­i­ty to prob­lem-solve. Such over-involve­ment can actu­al­ly increase children’s anx­i­ety and reduce self-esteem. 

The colleague’s plea: ​ “ Please part­ner with us rather than per­se­cute us. That will always be in your children’s best interests.”

Resources for Par­ents, Teach­ers, School Admin­is­tra­tors and Advocates

• Child Trends Fam­i­lies and Par­ent­ing Research
• Har­vard Grad­u­ate School of Edu­ca­tion’s Usable Knowl­edge series
• Par­ent Insti­tute for Qual­i­ty Education
• The Nation­al Par­ent Teacher Association
• Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty Nation­al Net­work of Part­ner­ship Schools
• The Casey Foun­da­tion Parental Involve­ment in Edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy brief
• The Casey Foun­da­tion’s Fam­i­lies as Pri­ma­ry Part­ners in Their Child’s Devel­op­ment and School Readiness

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Parent involvement and student academic performance: A multiple mediational analysis

David r. topor.

a The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University/Bradley Hospital, 1011 Veterans Memorial Parkway, East Providence, RI 02915

Susan P. Keane

b The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27402-6164

Terri L. Shelton

Susan d. calkins.

Parent involvement in a child's education is consistently found to be positively associated with a child's academic performance. However, there has been little investigation of the mechanisms that explain this association. The present study examines two potential mechanisms of this association: the child's perception of cognitive competence and the quality of the student-teacher relationship. This study used a sample of 158 seven-year old participants, their mothers, and their teachers. Results indicated a statistically significant association between parent involvement and a child's academic performance, over and above the impact of the child's intelligence. A multiple mediation model indicated that the child's perception of cognitive competence fully mediated the relation between parent involvement and the child's performance on a standardized achievement test. The quality of the student-teacher relationship fully mediated the relation between parent involvement and teacher ratings of the child's classroom academic performance. Limitations, future research directions, and implications for public policy initiatives were discussed.

Parent involvement in a child's early education is consistently found to be positively associated with a child's academic performance ( Hara & Burke, 1998 ; Hill & Craft, 2003 ; Marcon, 1999 ; Stevenson & Baker, 1987 ). Specifically, children whose parents are more involved in their education have higher levels of academic performance than children whose parents are involved to a lesser degree. The influence of parent involvement on academic success has not only been noted among researchers, but also among policy makers who have integrated efforts aimed at increasing parent involvement into broader educational policy initiatives. Coupled with these findings of the importance of early academic success, a child's academic success has been found to be relatively stable after early elementary school ( Entwisle & Hayduk, 1988 ; Pedersen, Faucher, & Eaton, 1978 ). Therefore, it is important to examine factors that contribute to early academic success and that are amenable to change.

Researchers have reported that parent-child interactions, specifically stimulating and responsive parenting practices, are important influences on a child's academic development ( Christian, Morrison, & Bryant, 1998 ; Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy, 2000 ). By examining specific parenting practices that are amenable to change, such as parent involvement, and the mechanisms by which these practices influence academic performance, programs may be developed to increase a child's academic performance. While parent involvement has been found to be related to increased academic performance, the specific mechanisms through which parent involvement exerts its influence on a child's academic performance are not yet fully understood ( Hill & Craft, 2003 ). Understanding these mechanisms would inform further research and policy initiatives and may lead to the development of more effective intervention programs designed to increase children's academic performance.

Models of Parent Involvement

Parent involvement has been defined and measured in multiple ways, including activities that parents engage in at home and at school and positive attitudes parents have towards their child's education, school, and teacher ( Epstein, 1996 ; Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994 ; Kohl, Lengua, & McMahon, 2000 ). The distinction between the activities parents partake in and the attitude parents have towards education was highlighted by several recent studies. Several studies found that increased frequency of activities was associated with higher levels of child misbehavior in the classroom ( Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, & Fendrich, 1999 ), whereas positive attitudes towards education and school were associated with the child's increased academic performance ( Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, Cox, & Bradley, 2003 ). Specifically, Izzo et al. (1999) reported that an increase in the parent's school activities, such as increased number of parent-teacher contacts, was associated with worsening achievement, as increased contacts may have occurred to help the teacher manage the child's existing behavior problems. The significance of parent attitudes toward education and school is less well understood, although attitudes are believed to comprise a key dimension of the relationship between parents and school (Eccles & Harold, 1996). Parents convey attitudes about education to their children during out-of-school hours and these attitudes are reflected in the child's classroom behavior and in the teacher's relationship with the child and the parents ( Kellaghan, Sloane, Alvarez, & Bloom, 1993 ).

Assessment of Academic Performance in Early Elementary School

Several methods are used to measure child academic performance, including standardized achievement test scores, teacher ratings of academic performance, and report card grades. Standardized achievement tests are objective instruments that assess skills and abilities children learn through direct instruction in a variety of subject areas including reading, mathematics, and writing ( Sattler, 2001 ). Teacher rating scales allow teachers to rate the accuracy of the child's academic work compared to other children in the class, and allow for ratings on a wider range of academic tasks than examined on standardized achievement tests ( DuPaul & Rapport, 1991 ). Report card grades allow teachers to report on classroom academic performance, but are used by few studies for early elementary school children due to, among other reasons, a lack of a standardized grading system and uniform subject areas children are evaluated on.

Proposed Explanations of the Relation Between Parent Involvement and Academic Performance

Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that parents who have a positive attitude towards their child's education, school, and teacher are able to positively influence their child's academic performance by two mechanisms: (a) by being engaged with the child to increase the child's self-perception of cognitive competence and (b) by being engaged with the teacher and school to promote a stronger and more positive student-teacher relationship.

Perceived Cognitive Competence

Perceived cognitive competence is defined as the extent to which children believe that they possess the necessary cognitive skills to be successful when completing academic tasks, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic ( Harter & Pike, 1984 ). Previous research found evidence that higher parent involvement contributes to an increase in a child's perceived level of competence ( Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems, & Holbein, 2005 ; Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991 ). There are theoretical pathways through which children's perceptions and expectations of their cognitive competence are influenced by others: (a) performance accomplishments/performance mastery, (b) vicarious reinforcement, (c) verbal persuasion, and (d) emotion regulation ( Bandura, 1977 ). In addition, a child's increased perception of cognitive competence is consistently related to higher academic performance ( Chapman, Skinner, & Baltes, 1990 ; Ladd & Price, 1986 ; Schunk, 1981 ). Based on theory and previous findings, Gonzalez-DeHass et al., (2005) suggest that perceived cognitive competence be examined to explain the relation between parent involvement and a child's academic performance.

The Student-Teacher Relationship

A positive student-teacher relationship has been defined as the teacher's perception that his or her relationship with the child is characterized by closeness and a lack of dependency and conflict ( Birch & Ladd, 1997 ). Closeness is the degree of warmth and open communication between the student and teacher, dependency is the over-reliance on the teacher as a source of support, and conflict is the degree of friction in student-teacher interactions ( Birch & Ladd, 1997 ). Previous research found that close, positive student-teacher relationships are positively related to a wide range of child social and academic outcomes in school ( Hughes, Gleason, & Zhang, 2005 ). Specifically, a close student-teacher relationship is an important predictor of a child's academic performance ( Birch & Ladd, 1997 ; Hamre & Pianta, 2001 ). Previous research has also found that parent involvement in a child's education positively influences the nature of the student-teacher relationship ( Hill & Craft, 2003 ; Stevenson & Baker, 1987 ). Therefore, the student-teacher relationship was examined for its ability to explain the relation between parent involvement and a child's academic performance.

The Present Study

Parent involvement is one factor that has been consistently related to a child's increased academic performance ( Hara & Burke, 1998 ; Hill & Craft, 2003 ; Marcon, 1999 ; Stevenson & Baker, 1987 ). While this relation between parent involvement and a child's academic performance is well established, studies have yet to examine how parent involvement increases a child's academic performance. The goal of the present study was to test two variables that may mediate, or explain how, parent involvement is related to a child's academic performance. Parent involvement was defined as the teacher's perception of “the positive attitude parents have towards their child's education, teacher, and school” ( Webster-Stratton, 1998 ). Academic performance was measured by two methods: standardized achievement test scores and teacher report of academic performance through rating scales. Based on previous research ( Gonzalez-DeHass et al., 2005 ; Hughes et al., 2005 ), two possible mechanisms, a child's perception of cognitive competence as measured by the child's report, and the student-teacher relationship as measured by the teacher's report, were examined for their ability to mediate the relation between parent involvement and academic performance. It was predicted that parent involvement would no longer be a significant predictor of a child's academic performance when the child's cognitive competence and the student-teacher relationship were accounted for in the analyses.

Participants

Participants in this cross-sectional study were one hundred and fifty-eight (158) children who, at age seven, participated in the laboratory and school visits. Participants were obtained from three different cohorts participating in a larger ongoing longitudinal study. 447 participants were initially recruited at two years of age through child care centers, the County Health Department, and the local Women, Infants, and Children program. Consistent with the original longitudinal sample ( Smith, Calkins, Keane, Anastopoulos, & Shelton, 2004 ), 66.5% of the children ( N = 105) were European American, 26.6% of the children were African American ( N = 42), seven children (4.4%) were bi-racial, and four children (2.5%) were of another ethnic background. Seventy-one (45%) of the participants were male and 87 (55%) were female. Socioeconomic status ranged from lower to upper class as measured by the family's Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Social Status score ( Hollingshead, 1975 ).

Parent Involvement

The teacher version of the Parent-Teacher Involvement Questionnaire (INVOLVE) was used to assess parent involvement. The measure is a twenty-item scale with a 5-point scale answer format ( Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Hammond, 2001 ). The “Parent Involvement in Education” subscale includes six items and assesses the teacher's perception of the positive attitude parents have towards their child's education, teacher, and school. Examples of these items include “How much is this parent interested in getting to know you?’ and “How important is education in this family?”

Student-Teacher Relationship

The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) consists of 28 items that measure aspects of the relationship between the student and teacher ( Pianta, 2001 ). Item responses are in a 5-point Likert-style format. Items assess the teacher's feelings about a child, the teacher's beliefs about the child's feelings towards the teacher, and the teacher's observation of the child's behavior in relation to the teacher ( Pianta & Nimetz, 1991 ). The measure yields three subscales: “Conflict,” “Closeness,” “Dependency”. An overall “Positive Student-Teacher Relationship Scale” is calculated by summing the items on the “Closeness” scale and the reverse-score of the items on the “Conflict” and “Dependency” scales. Examples of items include “I share an affectionate, warm relationship with this child” (Closeness), “This child easily becomes angry with me” (Conflict), and “This child is overly dependent on me” (Dependency).

Perceived Competence

The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children ( Harter & Pike, 1984 ) consists of 24 items that measure four domains of self-concept: (a) perceived cognitive competence, (b) perceived physical competence, (c) peer social acceptance, and (d) maternal social acceptance. Children are shown pictures of a child who is successful at completing a task and one who is unsuccessful, and are asked to choose the picture most similar to them. Items include a child naming alphabet letters or running in a race. This study used the mean of the six items on the perceived cognitive competence subscale. Previous research has used this subscale as a stand-alone measure in analyses ( Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994 ).

Academic Performance

Two measures of academic performance were used. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (WIAT-II; The Psychological Corporation, 2002 ) is an individually administered, nationally standardized measure of academic achievement ( Sattler, 2001 ). Children were administered the five subtests comprising the Reading and Mathematics composites. As the current study was interested in examining a more global standardized measure of academic achievement, and since the Reading and Mathematics composites were related ( r = .60, p <.001), the mean of the combined Reading and Mathematics composites was used as the child's standardized achievement test score.

The Academic Performance Rating Scale (APRS) ( DuPaul & Rapport, 1991 ) is a 19-item scale, where teachers rate the child's academic abilities and behaviors in the classroom on a 5-point scale. Higher scores indicate greater classroom academic performance. As the current study focused on academic performance and not other behaviors, only two items on the APRS that corresponded to the child's actual classroom academic performance were examined: “accuracy of the child's completed written math work” and “accuracy of the child's written language arts work”. These two items were highly correlated ( r = .84, p <.001). A mean of the items was used as the measure of classroom academic performance.

Intelligence

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) is a nationally standardized and individually administered measure of general intelligence for children aged 6-16 years ( Wechsler, 1991 ). The WISC-III provides three IQ scores (Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale), each with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15. The current study used the child's Full Scale IQ score.

Data were gathered from the child and the child's mother during two visits to the laboratory and from the child's teacher during one visit to the child's school. The child's IQ, academic achievement, and perceived cognitive competence were assessed in a one-on-one session with a trained graduate student clinician during the two laboratory visits, when the child was seven years old. The child's mother provided updated demographic information. School visits began several months into the school year to allow teachers adequate time to become familiar with the child and the child's mother. Teachers completed a packet of questionnaires, including a measure on parent involvement and the child's classroom academic performance.

Mediation Analysis

A mediator is defined as a variable that allows researchers to understand the mechanism through which a predictor influences an outcome by establishing “how” or “why” an independent variable predicts an outcome variable ( Baron & Kenny, 1986 ). In the current study, the independent variable was parent involvement and the two dependent variables were a child's standardized achievement test score and classroom academic performance. The two potential mediators were the child's perception of cognitive competence and the quality of the student-teacher relationship. Four regression analyses were performed to test each potential mediator and variables considered as co-variates were controlled for in all regression equations. A multiple mediation model was used to examine if both potential mediators jointly reduce the direct effect of parent involvement on a child's academic performance and to better understand the unique contribution of each individual mediator when the other mediator is controlled for ( Preacher & Hayes, 2006 ). Baron and Kenny (1986) state that to test a mediator the first regression must show that the independent variable affects the mediator, the second that the independent variable affects the dependent variable, and the third that the mediator affects the dependent variable. For full multiple mediation, the fourth regression must show that after controlling for the mediators (child's perception of cognitive competence and student-teacher relationship), the independent variable (parent involvement) no longer significantly predicts the dependent variable (standardized achievement test score/classroom academic performance). Partial mediation exists if the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable is reduced, but still significant, when the mediators are controlled ( Baron & Kenny, 1986 ).

The mediation was also tested by using the Sobel (1982) test to examine the reduction of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable, after accounting for the mediating variables. The Sobel (1982) test conservatively tests this reduction by dividing the effect of the mediator by its standard error and then comparing this term to a standard normal distribution to test for significance ( MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002 ).

The Cronbach's alpha for the six items on the INVOLVE-T “Parent Involvement in Education” subscale was α = .91, indicating good internal consistency. The reliability of the 28 items on the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale “Positive Student-Teacher Relationship Scale” and the six items on the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children cognitive competence subscale was adequate (Cronbach's alpha α = .86 and .80, respectively).

Bivariate correlations between the variables of interest and demographic variables are presented in Table 1 . The child's Full-Scale IQ score was significantly related to the child's WIAT-II score ( r = .68, p <. 001), to the child's classroom academic performance ( r = .47, p <. 001), and to parent involvement ( r = .39, p < .001). Given these significant findings, the child's Full-Scale IQ score was used as a control variable in the regression analyses addressing the research questions. As shown in Table 1 , significant positive correlations existed between parent involvement and the student-teacher relationship ( r = .48, p < .001), the child's perception of cognitive competence ( r = .31, p < .001), the child's WIAT-II score ( r = .43, p < .001), and the child's classroom academic performance ( r = .35, p < .001).

Correlations Between Variables of Interest

It was hypothesized that parent involvement would predict academic performance, as measured by both the WIAT-II achievement score and teacher ratings of a child's classroom academic performance. As shown in Table 2 , parent involvement was a significant predictor of the child's WIAT-II score F (3, 154) change = 9.88, p < .01, β = .20, over and above the variance accounted for by the child's IQ. Parent involvement was a significant predictor of the child's classroom academic performance, F (3, 154) change = 6.68, p < .05, β = .20, over and above the variance accounted for by the child's IQ. It was hypothesized that parent involvement would predict the child's perception of cognitive competence and the quality of the student-teacher relationship. As expected, parent involvement was a significant predictor of a child's perception of cognitive competence ( β = .21, p < .01) and a positive student-teacher relationship ( β = .47, p < .001), after controlling for IQ. Next, the two mediators (perceived cognitive competence and a positive student-teacher relationship) were independently tested as predictors of the two measures of academic performance. After controlling for IQ, perceived cognitive competence was a significant predictor of a child's WIAT-II score ( β = .35, p < .001), but not a significant predictor of the child's classroom academic performance ( β = .09, p = .23). After controlling for IQ, a positive student-teacher relationship positively predicted a child's WIAT-II score ( β = .13, p < .05) and a child's classroom academic performance ( β = .30, p < .001).

Regression Analyses Testing Parent Involvement as a Predictor of Child Academic Performance

Finally, the mediational model was tested by examining whether parent involvement continued to have a significant effect on the measures of academic performance, after controlling for the mediators and for the child's IQ. As shown in Table 3 , parent involvement was no longer a significant predictor of a child's WIAT-II score when the child's cognitive competence and the student-teacher relationship were accounted for in the analyses (β = .11, p = .08). The multiple mediation analysis indicated that only perceived cognitive competence uniquely predicted the child's WIAT-II score ( β = .32, p < .001). The Sobel test further confirmed the effect of perceived cognitive competence as an independent mediator (Test statistic = 2.50, p < .05). The hypothesis was partially supported in that the child's perceived cognitive competence mediated the relation between parent involvement and a child's WIAT-II score, but the student-teacher relationship did not. Only the student-teacher relationship was examined as a mediator of the relation between parent involvement and a child's classroom academic performance as the child's perceived cognitive competence was not a significant predictor of the child's classroom academic performance. As shown in Table 3 , parent involvement was no longer a significant predictor of a child's classroom academic performance when the student-teacher relationship was accounted for in the analyses ( β = .07, p = .36). The Sobel test further confirmed the effect of the mediator (Test statistic = 1.90, p = .05).

Regression Analyses Testing Perceived Cognitive Competence and the Student-Teacher Relationship as Multiple Mediators of the Relation Between Parent Involvement and Child's Academic Performance

*p<.05

** p < .01

The purpose of the present study was to examine the ability of the child's perceived cognitive competence and the quality of the student-teacher relationship to explain the relation between parent involvement and the child's academic performance. Findings from the present study demonstrated that increased parent involvement, defined as the teacher's perception of the positive attitude parents have toward their child's education, teacher, and school, was significantly related to increased academic performance, measured by both a standardized achievement test and teacher ratings of the child's classroom academic performance. Further, parent involvement was significantly related to academic performance above and beyond the impact of the child's intelligence (IQ), a variable not accounted for in previous research.

Findings from the present study demonstrated that increased parent involvement is significantly related to a child's increased perception of cognitive competence. This finding is consistent with previous studies ( Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems, & Holbein, 2005 ; Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991 ). While outside the scope of the present study, it is conceivable that parent involvement may influence the child's perception of cognitive competence by means described by Bandura (1977) . Findings demonstrated that increased parent involvement was significantly related to increased quality of the student-teacher relationship. Findings also demonstrated that increased perceived cognitive competence was related to higher achievement test scores and that the quality of the student-teacher relationship was significantly related to the child's academic performance, measured by both standardized achievement test scores and the child's classroom academic performance. These findings are consistent with previous research and theory ( Chapman, Skinner, & Baltes, 1990 ; Ladd & Price, 1986 ; Schunk, 1981 ). Contrary to what was hypothesized, increased perception of cognitive competence was not significantly related to teacher ratings of academic performance. There may be several reasons for this finding. It may be the tasks children perceive they are competent to complete are not related to actual classroom tasks or that teacher ratings of academic performance are in part based on other variables, such as the child's abilities in other domains independent of the child's academic abilities.

This study examined the ability of perceived cognitive competence and the student-teacher relationship to jointly mediate the relation between parent involvement and academic performance. Both variables jointly were full mediators of the relation between parent involvement and WIAT-II scores. Examined as multiple mediators, perceived cognitive competence fully mediated the relation between parent involvement and the child's WIAT-II score, over and above the influence of the quality of the student-teacher relationship. It may be the case that the variance of the relation between parent involvement and WIAT-II score is already explained by the child's perception of cognitive competence. In addition, the student-teacher relationship was a full mediator of the relation between parent involvement and teacher ratings of the child's classroom academic performance. This is one of the first studies to examine a mechanism by which parent involvement is related to a child's academic performance. Two statistical techniques to test for mediation were used, further confirming the findings.

Although this study had many strengths, results of the present study are tempered by a consideration of several methodological limitations. One limitation was that cross-sectional data were used. A second limitation was that data were collected over several time points and settings which increased opportunities for families and teachers to not complete measures and participate in visits. Finally, the child's teacher was the reporter for several of the measures, which may have lead to artificially high relations between these teacher-report measures. Specifically, it may be that some teachers were unduly influenced by outside factors, such as the parent being involved in the school's PTA and were unable to determine the parent's actual attitude towards the child's education.

Despite these limitations, study findings generate several directions for future research. First, future investigation of the relation between parent involvement and perceived cognitive competence and the student-teacher relationship is needed to better understand how these relations exist. Second, longitudinal studies are needed to understand how these variables interact over time and to examine the possibility of bi-directional relations among the variables. Third, measuring parent involvement at a time prior to assessing academic performance and mediating variables would allow for a better understanding of the relation among these variables. Finally, given the importance of IQ when predicting a child's academic performance, IQ should continue to be accounted for in future studies examining academic performance.

Several public policy recommendations and initiatives follow from the results of the present study. School administrators and policymakers should continue to investigate ways to increase a parent's positive attitude about their child's education and demonstrate to parents that their attitude is related to their child's academic performance. Future policy should focus on developing and promoting school programs that enable parents to increase a child's perception of cognitive competence, and fund future research to better understand the mechanisms by which this occurs. School administrators should consider ways to improve the student-teacher relationship, given its important relation with the child's academic performance. For instance, school administrators may set aside time in the curriculum for team building exercises between students, teachers, and parents. Taken together, the present study identified mechanisms by which parent involvement is related to a child academic performance, over and above the impact of the child's IQ, and it is the hope that these findings lead to further research and new policies to increase a child's academic performance.

Acknowledgments

We thank the parents and children who have repeatedly given their time and effort to participate in this research. Additionally, we are grateful to the entire RIGHT Track staff for their help in data collection, entry, and coding, particularly Louise Berdan, Kathryn Degnan, Elizabeth Shuey, Caitlin Stone, Paulo Graziano, Rachael Reavis, Robin Howse, and Jeffrey Gredlein. This research was supported by a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition (MH 55625), an NIMH FIRST Award (MH 55584) and an NIMH K-award (MH 74077) to Susan D. Calkins and by NIMH Grant (MH 58144A) awarded to Susan D. Calkins, Susan P. Keane, and Marion O'Brien.

Note. Dr. Topor is currently affiliated with the VA Boston Healthcare System, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.

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How involved are parents in their children’s learning? MICS6 data reveal critical insights

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It is widely understood that parents play a pivotal role in a child’s education – research suggests that parental involvement in a child’s education boosts well-being and confidence and is important for academic progression. With school closures due to the global COVID-19 pandemic affecting an estimated 1.58 billion children in more than 180 countries, the importance of parental involvement in education has suddenly and dramatically increased.

How does parental involvement in school differ between and within countries?

One finding from countries with available MICS6 data is that there are large variations in levels of school-based parental involvement, which depends largely on whether schools have governing boards in which the parents can participate. In countries like Zimbabwe and the Kyrgyz Republic, almost all children attend schools with governing boards, whereas in Punjab (Pakistan) and Tunisia, fewer than 20 per cent of children attend schools with governing boards.

However, the presence of a governing board does not translate into participation by all parents. In countries with similar percentages of children attending schools with governing boards, participation of parents in governing board meetings varies considerably. For example, although about 50-60 per cent of children in Mongolia, Georgia and Iraq attend schools with governing boards, parental involvement in board meetings is vastly different between these countries. Only 26 per cent of Mongolian children have parents who attended governing boards meetings compared to 33 per cent of Georgian children and 44 per cent of Iraqi children whose parents attend the meetings.

Whether a child attends a school with a governing board is also closely linked to household wealth. In only four of the 13 countries analyzed – Zimbabwe, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho and The Gambia – do children from the poorest quintile attend schools with governing boards on par with the national average. In the remaining countries, the percentage of poorest children who attend schools with governing boards is below the national average.

Moreover, poorest parents participate in school governing boards at rates lower than the national average in all countries except in Zimbabwe, the Kyrgyz Republic and The Gambia. In summary, while the existence of school governing boards is important to school-based parental involvement, household wealth is also an important factor.

What are the differences in home-based parental involvement across countries?

Similar to school-based parental involvement, the share of parents engaging in home-based parental involvement varies greatly between and within countries. For example, the share of children who receive help with homework is more than twice in Zimbabwe (89 per cent) than in Madagascar (42 per cent).

MICS6 data show that household wealth is a major determinant of home-based parental involvement. Across all countries except Georgia, fewer children from lowest quintile received help with their homework than their peers from wealthier quintiles. In some countries, such as in Madagascar, Punjab (Pakistan) or Sierra Leone, the difference is quite large.

Another determinant of home-based parental participation in education is the availability of books for children and household wealth. Here too we see wide disparities among countries – for example, most children in Georgia live in households which have child-oriented books, but more than 90 per cent of the poorest children in Punjab (Pakistan), Iraq, Madagascar, Lesotho and Zimbabwe live in households with not even one child-oriented book.

Source: MICS6

What can we do to ensure that all children, including the poorest, have educational support from parents at school and at home?

The MICS6 Parental Involvement module provides important new insights into critical factors associated with children’s education. As revealed by these preliminary findings, parents from the poorest households may not be able to fully participate in, and help advance, their child’s education.

New insights like this and others provided by MICS6 equip policymakers and researchers with powerful tools to better understand the nature and impacts of factors like parental involvement in a child’s education, and will be more thoroughly explored in the upcoming series of articles on the COVID-19 pandemic. By informing the creation of data-driven policies that direct support to the poorest families, MICS6 helps to give every child an equal opportunity to participate in education, even during times of crisis.

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Parents today often look for teachable moments – and opportunities abound. When reading a book with a child, for example, it might mean discussing story plots with him. If she isn’t allowed to play a videogame, it means explaining why.

Jelena Obradović (Image credit: Courtesy Graduate School of Education)

There’s good reason for this: Research has shown that engaged parenting helps children build cognitive and emotional skills.

Too much parental direction, however, can sometimes be counterproductive, according to a new study led by Jelena Obradović , an associate professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, published March 11 in the Journal of Family Psychology .

In the study , the researchers observed parents’ behavior when kindergarten-age children were actively engaged in playing, cleaning up toys, learning a new game and discussing a problem. The children of parents who more often stepped in to provide instructions, corrections or suggestions or to ask questions – despite the children being appropriately on task – displayed more difficulty regulating their behavior and emotions at other times. These children also performed worse on tasks that measured delayed gratification and other executive functions, skills associated with impulse control and the ability to shift between competing demands for their attention.

Obradović and her co-authors found that the phenomenon occurs across the socioeconomic spectrum.

“Parents have been conditioned to find ways to involve themselves, even when kids are on task and actively playing or doing what they’ve been asked to do,” said Obradović, who also directs the Stanford Project on Adaptation and Resilience in Kids ( SPARK ). “But too much direct engagement can come at a cost to kids’ abilities to control their own attention, behavior and emotions. When parents let kids take the lead in their interactions, children practice self-regulation skills and build independence.”

Obradović’s research, which introduces a far more granular measure of parental engagement than traditional methods, shines new light on how parents help and hinder their children’s development during the pivotal transition to elementary school.

It also comes as today’s parents, increasingly derided as “helicopter” and “snowplow” caregivers, are spending more time with their kids than their own mothers and fathers did – even before the COVID-19 pandemic turned many parents into primary playmates and homeschoolers.

A deeper dive into parent-child interactions

Finding the right balance when engaging with children is especially important around kindergarten, said Obradović, whose research examines how caregiving environments contribute to child health, learning and well-being over time. The onset of elementary school is an especially challenging time when kids are expected to manage their attention, emotions and behaviors without parents’ direct help.

“This is a really important shift, when parents have to learn to pull back,” she said.

For their research, Obradović and her co-authors – Michael Sulik , a research scientist at SPARK, and Anne Shaffer, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Georgia – brought together a diverse group of 102 children ages 4 to 6 and their primary caregivers in a Stanford lab.

For two and a half hours, the kids worked on a series of tasks that have been used by child development specialists for decades to measure self-regulation, as well as executive functions deemed either “cool” (when emotions don’t matter) or “hot” (when emotions are high). The children also participated with their parents in structured activities requiring different degrees of adult interaction.

In a novel approach, the scholars had each parent and child observed separately. Using video recordings, the interactions were broken down second by second and evaluated independently. This allowed Obradović and her team to identify subtle shifts in how parents engage with their children. During a 25-minute activity, for example, a mother might follow her son’s lead for 13 seconds, then withdraw for 5 seconds, then direct him for 35 seconds.

Typically, when researchers study a given aspect of parenting, they assign a single rating for the entire interaction. But that approach can be biased by the researcher’s overall impression of the parent-child relationship.

Most caregivers seem supportive and caring, said Obradović. “On average, you don’t see a lot of parents yelling at their kids or being intrusive or checking their phones,” she said. “But there is a lot of variability within those averages, and our goal was to discover more subtle differences among parents who are generally doing fine.”

These moment-by-moment shifts in parental engagement matter. “These are subtle things, but the message that children are getting may not be so subtle,” Obradović said.

Permission to take a break

For their analysis, Obradović and her collaborators created a measure of what they call “parental over-engagement.” They noted the moments when a child was working independently or leading an activity, and they calculated the ratio between times when parents intervened in ways that were meant to be helpful (not harsh or manipulative) and times when parents followed the child’s lead.

The researchers found a correlation between high levels of parent involvement when a child is focused on a task and children’s difficulties with self-regulation and other behaviors. This was most apparent for children’s “hot” executive functions.

When a child was passively engaged, the researchers didn’t find any link between parental over-engagement and children’s self-regulation. According to Obradović, this suggests that there is no harm in parents stepping in when children are not actively on task.

Obradović said the point of the study is not to criticize parents. “When we talk about parental over-engagement, we’re not saying it’s bad or obviously intrusive engagement,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with suggesting ideas or giving tips to children.”

But it’s important for parents to be aware that teachable moments have their place, she said. Helping a preschooler to complete a puzzle, for example, has been shown to support cognitive development and build independence. And guidance is important when children are not paying attention, violating rules or only half-heartedly engaging in an activity.

Sometimes, however, kids just need to be left alone or allowed to be in charge. This message may be especially relevant during the pandemic, Obradović noted, when parents may wonder how much direct involvement their children need, especially with everybody balancing new obligations.

“Have that honest conversation with yourself, especially if your kid is doing OK,” she said. “As stressful as this time is, try to find opportunities to let them take the lead.”

Media Contacts

Carrie Spector, Stanford Graduate School of Education: (650) 724-7384, [email protected]