Bringing Parents to School: The Effect of Invitations from School, Teacher, and Child on Parental Involvement in Middle Schools

Abstract

Parental involvement in children's school activities is beneficial for children's academic and social competence. However, parental involvement tends to decrease as children become older and it is therefore important to promote parental involvement at the secondary level, especially in middle schools. Frequent, positive home–school communications have been found to promote parental participation in children's educational activities and parental perceptions of invitations for participation in school activities are positively associated with parental involvement. Consequently, the differential effect of three types of invitations (i.e., general school invitation, an additional specific teacher invitation, and an additional specific child invitation) on parents' attendance at a special science event held at their child's school was studied in three middle schools. Results from multilevel logistic regression analysis showed the additional specific teacher invitation to be a better predictor of parental attendance when compared to the additional child invitation and general invitation only. Parents who agreed to attend were shown to be about 14 times more likely to actually attend. Student grade level had no effect on parent attendance. Limitations and implications for schools also were presented.