Parent Involvement and Mathematics Achievement: Contrast Across Racial and Ethnic Groups

Abstract

The authors examined the relationships of 3 dimensions of parent involvement (family obligations, family norms, and parent information networks) to 12th-grade students' mathematics achievement and ways in which these relationships varied across 4 racial and ethnic groups (i.e., Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians). Using 4-year longitudinal data from the National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988 (NELS: 88), the authors factor analyzed 39 parent involvement variables to create 9 composites, whose relationship to 12th graders' mathematics scores were assessed with ordinary least squares regression. Findings indicate that parent involvement as a form of social capital was generally a salient indicator for explaining the mathematics achievement of the Caucasian students. Close parent-teenager relationship was 1 of the major ways in which minority (except Hispanic) families positively influenced the senior mathematics outcome. Regardless of racial or ethnic background, educational expectation had the strongest positive effect on 12th graders' mathematics achievement.