Parental Involvement and the Academic Achievement of Mexican American Youths: What Kinds of Involvement in Youths' Education Matter Most?

Abstract

Parental involvement in education is a key focus of current policies and programs aimed at improving the academic outcomes of students at risk for academic underachievement. This study examines six forms of parental involvement in education to determine which forms of involvement have the strongest relationships with youths' academic outcomes. Using nationally representative data (N = 1,609) from the National Education Longitudinal Survey, this study focuses specifically on Mexican American families and youths, a population at high risk for academic underperformance. Findings show that the positive effects of parental involvement among Mexican American parents occur through involvement in the home, whereas parental involvement in school organizations is not associated with youths' achievement. Parents' investment of financial resources in their children's education was found to have a somewhat higher impact on achievement than forms of involvement that require parents' investment of time. Findings also suggest that the impact of these forms of parental involvement occurs prior to high school. KEY WORDS: academic achievement; Mexican American youths; parent involvement ********** Policy and program interventions aimed at improving children's academic outcomes often focus on increasing parental involvement. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (RL. 107-110) highlights parental involvement as a key factor in improving academic outcomes, particularly for children attending schools that serve high proportions of low-income children (Title 1 schools). Indeed, parental involvement appears to be an important factor in improving children's academic outcomes, and a sizeable body of work generally points to the positive effects of parents' naturally occurring involvement (for a recent review, see Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwack, 2007). However, less is known about the effects of parental involvement on academic outcomes among children of color, particularly Latino children (Jeynes, 2003). Effects of parental involvement in academics appear to differ among racial-ethnic groups (Desimone, 1999) and among different Latino nationality groups (Figueroa-Moseley, Ramey, Keltner, & Lanzi, 2006). In addition, different types of parental involvement have distinct relationships with academic outcomes (Domina, 2005; Jeynes, 2003; Pomerantz et al., 2007). Consequently, to understand the role of parental involvement and its potential utility for intervention in promoting academic achievement among children of color, and particularly Latino children, more studies that carefully examine the role of multiple forms of involvement with diverse samples are needed. Of critical importance are studies focused on Mexican American families, both those that have recently migrated and those that have resided in the United States for generations. Mexican Americans are by far the largest and fastest growing population of Latinos in the United States, accounting for 65% of U.S. Latinos and 9.7% of the entire U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). Among Latino groups, Mexican Americans are at gravest risk for living in poverty, in part because of lower rates of high school completion and college attendance within this group (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). The likelihood of high school dropout is two to four times higher for Mexican American students than for Cuban and South American youths, even after controlling for factors such as socioeconomic status (Driscoll, 1999; Landale, Oropesa, & Llanes, 1998). Indicators of academic achievement, such as grades and performance on standardized tests, are, on average, lower among Mexican American children than among children from other immigrant and native-born groups (Ferguson, 2001; Kao & Thompson, 2003; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). Thus, interventions to address the academic disparities faced by Mexican American children and youths are much needed. …