Parental school involvement in relation to children's grades and adaptation to school

Abstract

From an ecological perspective, it is important to examine linkages among key settings in the child's life. The current study focuses on parents' involvement in children's education both at school and at home. Ninety-one families with school-aged children (91 fathers and 91 mothers) participated in a survey study assessing the levels of parental involvement (direct at school site, homework, extracurricular educational activities, and interpersonal involvement) and their relationship to children's grades and to parental reports of children's anxiety about, and enjoyment of, school. Analyses demonstrated the unique contributions made by fathers and by mothers to the explained variance in children's grades and adaptation to school. Mothers' and fathers' school involvement had differential associations with sons' and daughters' school-related outcomes. Support was found for both the transactional and interactional models of parent-child socialization. Associations between levels of parental school involvement and child outcomes were not always positively signed. Findings highlight the complexity of parental school involvement and hold implications for families and schools as they attempt to facilitate the types of involvement that are high leverage points for children's academic development.