Abstract
Parental involvement in education has generally been shown to foster adolescent academic achievement, yet little is known about whether two important forms of parental involvement—how parents respond to academic underachievement and how parents provide cognitive stimulation in the home—are related to academic achievement for African American adolescents. This study uses two waves of data to evaluate whether these forms of parental involvement are related to future academic achievement for low-income African American adolescents and whether there are gender differences in these associations. African American mothers and adolescents (N = 226; 48% girls) were interviewed when adolescents were ages 14 and 16. Mothers of girls reported higher mean levels of punitive responses to grades than mothers of boys, but child gender did not moderate associations between parental involvement and academic achievement. Cognitive stimulation in the home was related to changes in academic achievement from 14 to 16 years of age, controlling for age 14 academic achievement. This study provides evidence that nonpunitive responses to inadequate grades and cognitive stimulation at home are linked to academic achievement among African American adolescents.
Highlights
Parental involvement in education has been defined as “parents’ work with schools and with their children to benefit their children’s educational outcomes and future success” (Hill et al 2004, p. 1491)
Unlike Tang and Davis-Kean (2015), which included a diverse sample of primarily white and African American adolescents, the current study found that cognitive stimulation in the home was related to changes in academic achievement over time and that punitive responses to inadequate academic achievement were not related to academic achievement
The results of this study suggest that nonpunitive responses to inadequate grades and cognitive stimulation in the home are related to positive academic achievement outcomes for African American adolescents
Summary
Parental involvement in education has been defined as “parents’ work with schools and with their children to benefit their children’s educational outcomes and future success” (Hill et al 2004, p. 1491). Low maternal involvement in education may be one factor contributing to lower levels of educational attainment in the offspring of teenage mothers. This may be especially true for younger mothers from more disadvantaged backgrounds who lack the education and resources to provide access to higherquality educational opportunities and advocate for their child’s education (SmithBattle 2007). Given the apparent salutary effects of parental involvement (Hill and Tyson 2009; Jeynes 2007; Pomerantz et al 2007), it is important to home in on the aspects of parental involvement that are most effective at promoting the academic achievement of low-income youth
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