{"id":12122,"date":"2019-11-13T07:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T07:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/?p=12122"},"modified":"2024-05-11T22:33:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T21:33:27","slug":"parental-involvement-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-involvement-in-education\/","title":{"rendered":"What kind of parental involvement in education works best?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The links between parental involvement in education and children\u2019s performance at school are statistically significant, though small. The only exception is parents\u2019 assistance with homework; this correlates with lower achievement in school.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A recent review of 448 studies covering 480,830 families confirms that parental involvement in their children\u2019s education has a number of positive effects.<\/p>\n<p>Previous research had produced mixed results. This synthesis, known as a meta-analysis, was able to identify links more reliably.<\/p>\n<p>Parents who want to support their children\u2019s early performance at school should consider prioritising learning-related family activities, such as trips to museums, libraries and events, and <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/shared-book-reading\/\">reading books together<\/a>. Getting involved at your children\u2019s school is more strongly correlated with positive outcomes when the child is younger and less so at high school age.<\/p>\n<p>The links between parental involvement in education and children\u2019s improved performance at school are statistically significant, though small. The only exception is when parents help with homework, which correlates with lower achievement in school.<\/p>\n<p>Parents involvement in education is also positively correlated with children\u2019s social and emotional development more generally.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_79_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title ez-toc-toggle\" style=\"cursor:pointer\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #121c4e;color:#121c4e\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #121c4e;color:#121c4e\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-involvement-in-education\/#Types_of_parental_involvement_in_education\" >Types of parental involvement in education<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-involvement-in-education\/#Types_of_child_development_outcomes_from_parental_involvement_in_education\" >Types of child development outcomes from parental involvement in education<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-involvement-in-education\/#Correlations_between_child_development_outcomes_and_parental_involvement_in_education\" >Correlations between child development outcomes and parental involvement in education<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-involvement-in-education\/#Parental_involvement_in_education_across_child_age_parental_status_and_race\" >Parental involvement in education across child age, parental status and race<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-involvement-in-education\/#Mechanisms\" >Mechanisms<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Types_of_parental_involvement_in_education\"><\/span>Types of parental involvement in education<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The research outlines five types of parental involvement in education, some of them school-based and some home-based.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>School-based<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>Home-based<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>Participation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., attendance at parent-teacher conferences, open houses, school plays, school sales, volunteering in the classroom and on school trips, communicating with teachers<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., membership of parent-teacher association, serving on the school board<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>Discussion and encouragement<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., discussion with child about school, knowledge about the school, being encouraging about learning<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cognitive stimulation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., trips to museums\/libraries\/concerts, reading books together<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Involvement in homework<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., helping directly or making an environment conducive to homework<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Types_of_child_development_outcomes_from_parental_involvement_in_education\"><\/span>Types of child development outcomes from parental involvement in education<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Six child development outcomes are commonly studied.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>Academic \/ cognitive development<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>Social and emotional development<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>Academic achievement<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., grades, scores, teacher assessments<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., persistence, highest grade completed, low truancy, school completion, classroom behavior<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Motivation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g. ,Valuing of school, high expectations<\/td>\n<td width=\"300\"><strong>Social development<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., cooperation, not bullying<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Emotional development<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., self-esteem, managing emotions, less depression<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Low likelihood of delinquency<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>E.g., substance abuse, smoking, aggression, destruction of property<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Correlations_between_child_development_outcomes_and_parental_involvement_in_education\"><\/span>Correlations between child development outcomes and parental involvement in education<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Both kinds of parents\u2019 <strong>school-based involvement<\/strong> are associated with children doing better on all measures. The correlations are small but statistically significant.<\/p>\n<p>Parents\u2019 <strong>home-based involvement<\/strong> is also associated with improvements, again small in scale and with much variability. The correlation between home-based involvement and <strong>motivation<\/strong> is stronger than for other child outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Parental involvement in education at school and at home generally showed similar levels of correlation with child outcomes. Only in relation to <strong>motivation at high school <\/strong>did parents\u2019 involvement in the school show less correlation than their involvement at home.<\/p>\n<p>Parents\u2019 <strong>discussion and encouragement<\/strong> has a particular significance. It is more influential than <strong>cognitive stimulation<\/strong> in relation to the <strong>child\u2019s engagement at school<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The correlation between parents\u2019 helping with homework and children\u2019s achievement, unlike all the other correlations, is in the other direction: children are a little likely to do <strong>less<\/strong> well as parents become more involved in homework. The way some parents help may actually undermine children\u2019s own development of skills. On the other hand, the correlation could be causal the other way: children who do less well may get more help from their parents.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Parental_involvement_in_education_across_child_age_parental_status_and_race\"><\/span>Parental involvement in education across child age, parental status and race<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The researchers looked at variations in the link between child development outcomes and parental involvement in education across different ages, parents\u2019 socioeconomic status and parents\u2019 race.<\/p>\n<p><u>Age of child<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Cognitive stimulation appears to be particularly significant for preschool children. School involvement appears to be less significant for high school children.<\/p>\n<p><u>Parents\u2019 socioeconomic status<\/u><\/p>\n<p>The positive correlation between parental involvement in education and child outcomes exists across families of all income levels. It might be expected that parental involvement in education makes a bigger difference in families where education and income are more limited. However, the data don\u2019t reflect this. Perhaps such additional impact is counterbalanced by the fact that support from parents with less education is less effective.<\/p>\n<p><u>Parents\u2019 race<\/u><\/p>\n<p>The involvement of parents in school has more of a positive correlation with outcomes for children in African American and European American families than in Asian American and Hispanic American families. Parental discussion and engagement has a positive correlation with outcomes across all races, but particularly among European American families.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Mechanisms\"><\/span>Mechanisms<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>There are two broad schools of thought about how parental involvement in education encourages better outcomes for the children.<\/p>\n<p>Sociologists consider increased social capital. Involved parents are building social networks that provide valuable information to help children and provide access to additional resources. Teachers may give more attention to children with highly involved parents.<\/p>\n<p>Developmental psychologists describe how parental involvement in education improves \u2018scaffolding\u2019 for children\u2019s development. Involved parents may know more about what children are learning in school and so can help them more effectively at home. Involved parents may be more effective in supporting children\u2019s engagement and motivation in learning. Involved parents can also help children better understand social expectations at school and show children how much they are cared for. Stronger social and emotional development further supports the ability to learn.<\/p>\n<div class=\"retrofit-references\">\n<h4>References<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 1.8em;\"><em>\u00a0Barger MM, Moorman Kim E, Kuncel NR &amp; Pomerantz EM (2019), <a href=\"https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/record\/2019-38879-001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The relation between parents\u2019 involvement in children\u2019s schooling and children\u2019s adjustment: A meta-analysis<\/a>, Psychological Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The links between parental involvement in education and children\u2019s performance at school are statistically significant, though small. The only exception is parents\u2019 assistance with homework; this correlates with lower achievement in school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":12120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[32,306,6],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12122"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20697,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12122\/revisions\/20697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}