Parental involvement: definition and outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to seek a definition of the concept of parental involvement and to examine the relationship that may exist between school achievement and specific parental involvement activities. Data were collected from 852 parents of sixth-grade students of both genders. It was found that the involvement of parents in their children's educational process is a complex behavior that may take different forms, not all of which are related to the child's school achievement. The following six types of parental involvement were identified through factor analysis: learning at home, volunteering and decision making at school, and four different parenting tendencies (emphasizing achievement, pressure, control, and personality development). Parenting through emphasis on achievement and through personality development had a positive, statistically significant correlation with actual school achievement, while parenting through pressure had a negative such correlation. A positive correlation was also found between parental volunteering at school and the child's actual school achievement. Learning at home and parenting through control had no significant correlation with achievement. The findings of this study suggest that the six distinct types of behavior that make up parental involvement have differential effects in relation to school achievement. © 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers.