Parental attributions and parental involvement

Abstract

This study examined the existing relation between parental attributions of their child's achievement, their belief in getting involved in the child's educational process and their actual behavior regarding this involvement. The participating parents (N = 313) were asked to complete the Parental Attributions Scale and the Parental Involvement Scale. They were also asked to state to what degree they believed that parents in general and they personally as parents should get involved in their children's educational affairs. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that attributing achievement to internal and controllable factors such as the parent's own effort influenced positively the strength of the "getting involved" belief. This in turn had a strong effect on actual parental involvement activity. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.