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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 76 (2013) 706 – 710

5th International Conference EDU-WORLD 2012 - Education Facing Contemporary World

Issues

Relationship between Parental Involvement/ Attitude and

Children’s School Achievements
Daniela Porumbuª*, Daniela Veronica Necúoib
Transilvania University of Brasov, Eroilor Street, No. 29, Brasov, 500036, Romania
Transilvania University of Brasov, Eroilor Street, No. 29, Brasov, 500036, Romania

Abstract

Societies in general, and educators, in particular, consider that family and parental involvement are the main factors
responsible for many successes but also for many ills in education today. The purpose of this study was to review the research
literature on the relationship between parental involvement or attitude and children’s academic achievement. Some of the
variables that define parental involvement or attitude found in the literature were: parenting style, parental expectations and
aspirations, home rules and parental supervision, communication between parents and children, children’s home activities,
parental attitude towards school (checking children’s homework, parents’ communication with teachers, and parental
involvement in children’s school activities). The review process consisted of gathering and reviewing articles, meta-analyses,
and reviews relating to the parental involvement and its influence on children’s school achievement at the middle and high-
school levels. Findings from the review revealed several variables that are consistently associated with high levels of
academic achievement: an authoritative parenting style, parental high and clear expectations and aspirations for their
children’s school results, communication between parents and children about their school activities and plans for the future,
parents’ communication with teachers regarding their child’s progress or difficulties. In the end we discuss some of the main
limitations of the studies that include the following: the use of non-experimental research designs, inconsistency in defining
the concept of parental involvement in different studies, inconsistency of the results across cultures, neglecting the moderating
role of some socio-demographic factors as family structure or socio-economic status, number of children in the family, etc.
The findings from this review highlight the importance of parental influence on children’s academic achievement. Therefore,
in designing educational policies and different educational interventions we should be more aware of the intervention of this
major factor in children’s success. Schools should re-examine their policies regarding parental involvement and develop an
educational strategy in which family and teachers assume mutual responsibility for children’s outcomes.

2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
© 2012
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the University of Pitesti, Romania

* Daniela Porumbu. Tel.: +40-723-368-889

E-mail address: porumbudana_bv@yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the University of Pitesti, Romania
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.04.191
 Daniela Porumbu and Daniela Veronica Necşoi / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 76 (2013) 706 – 710 707

Keywords: parental involvement, parenting style, children’s school achievements

1. Introduction

Family is a fundamental factor which contributes to child development. For a child, family is the first social
and educational environment. Therefore, a right beginning is the one that makes the most important part of
child’s education. Educational influences of families on children may manifest either directly - through more or
less directed actions, or indirectly - through behaviour models offered by family members and through the
existing psychosocial climate in the family. The more or less conscious educational strategies of families largely
determine personality development and educational achievement of children. The educational practices of parents
and their impact on the future intellectual, social and emotional development of the child is one of the variables
that have been extensively studied in the literature [1-6].
This paper examines the research literature on the relationship between parental involvement and academic
achievement. Therefore, in this review four questions emerge. First, how parental involvement is defined in the
literature? Second, to what degree is parental involvement associated with higher levels of school achievement
among students from middle and high-school levels? Third, what specific aspects of parental involvement help
students the most? Finally, does the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement hold
across different groups?

2. Method

To answer the four research question we reviewed the existing literature on the topic. To obtain the studies
used in this review, a search was performed using social science research databases, to find studies examining the
relationship between parental involvement and the academic achievements of students. The search terms
included: parental involvement, parenting style, parental support, parental expectations, academic achievement,
and several other terms. Reference sections from journal articles on parental involvement were also examined to
obtain additional research articles. Finally, 26 documents were included in the review. We selected articles, meta-
analyses, and reviews that were relevant to the discussed subject, were focused on secondary school level, and
described the relevance of specific variables of parental involvement.

3. Literature review results

3.1. Parental involvement – conceptualization

To answer the first research question, we analysed the way parental involvement is defined in various studies.
Singh et al. [7] identified four components of parental involvement, namely: parental aspirations for children’s
education (parents’ hopes and expectations for the child’s continuing education), parent-child communication
about school; home-structure (the degree of discipline exerted by the parents), and parental participation in
school related activities.
Jeynes [5] performed a meta-analysis examining the relationship between parental involvement and
secondary school student academic achievement and concluded that parental involvement is defined as parental
participation in the educational processes and experiences of their children. In addition, the Jeynes study uses
specific parental involvement variables such as: general parental involvement (includes the overall measure of
parental involvement), specific parental involvement (includes a specific measure of parental involvement, as
distinguished from other measures of parental involvement used in the study), parental expectations (the degree
to which a student’s parents maintain high expectations of the student’s ability to achieve at high levels),
attendance and participation (whether and how frequently parents attend and participate in school functions and
activities), communication (the extent to which parents and their children communicate about school activities
708 Daniela Porumbu and Daniela Veronica Necşoi / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 76 (2013) 706 – 710

and report a high level of communication overall), homework (the extent to which parents check their children’s
homework before the child handed it in to his or her teacher), parental style (the extent to which a parent
demonstrates a supportive and helpful parenting approach).
In their review of the relationship between parental involvement and secondary school students’ academic
achievement, Shute and her colleagues [6] made a comprehensive description of the parental involvement
variable. They grouped the specific aspects that refer to parental involvement in two main categories: home
activities and school activities. The first category includes: parent – child discussion about school (conversations
between parents and their children relating to school activities, programs, school plans), parental aspirations and
expectations (the degree to which parents presume that their children will perform well in school), parenting style
(a complex set of behaviours and/ or attitudes by which parents demonstrate and communicate the values,
behaviours and standards that their children are expected to adopt), reading at home (parental modelling and
support of child’s reading activity), parents checking child’s homework, home rules and supervision. The second
category includes specific variables such as: parent – teacher communication, parents attending school
organisations, parents volunteering at school.

3.2. The impact of parental involvement (overall construct and its specific dimensions) on school achievements

Most of the reviewed literature has consistently demonstrated the importance of parental involvement in
facilitating academic achievement of children [4-6]. Parental involvement dimensions were proved to be stronger
predictors of school achievement than some family socio-demographic characteristics [1-3].
Among the specific aspects of parental involvement influencing school outcomes, parenting style and parents’
expectations and aspirations proved to be the most important variables. In their meta-analysis of 25 studies, Fan
and Chen [8] performed average correlations between parental involvement (overall construct and specific
aspects of it) and school achievement. Parental involvement variables included parental aspirations and
expectations for their children education, communication with children about school-related matters, parental
supervision, and parental participation in school activities. The results showed that the largest correlation was
between parents’ aspirations and expectations for children’s education (average r = .40), and the smallest
correlation referred to parents’ supervision of the child’s activities (average r = .09). Similarly, Jeynes [5], in his
meta-analysis of 52 studies, found that the effect size for parental expectations was the largest (Hedges’s g = .88,
p<.0001) among all the other variables (parenting style, g = .40, p<.05; communication between parents and
child, g = .32, p<.05; parents checking homework, g = .38, p<.05). Analyzing 74 documents (journal articles,
book chapters, reports, extensive literature reviews, and meta-analyses), Shute et al. [6] concluded that academic
achievement associates with variables like: discussions about school activities between parent and child (positive
correlation), parents’ aspirations/ expectations for their children (positive correlation), and parental styles,
particularly authoritative style (positive correlation) and authoritarian and permissive styles (negative
correlation).
Speaking of parenting style, a number of studies have also indicated that authoritarian and permissive
parenting styles are associated with low academic achievement [9-13] and higher levels of school problems [9].
But, the majority of studies analysing the relationship between parenting style and children’s school achievement
have consistently shown that children have better school outcomes if their parents are more authoritative [5, 6,
13-19]. Authoritative parenting style is defined by parents who develop and maintain close, warmth relationships
with their children, while at the same time providing supervision and guidelines and granting psychological
autonomy to them. Parents manifesting this educational style also demonstrate trust and approachability toward
their children, aspects which encourage children to discuss school issues and school expectations with the adults.
Durkin [20] sets out three reasons which stand for the relationship between authoritative parenting style and
academic achievement: first he argues that parents with authoritative style provide emotional security to their
children, giving them a sense of calm and autonomy, and also, they assist their children to be successful in school
activities. Secondly, these parents explain their children the consequences of their actions. Thus, children acquire
a sense of knowledge and understanding of their parents’ principles, desires, and goals which are associated with
 Daniela Porumbu and Daniela Veronica Necşoi / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 76 (2013) 706 – 710 709

school activities. Thirdly, he sustains that authoritative parents are involved in reciprocal contact with their
children. They support their children, encourage them to perform well in school, and explain the need for
education in order to become a successful adult.
Although each parental involvement dimension described above has a clear relationship with students’
academic achievement, the issue is more complex than that. For instance several studies have indicated that there
are some family characteristics (e.g. parents’ educational level, parents’ socio-economic status, family size,
family structure, the place of the children within the family) which can intervene as predictors of academic
achievement. Some conclusions were that children from lower income, less educated, single parent and large
families perform less well in school than those from higher income, better-educated, two-parent and small
families [21-24]. Predominantly, the educational level of parents predicts more of the variability in academic
achievement than do other family demographic characteristics [3, 24]. Other studies have attempted to
demonstrate the moderating effect of family variables on school achievement. Some studies showed that the
relationship between parental dimensions and children school achievement can be generalised trough various
socio-economic levels and family structures, which suggests that family characteristics do not have a moderating
role in this relationship [3, 5, 25]. On the contrary, Dearing et al. [26] argued that the relationship between
parental involvement and school achievement is influenced by mother’s level of education.

3.3. Limitations of the studies

In our review on relationship between parental involvement and school achievement, in agreement with Shute et
al. [6], we noted some limitations of the studies consulted, namely:
• The use of non-experimental research designs which makes difficult to isolate causal relationships;
• Inconsistency in defining the concept of parental involvement in different studies, which creates difficulties in
interpreting the research results;
• Inconsistency of the results across cultures, which determine the inability to generalize the results;
• Disregard of the moderating role of some socio-demographic factors as family structure or socio-economic
status, number of children in the family, etc.
• Investigation of one parent, mothers in general, assuming that the other parent acts similarly with the
questioned parent, without taking into consideration the separate, unique contribution of the non-questioned
parent.

Conclusions

Our review supports the evidence that parental involvement (in terms of overall construct but also in terms of
specific dimensions) is positively associated with school achievement. Findings suggest that variables that are
consistently associated with high levels of academic achievement are: an authoritative parenting style, parental
high and clear expectations and aspirations for their children’s school results, communication between parents
and children about their school activities and plans for the future. Therefore, in order to enable parents to grow in
their ability to help their children get the best education possible, parental involvement has to be viewed as a
process rather than a one-time event [6]. This means that schools have to re-examine their policies regarding
parental involvement and develop an educational strategy that leads to the multiplication and diversification of
interpersonal interactions between families and school’s members, a strategy in which family and teachers
assume mutual responsibility for children’s outcomes. In order to understand and to answer to family needs,
teachers may need to rethink their professional role. For instance, it is clear that they are not only teachers but
they are also psycho-pedagogical counsellors for the families they serve.
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