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Connection Collection

Annotation from the Connection Collection

You are viewing a record from the Connection Collection, a searchable annotated bibliography database. It links you with research-based information that you can use to connect schools, families, and communities.

Title:Parent academic involvement as related to school behavior, achievement, and aspirations: Demographic variations across adolescence
Author:Hill, N. E., Castellino, D. R., Lansford, J. E., Nowlin, P., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., et al.
Year:2004
Resource Type:Journal Article
Publication
Information:
Child Development, 75(5)

pp. 1491-1509
Connection:School-Family
Education Level:Middle, High
Literature type:Research and Evaluation

Annotation:
This study examines a longitudinal model of parent academic involvement, behavioral problems, achievement, and aspirations. Results indicated that parents with more education tend to be more involved with their adolescents' schooling and had adolescents with fewer behavioral problems and higher education aspirations. For parents with less education, results suggested that parental involvement is positively related to their adolescents' aspirations but was not related to adolescents' behavior or achievement. Furthermore, results indicated that parental academic involvement is related to achievement for African American adolescents but not for European American adolescents. Data were collected from 463 adolescents in grades 7 (approximately 12 years old) through 11 (approximately 16 years old) who were recruited in kindergarten to be involved in a longitudinal study of development. The schools used in the sampling were from a group chosen to represent diversity with regard to ethnicity, percentage of children participating in a school lunch program, and projected rate of school drop out; there was an explicit representation of high-risk schools at a rate of one third. Parental involvement was rated by teachers, adolescents, and mothers. This study suggests that parental academic involvement does matter in middle and high school, but the effects of parental involvement differ across parental education levels and ethnicity. A limitation of the study is that the measures of parental involvement are more appropriate for parents of elementary school students. Further research needs to be conducted in order to develop measures most appropriate for assessing parental academic involvement at the middle and high school levels. Though this study reveals correlations between parent involvement and achievement, future research in this area should include randomized controlled trials of specific intervention strategies in order to determine the effectiveness of specific strategies.

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