![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
Parental involvement in children’s education is a critical factor associated with children’s socio-emotional and educational outcomes. However, low parental involvement occurs more often among economically disadvantaged families. It is unclear what mechanisms may explain the association between family economic status and parents’ educational involvement. Using a large low-income sample from northwestern China (N = 12,724), we examined the influence of two proximal processes in parents – expectation for children’s highest educational attainment and perceived barriers to involve – in linking family economic status and the involvement of parents in children’s education. We also examined whether these relations may vary by parents’ level of education. Results of structural equation modeling suggested that parents’ expectation and perceived barriers mediated the relationship between family economic status and parental involvement. These relations were particularly prominent among highly educated mothers. Findings elucidate proximal processes in parents and highlight the unique effects of economic status and parents’ level of education in understanding the link between family economic status and parental educational involvement in Chinese families.
References
Section:
| Albert, K. A., Luzzo, D. A. (1999) The role of perceived barriers in career development: A social cognitive perspective. Journal of Counseling and Development 77(4): 431–436. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02470.x. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., Bedinger, S. D. (1994) When expectations work: Race and socioeconomic differences in school performance. Social Psychology Quarterly 57(4): 283–299. doi:10.2307/2787156. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, New York, NY: Freeman and Company. Google Scholar | |
| Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., Pastorelli, C. (1996) Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning. Child Development 67(3): 1206–1222. doi:10.2307/1131888. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Benner, A. D., Boyle, A. E., Sadler, S. (2016) Parental involvement and adolescents’ educational success: The roles of prior achievement and socioeconomic status. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 45(6): 1053–1064. doi:10.1007/s10964-016-0431-4. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Benner, A. D., Mistry, R. S. (2007) Congruence of mother and teacher educational expectations and low-income youth’s academic competence. Journal of Educational Psychology 99(1): 140–153. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.99.1.140. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994) Ecological models of human development. In: Husen, T., Postlethwaite, T. N. (eds) The international encyclopedia of education, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Elsevier Sciences, pp. 1643–1647. Google Scholar | |
| Bronfenbrenner, U., Morris, P. (1998) The ecology of developmental processes. In: Damon, W., Lerner, R. M. (eds) Handbook of child psychology, New York, NY: Wiley, pp. 993–1028. Google Scholar | |
| Camacho-Thompson, D. E., Gillen-O’Neel, C., Gonzales, N. A., Fuligni, A. J. (2016) Financial strain, major family life events, and parental academic involvement during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 45(6): 1065–1074. doi:10.1007/s10964-016-0443-0. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Cheung, C. S., Pomerantz, E. M. (2015) Value development underlies the benefits of parents’ involvement in children’s learning: A longitudinal investigation in the United States and China. Journal of Educational Psychology 107(1): 309–320. doi:10.1037/a0037458. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Comer, J. P. (1995) School power: Implications of an intervention project, New York, NY: Free Press. Google Scholar | |
| Conger, R. D., Ge, X., Elder, G. H., Lorenz, F. O., Simons, R. L. (1994) Economic stress, coercive family process, and developmental problems of adolescents. Child Development 65: 541–561. doi:10.2307/1131401. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Cook, T. D., Herman, M. R., Phillips, M., Settersen, R. A. (2002) Some ways in which neighborhoods, nuclear families, friendship groups, and schools jointly affect changes in early adolescent development. Child Development 73: 1283–1309. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00472. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Crosnoe, R., Mistry, R. S., Elder, G. J. (2002) Economic disadvantage, family dynamics, and adolescent enrollment in higher education. Journal of Marriage and Family 64(3): 690–702. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2002.00690.x. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Crozier, G. (1999) Is it a case of ‘We know when we’re not wanted’? The parents’ perspective on parent–teacher roles and relationships. Educational Research 41(3): 315–328. doi:10.1080/0013188990410306. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Davis-Kean, P. E. (2005) The influence of parent education and family income on child achievement: The indirect role of parental expectations and the home environment. Journal of Family Psychology 19(2): 294–304. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.19.2.294. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Dearing, E., Kreider, H., Simpkins, S., Weiss, H. B. (2006) Family involvement in school and low-income children’s literacy: Longitudinal associations between and within families. Journal of Educational Psychology 98(4): 653–664. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.98.4.653. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Eccles, J. S., Harold, R. D. (1996) Family involvement in children’s and adolescents’ schooling. In: Booth, A., Dunn, J. F. (eds) Family school links: How do they affect educational outcomes?, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 3–34. Google Scholar | |
| Englund, M. M., Luckner, A. E., Whaley, G. L., Egeland, B. (2004) Children’s achievement in early elementary school: Longitudinal effects of parental involvement, expectations, and quality of assistance. Journal of Educational Psychology 96(4): 723–730. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.96.4.723. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Enders, C. K. (2001) The impact of nonnormality on full information maximum-likelihood estimation for structural equation models with missing data. Psychological Methods 6(4): 352–370. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.6.4.352. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Epstein, J. L. (1987) Toward a theory of family-school connections: Teacher practices and parent involvement. In: Hurrelman, K., Kaufmann, F. X., Sel, F. L. (eds) Social intervention: Potential and constraints, Berlin: Walter de Gruyer, pp. 121–136. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G. (2002) Family, school, and community partnerships. In: Bornstein, M. H. (ed.) Handbook of parenting: Vol. 5. Practical issues in parenting, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 407–437. Google Scholar | |
| Gonzalez-DeHass, A. R., Willems, P. P., Doan Holbein, M. F. (2005) Examining the relationship between parental involvement and student motivation. Educational Psychology Review 17(2): 99–123. doi:10.1007/s10648-005-3949-7. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Grolnick, W. S., Friendly, R. W., Bellas, V. M. (2009) Parenting and children’s motivation at school. In: Wenzel, K. R., Wigfield, A. (eds) Handbook of motivation at school, New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, pp. 279–300. Google Scholar | |
| Halle, T. G., Kurtz-Costes, B., Mahoney, J. L. (1997) Family influences on school achievement in low-income, African American children. Journal of Educational Psychology 89(3): 527–537. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.89.3.527. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Hill, N. E., Castellino, D. R., Lansford, J. E., Nowlin, P., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S. (2004) Parent academic involvement as related to school behavior, achievement, and aspirations: Demographic variations across adolescence. Child Development 75(5): 1491–1509. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00753.x. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Hill, N. E., Tyson, D. F. (2009) Parental involvement in middle school: A meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology 45(3): 740–763. doi:10.1037/a0015362. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Hu, L., Bentler, P. M. (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling 6(1): 1–55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Jeynes, W. H. (2007) The relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary school student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Urban Education 42(1): 82–110. doi:10.1177/0042085906293818. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Kohl, G. O., Lengua, L. J., McMahon, R. J. (2000) Parent involvement in school: Conceptualizing multiple dimensions and their relations with family and demographic risk factors. Journal of School Psychology 38(6): 501–523. doi:10.1016/S0022-4405(00)00050-9. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Lau, E. H., Li, H., Rao, N. (2011) Parental involvement and children’ readiness for school in China. Educational Research 53(1): 95–113. doi:10.1080/00131881.2011.552243. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., Sheets, V. (2002) A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods 7: 83–104. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.7.1.83. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Mendez, J. L., & Fogle, L. M. (2002). Parental reports of preschool children's social behavior: Relations among peer play, language competence, and problem behavior. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 20(4), 370–385. doi:10.1177/073428290202000405. Google Scholar | |
| Murdock, T. B. (2000) Incorporating economic context into educational psychology: Methodological and conceptual challenges. Educational Psychologist 35(2): 113–124. doi:10.1207/S15326985EP3502_5. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Muthén, L. K., Muthén, B. O. (1998–2012) Mplus user’s guide, 7th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén. Google Scholar | |
| National Bureau of Statistics of China (2015). Annual statistics of household income in rural and urban families. http://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=C01. Accessed 27 October 2015. Google Scholar | |
| Ng, S. W. (1999) Home-school relations in Hong Kong: Separation or partnership. School Effectiveness and School Improvement 10: 551–560. doi: 10.1076/sesi.10.4.551.3488. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Parkes, A., Sweeting, H., Wight, D. (2015) Parenting stress and parent support among mothers with high and low education. Journal of Family Psychology 29(6): 907–918. doi:10.1037/fam0000129. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Pomerantz, E. M., Kim, E. M., Cheung, C. S. (2012) Parents’ involvement in children’s learning. In: Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Urdan, T., Graham, S., Royer, J. M., Zeidner, M. (eds) APA educational psychology handbook, Vol 2: Individual differences and cultural and contextual factors, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 417–440. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Pomerantz, E. M., Ng, F. F., Cheung, C. S., Qu, Y. (2014) Raising happy children who succeed in school: Lessons from China and the United States. Child Development Perspectives 8(2): 71–76. doi:10.1111/cdep.12063. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Reynolds, A. J. (1992) Comparing measures of parental involvement and their effects on academic achievement. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 7(3): 441–462. doi:10.1016/0885-2006(92)90031-S. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Satorra, A. (2000) Scaled and adjusted restricted tests in multi-sample analysis of moment structures. In: Heijmans, R. D. H., Pollock, D. S. G., Satorra, A. (eds) Innovations in multivariate statistical analysis, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 233–247. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Seginer, R. (2006) Parents’ educational involvement: A developmental ecology perspective. Parenting: Science and Practice 6(1): 1–48. doi:10.1207/s15327922par0601_1. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Semke, C. A., Garbacz, S. A., Kwon, K., Sheridan, S. M., Woods, K. E. (2010) Family involvement for children with disruptive behaviors: The role of parenting stress and motivational beliefs. Journal of School Psychology 48(4): 293–312. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2010.04.001. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
| Shumow, L., Vandell, D. L., Posner, J. (1999) Risk and resilience in the urban neighborhood: Predictors of academic performance among low-income elementary school children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 45(2): 309–331. Google Scholar | |
| Solem, M., Christophersen, K., Martinussen, M. (2011) Predicting parenting stress: Children’ behavioural problems and parents’ coping. Infant and Child Development 20(2): 162–180. doi:10.1002/icd.681. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Van Voorhis, F. L., Maier, M. F., Epstein, J. L., Lloyd, C. M. (2013) The impact of family involvement on the education of children ages 3 to 10: A focus on literacy and math achievement outcomes and social-emotional outcomes, MDRC. Google Scholar | |
| Waanders, C., Mendez, J. L., Downer, J. T. (2007) Parent characteristics, economic stress and neighborhood context as predictors of parent involvement in preschool children’s education. Journal of School Psychology 45(6): 619–636. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2007.07.003. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Yamamoto, Y., Holloway, S. D. (2010) Parental expectations and children’s academic performance in sociocultural context. Educational Psychology Review 22(3): 189–214. doi:10.1007/s10648-010-9121-z. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
