A decade ago, Hoover‐Dempsey and Sandler offered a model of the parental involvement process that focused on understanding why parents become involved in their children’s education and how their involvement influences student outcomes. Since then, we and others have conducted conceptual and empirical work to enhance understanding of processes examined in the model. In this article (companion to Walker and colleagues’ article about scale development on the model in this issue), we review recent work on constructs central to the model’s initial question: Why do parents become involved in children’s education? Based on this review, we offer suggestions for (1) research that may deepen understanding of parents’ motivations for involvement and (2) school and family practices that may strengthen the incidence and effectiveness of parental involvement across varied school communities.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/499194

Why Do Parents Become Involved? Research Findings and Implications

This study examined the ability of a theoretical model to predict types and levels of parental involvement during the elementary and middle school years. Predictor variables included parents' motivational beliefs about involvement, perceptions of invitations to involvement from others, and perceived life context variables. Analyses of responses from 853 parents of 1st- through 6th-grade students enrolled in an ethnically diverse metropolitan public school system in the mid-southern United States revealed that model constructs predicted significant portions of variance in parents' home- and school-based involvement even when controlling for family socioeconomic status. The predictive power of specific model constructs differed for elementary and middle school parents. Results are discussed in terms of research on parental involvement and school practice.

Parents' motivations for involvement in children's education: An empirical test of a theoretical model of parental involvement.

In English : This literature review provides an overview of education studies that have been guided by self-determination theory (SDT). First, the authors examine studies that have assessed motivation based on SDT. Second, the authors detail research that has focussed on the linkages between motivation types and students' behavioural, affective, and cognitive outcomes. Third, the authors present studies on how learning contexts (parents, teachers) contribute to students' motivational resources. The authors conclude that the motivation types proposed by SDT are important for understanding how students thrive and succeed at school. The authors also highlight the significant role played by teachers and parents in the development of student motivation. The authors conclude with a summary of the benefits of self-motivation for learning and offer some recommendations for the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) Resume en francais (langue de l'article en anglais) : Le present article procure une vue d'ensemble des etudes sur l'education qui ont ete guidees par la theorie de l'autodetermination. En premier lieu, nous examinons les etudes qui ont evalue la motivation fondee sur la theorie de l'autodetermination. Nous expliquons ensuite la recherche portant sur les liens existant entre les types de motivation et les resultats des etudiants en matiere de comportement et de composantes affectives et cognitives. Nous presentons aussi les etudes sur les contextes d'apprentissage (parents, enseignants) qui contribuent aux ressources motivationnelles des etudiants. Nous en deduisons que les types de motivation proposes par la theorie de l'autodetermination permettent de comprendre les elements qui permettent aux etudiants de se demarquer et de reussir en milieu scolaire. Nous mettons aussi en relief le role important que jouent les enseignants et les parents dans le developpement de la motivation de l'eudiant. En conclusion, nous presentons un resume des bienfaits de l'automotivation dans le cadre de l'apprentissage et offrons quelques recommandations pertinentes au domaine en question. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

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Optimal learning in optimal contexts: The role of self-determination in education

Parent involvement (PI) in education is associated with positive outcomes for students; however, little is known about how parents decide to be involved in children's education. On the basis of the K. V. Hoover-Dempsey and H. M. Sandler (1995, 1997) model of parent decision making, the authors examined the relationship among 4 parent variables (role construction, sense of efficacy, resources, and perceptions of teacher invitations) with PI activities at home and school. The authors surveyed parents of elementary students from an urban district. Specific invitations from teachers had the largest effect on the 3 types of parent involvement. Parents' sense of efficacy and level of resources were less influential than anticipated. The authors discuss implications of the findings for teacher and school practices, policy development, and future research.

Parent Involvement in Education: Toward an Understanding of Parents' Decision Making

In this paper, we review research on parental expectations and their effects on student achievement within and across diverse racial and ethnic groups. Our review suggests that the level of parental expectations varies by racial/ethnic group, and that students' previous academic performance is a less influential determinant of parental expectations among racial/ethnic minority parents than among European American parents. To explain this pattern, we identify three processes associated with race/ethnicity that moderate the relation between students' previous performance and parental expectations. Our review also indicates that the relation of parental expectations to concurrent or future student achievement outcomes is weaker for racial/ethnic minority families than for European American families. We describe four mediating processes by which high parental expectations may influence children's academic trajectories and show how these processes are associated with racial/ethnic status. The article concludes with a discussion of educational implications as well as suggestions for future research.

/pdf/parental-expectations-and-children-s-academic-performance-in-1kp724f27a.pdf

Parental Expectations and Children's Academic Performance in Sociocultural Context

In 1995 and 1997 Hoover‐Dempsey and Sandler proposed a theoretical model of the parental involvement process. Taking a psychological perspective, the model explained why parents become involved in their children’s education and how their involvement makes a difference in student outcomes. In this article we describe our efforts to operationalize Hoover‐Dempsey and Sandler’s explanation and how, in turn, those efforts led to revisions in their theoretical model. Because investigations of the full model are ongoing, in this article we discuss only revisions in the original model’s first 2 levels, which focus on psychological and contextual contributors to forms of parent involvement. We conclude with a discussion of how our work exemplifies the reciprocal relation between theory and measurement and suggest how other researchers might use our scales to assess links between parents’ psychological motivations for involvement and their involvement behavior.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/499193

Andrew S. Wilkins

Papers

Why Do Parents Become Involved? Research Findings and Implications

Parental Involvement: Model Revision through Scale Development