Pomerantz, Ki, & Cheung (2012). Parents’ involvement in children’s learning.” – Article summary

Parent involvement in learning may be essential as parents provide the resources children depend on (1), children spend a substantial time outside of the school environment (2) and parents are a central relationship for children (3).

Parental involvement refers to parents’ commitment of resources to children’s learning. There is a distinction between parental involvement at school and at home. School-based involvement includes practices that require parents making contact with the school (e.g. attending school meetings). Home-based involvement refers to parents’ practices related to learning that take place outside of school (e.g. assisting children with homework; talking about academic issues). Home- and school-based involvement may be connected.

Parents’ expectations and values are not necessarily a sign of their commitment of resources to children’s learning. There is an association between expectations and values and children’s achievement and a link between parents’ involvement and children’s achievement. The magnitude of the association may depend on different forms of parental involvement. The association is not diminished when SES is taken into account. Parental practices can have negative effects (e.g. monitoring) or positive effects (e.g. direct assistance with homework). Parental involvement with homework may yield negative effects because this typically only occurs when a child experiences difficulty with achievement. However, parents tend to assist children who are having difficulty with homework and this improves how these children do in school.

The more involved parents are, the more children benefit over time in terms of their achievement. Highly involved parents in their children’s learning also tend to engage in other parenting practices which are beneficial for children’s achievement (e.g. autonomy support). It is possible that the influence of parents’ involvement accumulates over time so that small effects become large. Parental involvement may be more beneficial for children’s learning among families with children at risk for achievement problems (e.g. as a result of low SES).

Parental involvement may provide children with assets that allow them to achieve their full potential. There are several models through which parental involvement may lead to improved achievement:

1. Skill development models
   This holds that parental involvement fosters skill assets that enhance children’s achievement (i.e. cognitive or meta-cognitive skills). Parental involvement may enhance these skills because parents may gain knowledge about the children’s learning process which allows them to facilitate development (1), involvement may lead to accurate information about children’s abilities which can be used to foster skill development (2), it provides the child with opportunities to hone one’s skill through practice (3) and children receive extra attention from teachers when the teacher believes that the parents are involved (4).
2. Motivation development models
   This holds that parental involvement provides children with motivation assets (e.g. perceived competence; intrinsic motivation) that foster children’s engagement and their achievement in school. Parental involvement may do this in several ways:
   
   1. It may highlight the importance of school to children and children may internalize this view, leading to intrinsic motivation.
   2. It may demonstrate that taking control of one’s learning is an effective method of tackling challenges.
   3. It may increase children’s experience with learning activities which leads to self-views of competence.
3. Social development models
   This holds that parental involvement contributes to children’s achievement through facilitating social assets (e.g. improve behavioural conduct). When parents are more involved, they may understand the behaviour desired at school more and can give consistent messages about appropriate behaviour together with the teachers.
4. Emotion development models
   This holds that parental involvement contributes to children’s achievement through developing emotion assets in children. The experience of positive emotions may create openness to novel ideas and courses of action. Parental involvement provides children with support and validates children’s worth. It may promote emotional functioning and dampen negative emotional functioning (e.g. negative emotions).

These four mechanisms most likely interact with each other. The quality of parental involvement may be more important than the quantity of parental involvement. Parents involvement in children’s learning is optimal when it is structuring (1), supportive of the children’s autonomy (2), focused on the process of learning (3) and characterized by positive affect (4).

Structuring refers to parents’ organization of the environment so that it develops children’s competence. Parents provide clear and consistent guidelines (1), expectations (2), rules (3) and communicate predictable consequences for children’s actions (4). Structuring requires instruction that is adjusted to the child’s capacity. Structured involvement as opposed to chaotic involvement may foster skill motivation and social assets.

The structure needs to be accompanied by support of children’s autonomy. Children need to receive opportunities to take an active role in solving their own problems in the learning context. Autonomy support also includes taking children’s perspective. Parent’s autonomy-supportive involvement provides children with the experience of solving their own problems (1), it allows them to experience themselves as making their own choices (2), it is sensitive to children’s needs (3) and it may validate the self-worth of children (4).

A process focus emphasizes the importance and pleasure of effort and learning. This can include parents’ highlighting the effort children exerted in studying for a test. A person focus emphasizes the importance of stable attributes (e.g. intelligence). A process focus may lead to more intrinsic motivation and enhance emotional functioning.

Parents’ involvement which is positive in affect may facilitate emotion assets and provide children with skill, motivation and social assets. Positive affect may counter the negative affect that they often experience in the homework context. The positive affect needs to be unconditional and not only expressed when the child does well academically.

Which aspect of parental involvement is most important depends on the asset that one wants to improve or that a child lags in.

There are several attributes of parents that drive involvement:

1. Socioeconomic status (SES)
   Lower SES parents are less involved (1), monitor homework completion more often (2) and read to their children less often (3). This may be because lower SES parents have fewer resources (e.g. single mothers). Parents with a lower educational attainment may also believe it is not their role to facilitate learning.
2. Beliefs and goals
   Parental beliefs about the malleability of ability and the goals that may ensue determine the quality of parents’ involvement in children’s learning. Parents’ ability mindsets may shape the quality of their involvement through their influence on parents’ goals.

There are several attributes of children that drive involvement:

1. Competence experiences
   This includes someone’s actual attainment of competence (1), perceptions of their competence (2) and their reactions to threats to their competence (3). Competence experiences signal that parents’ resources are needed to assist children in overcoming difficulty leading to increased involvement.
2. Developmental phase
   Involvement declines with developmental phase (e.g. childhood vs. adolescence). This may partially be due to desire for autonomy. Less involvement may be detrimental except for homework for early adolescents, who value autonomy a lot.

There are several attributes of environments that drive involvements:

1. Culture
   Cultural beliefs may shape the degree to which parents are involved. Not speaking English while residing in an English-speaking country may complicate being involved at school.
2. Schools
   The degree to which a school allows and stimulates involvement influences parents’ involvement. A school environment which focuses on mastery rather than performance may lead to parents adopting mastery goals which fosters optimal involvement.