The relationship between parental involvement and children's educational achievement in the Korean immigrant family.

INTRODUCTION The importance of parental involvement in a child's education has been heavily emphasized in the literature over the last decade (Epstein, 1991; Lareau, 1989). The results of these studies suggest that there are many different ways for parents to be involved with their child (Muller, 1995). And parents may become involved differently depending on the resources available to them (Baker & Stevenson, 1986). Moreover, children of different ethnic groups may need different kinds of involvement from parents. However, most of the research regarding parental involvement has been conducted with respect to Euro-American students; few research studies have investigated the issue with respect to minority students. As a result, at least as compared to Euro-American students, parental involvement in the educative environments of minority student groups has been insufficiently explored. Since the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, eliminating discriminatory national quotas, increasing numbers of Korean immigrants have come to the United States each year (Hurh & Kim, 1990). The United States Census Bureau began counting Koreans as a distinct ethnic group for the first time in 1970. There were 70,598 Koreans residing in the U.S. in 1970, and 354,593 by 1980. By 1990, this number had increased to 798,949 (U.S. Bureau of the Cehsus, 1990). This rapidly increasing Korean immigration to the United States spawned a rapidly growing second generation, the majority of whom are of school age (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990). However, in spite of the increasing number of school-aged children of Korean immigrants, these children have been underrepresented in sociological as well as educational studies. This study, therefore, seeks to respond to this lack of focus on the effects of parental involvement on the educational achievement of Korean American children. To study parent involvement in education is to identify one aspect of the process by which family background makes a difference in a child's academic success. Coleman (1988) has suggested that family background can be analytically separated into at least three distinct components: financial (physical) capital (family income or wealth), human capital (parent education), and social capital (relationship among actors). With respect to children's educational achievement, there is a direct relationship between parental financial and human capital and the successful learning experience of their children. However, while both of these factors are important determinants of children's educational success, there remains a substantial proportion of variation in educational success that is not accounted for by these variables alone. Coleman (1988) explains this gap insofar as children's educational success is also influenced by social capital, measured by parental involvement, in addition to the financial and human resources that are available. Thus, social capital mediates the relationship between parent's financial and human capital, on the one hand, and the development of the human capital of their children on the other (Coleman, 1988; Teachman, Paasch, & Carver, 1997). Prior to our examination of parental involvement and its effects on Korean-American families, however, we explore traditional Korean concepts concerning education and parental involvement. Traditionally, education was thought of and valued as the most important requirement for success in Korea (Sorenson, 1994). Since Koreans also deem education to have intrinsic worth, as well as serving as an indicator of social status, parents rarely leave educational success to chance; they generally subject their children to intense parental pressure to study hard and to succeed in the educational system. This high level of parental involvement and its positive effects on educational achievement are deeply embedded in the structure of Korean society (Sorenson, 1994). Since the largest waves of Korean immigration to the U. …