Parent Involvement and Student Academic Performance: A Multiple Mediational Analysis By:

Parent involvement in a child's education is consistently found to be positively associated with a child's academic performance. However, there has been little investigation of the mechanisms that explain this association. The present study examines two potential mechanisms of this association: the child's perception of cognitive competence and the quality of the student–teacher relationship. This study used a sample of 158 seven-year-old participants, their mothers, and their teachers. Results indicated a statistically significant association between parent involvement and a child's academic performance, over and above the impact of the child's intelligence. A multiple mediation model indicated that the child's perception of cognitive competence fully mediated the relation between parent involvement and the child's performance on a standardized achievement test. The quality of the student–teacher relationship fully mediated the relation between parent involvement and teacher ratings of the child's classroom academic performance. Limitations, future research directions, and implications for public policy initiatives are discussed. Article: Parent involvement in a child's early education is consistently found to be positively associated with a child's academic performance (Hara & Burke, 1998; Hill & Craft, 2003; Marcon, 1999; Stevenson & Baker, 1987). Specifically, children whose parents are more involved in their education have higher levels of academic performance than children whose parents are involved to a lesser degree. The influence of parent involvement on academic success has not only been noted among researchers, but also among policy makers who have integrated efforts aimed at increasing parent involvement into broader educational policy initiatives. Coupled with these findings of the importance of early academic success, a child's academic success has been found to be relatively stable after early elementary school (Entwisle & Hayduk, 1988; Pedersen, Faucher, & Eaton, 1978). Therefore, it is important to examine factors that contribute to early academic success and that are amenable to change. Researchers have reported that parent–child interactions, specifically stimulating and responsive parenting practices, are important influences on a child's academic development (Christian, Morrison, & Bryant, 1998; Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy, 2000). By examining specific parenting practices that are amenable to change, such as parent involvement, and the mechanisms by which these practices influence academic performance, programs may be developed to increase a child's academic performance. While parent involvement has been found to be related to increased academic performance, the specific mechanisms through which parent involvement exerts its influence on a child's academic performance are not yet fully understood (Hill & Craft, 2003). Understanding these mechanisms would inform further research and policy initiatives and may lead to the development of more effective intervention programs designed to increase children's academic performance. MODELS OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT Parent involvement has been defined and measured in multiple ways, including activities that parents engage in at home and at school and positive attitudes parents have toward their child's education, school, and teacher (Epstein, 1996; Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994; Kohl, Lengua, & McMahon, 2000). The distinction between the activities parents partake in and the attitude parents have toward education was highlighted by several recent studies. Several studies found that increased frequency of activities was associated with higher levels of child misbehavior in the classroom (Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, & Fendrich, 1999), whereas positive attitudes toward education and school were associated with the child's increased academic performance (RimmKaufman, Pianta, Cox, & Bradley, 2003). Specifically, Izzo et al. (1999) reported that an increase in the parent's school activities, such as increased number of parent–teacher contacts, was associated with worsening achievement, as increased contacts may have occurred to help the teacher manage the child's existing behavior problems. The significance of parent attitudes toward education and school is less well understood, although attitudes are believed to comprise a key dimension of the relationship between parents and school (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2003). Parents convey attitudes about education to their children during out-of-school hours and these attitudes are reflected in the child's classroom behavior and in the teacher's relationship with the child and the parents (Kellaghan, Sloane, Alvarez, & Bloom, 1993). ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN EARLY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Several methods are used to measure child academic performance, including standardized achievement test scores, teacher ratings of academic performance, and report card grades. Standardized achievement tests are objective instruments that assess skills and abilities children learn through direct instruction in a variety of subject areas including reading, mathematics, and writing (Sattler, 2001). Teacher rating scales allow teachers to rate the accuracy of the child's academic work compared to other children in the class, and allow for ratings on a wider range of academic tasks than examined on standardized achievement tests (DuPaul & Rapport, 1991). Report card grades allow teachers to report on classroom academic performance, but are used by few studies for early elementary school children due to, among other reasons, a lack of a standardized grading system and uniform subject areas children are evaluated on. PROPOSED EXPLANATIONS OF THE RELATION BETWEEN PARENT INVOLVEMENT AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that parents who have a positive attitude towards their child's education, school, and teacher are able to positively influence their child's academic performance by two mechanisms: (a) by being engaged with the child to increase the child's self-perception of cognitive competence and (b) by being engaged with the teacher and school to promote a stronger and more positive student–teacher relationship. Perceived Cognitive Competence Perceived cognitive competence is defined as the extent to which children believe that they possess the necessary cognitive skills to be successful when completing academic tasks, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic (Harter & Pike, 1984). Previous research found evidence that higher parent involvement contributes to an increase in a child's perceived level of competence (Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems, & Holbein, 2005; Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991). There are theoretical pathways through which children's perceptions and expectations of their cognitive competence are influenced by others: (a) performance accomplishments/performance mastery, (b) vicarious reinforcement, (c) verbal persuasion, and (d) emotion regulation (Bandura, 1977). In addition, a child's increased perception of cognitive competence is consistently related to higher academic performance (Chapman, Skinner, & Baltes, 1990; Ladd & Price, 1986; Schunk, 1981). Based on theory and previous findings, Gonzalez-DeHass et al. (2005) suggest that perceived cognitive competence be examined to explain the relation between parent involvement and a child's academic performance. The Student–Teacher Relationship A positive student–teacher relationship has been defined as the teacher's perception that his or her relationship with the child is characterized by closeness and a lack of dependency and conflict (Birch & Ladd, 1997). Closeness is the degree of warmth and open communication between the student and teacher, dependency is the over-reliance on the teacher as a source of support, and conflict is the degree of friction in student–teacher interactions (Birch & Ladd, 1997). Previous research found that close, positive student–teacher relationships are positively related to a wide range of child social and academic outcomes in school (Hughes, Gleason, & Zhang, 2005). Specifically, a close student–teacher relationship is an important predictor of a child's academic performance (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Hamre & Pianta, 2001). Previous research has also found that parent involvement in a child's education positively influences the nature of the student–teacher relationship (Hill & Craft, 2003; Stevenson & Baker, 1987). Therefore, the student–teacher relationship was examined for its ability to explain the relation between parent involvement and a child's academic performance. THE PRESENT STUDY Parent involvement is one factor that has been consistently related to a child's increased academic performance (Hara & Burke, 1998; Hill & Craft, 2003; Marcon, 1999; Stevenson & Baker, 1987). While this relation between parent involvement and a child's academic performance is well established, studies have yet to examine how parent involvement increases a child's academic performance. The goal of the present study was to test two variables that may mediate, or explain how, parent involvement is related to a child's academic performance. Parent involvement was defined as the teacher's perception of the positive attitude parents have towards their child's education, teacher, and school. Academic performance was measured by two methods: standardized achievement test scores and teacher report of academic performance through rating scales. Based on previous research (Gonzalez-DeHass et al., 2005; Hughes et al., 2005), two possible mechanisms, a child's perception of cognitive competence as measured by the child's report, and the student–teacher relationship as measured by the teacher's report, were examined for their ability to mediate the relation between parent involvement and academic performance. It was predicted that parent involvement would no longer be a significant predictor of a child's academic performance when the c