Parental Involvement Research: Moving to the Next Level

The role of a quantitative parental involvement researcher is a very humbling one. To be an efficacious quantitative social scientist, one must put aside his or her own personal biases and go where the numbers dictate. The reality is that when the numerical results do not come out as one expects, one has a choice. Either the researcher must adjust to the results or insist that the numbers change to the presuppositions of the researcher. To be a person of integrity, the quantitative researcher must humble himself or herself and adjust to the numbers. Some theorists do not totally understand this, and when the results disagree with a particular theorist's perspective, this theorist might state, "I do not like the pattern of your results." But the theorist needs to understand that the response of the quantitative researcher will likely be, "I don't like them either, but I have to present the numbers whether I like the results or not." Although my job is a humbling one and requires that I periodically rethink my views, the results that have emerged from my meta-analytic research have led me on an interesting journey. Through the various meta-analyses that I have undertaken, I have realized that parental involvement is considerably broader and more complicated than early parental involvement theories have acknowledged. To be forthright, these are not the results that I anticipated or even desired, but the meta-analyses have indicated this fact so explicitly that it is undeniable. And therefore it is clear that the research community needs to adapt to these realities. Based on the meta-analyses that I have undertaken, as well as the examination of nationwide data sets, it is clear that the following trends exist and are worthy of further examination. First, as I shared in a 2010 article in Teachers College Record, the subtle aspects of parental involvement (e.g., high expectations, communication, and parental style) are generally more salient than more overt expressions of this involvement (e.g., checking homework, establishing household rules, and parental participation in school activities). Second, the elements of parental involvement programs that are most effective may or may not be identical to the components of parental involvement that are the most crucial. Third, as one would expect, parental involvement is higher in two-biological-parent families than it is in single-parent families. Given that meta-analyses essentially statistically summarize the existing body of research, what the body of research is indicating to the social science community is that there is a need to proceed to the next level in parental involvement research. It is patent that the research indicates that much more is known about parental involvement than was the case in the 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, it is also clear there are myriad more questions to be answered, and this is only possible if researchers and theorists open their minds to proceeding to the next level. Three issues are especially salient in this move toward the next level. The Subtle Aspects of Parental Involvement Are Generally More Salient Than More Overt Expressions of This Involvement Based on the results of a series of meta-analyses, it appears that the nature of parental involvement may be considerably different than was previously conceived. For many years, educators, parents, and social scientists have conceptualized engaged parents as those who frequently attend school functions, help their children with their homework, and maintain household rules that dictate when their young engage in schoolwork and leisure (Domina, 2005; Epstein, 2001; Henderson & Mapp, 2002). That is, most individuals typically view parental engagement as a set of deliberate, overt actions (Kelly, 2004). Results from three meta-analyses have challenged the traditional image of parental involvement (Jeynes, 2003a, 2005a, 2007b). A meta-analysis statistically combines all the relevant existing studies on a given subject in order to determine the aggregated results of said research. …