Correlates of Parent Involvement in Students’ Learning: Examination of a National Data Set

Parent involvement in students’ learning has been recognized as an important aspect of children’s education and is empirically related to students’ academic performance and engagement. In the present study we constructed a measure of parent involvement, drawing on items from the 2012 National Household Education Surveys (NHES) Program. Survey items included in the measure addressed parent participation in school activities, participation in school meetings, learning activities at home, learning activities in the community, and parent involvement in homework. The resulting measure of Parent Involvement in Children’s Learning (PICL) was used to investigate predictors associated with variation in parent involvement. Following a review of the literature on parent involvement, potential predictor variables were selected from the NHES data set, including child characteristics, family demographics, school characteristics, the child’s school experience, and parent satisfaction with school services. Preliminary multivariate linear regression models were created to screen potential predictors and the final multivariate linear regression model identified significant predictors of parental involvement. We consider how the correlates contribute to the evolution of the construct of parent involvement in children’s learning.