Parental Involvement and Student Academic Success: A Research Proposal

Introduction and Background

For many years, parents and educators have worked to find the right combination of factors that will encourage and improve the academic success of students. Parents want the best for their children so that they can be successful in adult life, and educators not only care about students but know they are judged and rewarded based on how their students perform.

When students are in the elementary grades, schools enjoy a high level of parental involvement. Parents come to school to help with field trips, testing, projects, and other activities. They participate in parent-teacher organizations, art lessons, and extracurricular activities. At this stage, parents are generally willing to be engaged in their children's education. At home, they make time for homework, help students review their work, and remind them to turn assignments in on time.

It is when students begin to reach the upper grades that parental involvement begins to wane — and it is also in those upper grades that some students begin to falter academically. Whether this decline is coincidental, attributable to the challenges of adolescence, or caused by the reduction in parental involvement is the central question of this study. Understanding what impact parental involvement has on student academic success is essential so that programs can be implemented to encourage parents to remain engaged if it indeed makes a difference.

Parental involvement has been defined as "any interaction between a parent and child that may contribute to the child's development or direct parent participation with a child's school in the interest of the child" (Reynolds, 1992). The most basic reason to involve parents in education is student success (Anderson, 2000).

Statement of the Problem

Nobody denies the importance of parental involvement during the younger years; it is something commonly accepted and practiced throughout the nation. It is when students begin to move into grades 7 through 12 that parental involvement often begins to decline and students begin to falter. Teenagers face unique challenges simply by virtue of being teenagers. They are going through hormonal and physical changes and are discovering themselves as young adults. These changes place the teenager under stress, which may have an impact on their academic success.

At the same time, these years tend to be when formerly involved parents begin to back off and leave the student to manage his or her own education. It is important to determine whether the lack of parental involvement is a factor in the drop in academic success often witnessed during grades 7–12, and if it does have an impact, how significant that impact is.

Parental involvement has been shown to play a part in fostering children's cognitive growth and academic success. Direct involvement in children's learning and the availability of learning resources at home both appear to influence academic achievement and cognitive development. Research indicates that when parents are a part of their child's education, the student is more likely to stay in school and more likely to achieve (Anderson, 2000).

Success at the lower levels of education has been directly linked to parental involvement. One study examined the relationship between parental involvement and academic success through reading in the elementary years and concluded that it had a direct impact on student achievement.

It is interesting that students identify certain characteristics tied to personality as most important for their success in studying: inner motivation, persistence, hard work, and good organization. The factors they consider least influential for their success are related primarily to their parents' involvement. Items related to external intercession were also considered less important for academic success (Anderson, 2000).

Regarding the factors associated with academic failure, students most commonly identified giving up, inadequate studying, and laziness as the primary causes of poor performance. Their surrounding environment, their parents, daydreaming, and irregular attendance were rated as least important (Anderson, 2000).

The second group of automatic thoughts that differentiated successful and unsuccessful students related to parental reactions (Anderson, 2000). Becirevic and Anic (2001) identify the fear of disappointing parents as a factor that best differentiates students based on success, efficiency, and satisfaction. They note that these thoughts distract students' concentration during study and disrupt the process of information retrieval and exam performance. It is evident that students fear losing emotional and material support, trust, and may anticipate parental anger. This finding is noteworthy because it speaks to the ongoing parental dependency of young adults.

Taken together, these findings suggest that unsuccessful students may benefit most from cognitive restructuring approaches that address catastrophic and negative thoughts, strengthen self-confidence, and build on positive personal potential (Anderson, 2000).

Review of Relevant Literature

Research consistently indicates that parental involvement at the elementary level is crucial to student academic success. Since relevant research also indicates that immersion in a literate environment is critical to academic achievement, the authors of one study designed a program — Project ROAR (Reach Out and Read) — in cooperation with a predominantly Hispanic elementary school. Project ROAR was planned to help interested parents of kindergarten children learn in-home activities that would promote literacy and school success. University faculty and students visited the community site and engaged in interactive after-school literacy activities with both parents and children over the course of one year. Results indicated that parents are eager to help their children and, when instructed in appropriate literacy activities, can make a measurable difference in their children's academic progress (Wright, 2004).

In another study, African-American students were examined to determine the extent to which parental involvement affects their academic success (Denn, 2002). One of the most important factors for student success is whether adults at home keep track of them in school (Denn, 2002). However, given the disproportionate rates of discipline issues and academic underperformance among African-American students, their parents may need to be more connected to schools than most. Paradoxically, this is often not the case.

Some community members and educators report that African-American parents may wind up being even less involved in schools than other parents. Some are unfamiliar with school bureaucracy; some say they do not feel welcome; others may be less equipped or inclined to address their children's discipline problems (Denn, 2002). "I have a lot of parents who want to be cool," said Chandra Oatis, who leads a behavior modification program at a Seattle middle school re-entry program for students who have been suspended or expelled. Some of the parents are young themselves, she noted, and act as students' friends rather than authority figures (Denn, 2002).

Statistically, African-American parents are more likely to be among the younger parent group. About 24% of African-American births in Seattle in 1990 were to teen mothers, the largest percentage of any ethnic group, according to figures from the King County Department of Health, compared with approximately 4% of births among white children (Denn, 2002).

The stakes are high, however, for African-American parents of all ages and levels of experience. Regina Conley, whose children attend Franklin High, closely monitors their schoolwork and believes other African-American children get lost in the system because their parents do not do the same (Denn, 2002). Conley recalls schools automatically attempting to place her son in a lower-level class without testing him to determine appropriate placement. After visiting both lower-level and honors classes, she observed a clear divide along racial lines and concluded that white parents do not face the same obstacles. As she put it: "If your parent shows up, we can do something… I just feel like, if I wasn't there, there's no telling what they might do with my kids" (Denn, 2002).

A third study examined inner-city students and parental involvement during the high school years (Silsby, 2002). The study examined relationships between parental attachment, academic achievement, and psychological distress among a multiethnic sample of academically successful inner-city high school students (19 White, 54 Black, 9 Asian, 18 Hispanic) who participated in an enrichment program designed to prepare them for college success. Results suggest that the affective quality of maternal attachment is positively associated with grade point average, while the affective quality of paternal attachment is negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Case examples in a second phase of the study examined sources of support, life stress, and patterns of resilience, with implications discussed for prevention and intervention (Silsby, 2002).

The literature as a whole points to the need for continued parental involvement at higher grade levels for student academic success. Studies conclude, almost uniformly, that students with involved parents perform better academically than those without such support.

Population: The group from which participants are drawn.

Participants: Those chosen to take part in the study.