Poster #135 - Disentangling Paternal and Maternal School Involvement and Academic Outcomes in Chinese Adolescents

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Parental school involvement plays an important role in children’s academic and psychosocial outcomes (Berryhill, 2017; Hill & Tyson, 2009). In Epstein and colleague’s framework, parental school involvement is divided into two types, i.e., school-based and home-based strategies (Epstein, 1987; Conners & Epstein, 1995; Epstein & Sanders, 2002). This framework also suggests a linkage between parental involvement and teachers’ perceptions about how much parents value education through school-based involvement.
Most studies on parental school involvement have focused on maternal involvement (e.g. Yamamoto, Holloway, & Suzuki, 2006; Lavee & Benjamin, 2015; Stright & Yeo, 2014). Few studies have included paternal involvement or disentangled parental and material school involvement in children’s educational outcomes. In this study, we break down parental school involvement and explore the association between both paternal and maternal school involvement and adolescents’ academic outcomes. The study also tested the mediating role of adolescents’ interaction with teachers in the school context.
Participants (n = 624, 53.2% female) were recruited from four high schools located in mainland China. Parental consent was obtained before data collection. 20.3% of the participants were 15 years old or younger, 32.1% were 16 years, and 47.2% were 17 years or above. Self-report paternal and maternal school involvement, perceived stress related to interacting with teachers, academic outcomes (including participants’ test scores, self-report academic performance, and attitude toward school), and parental education expectations were assessed. Adequate Cronbach’s alphas were obtained for the scales, which range from .784 to .882.
Our findings show that there was some consistency between paternal and maternal school involvement. Both paternal and maternal school involvement were negatively correlated with stress related to interacting with teachers, and adolescents’ attitudes toward school. However, maternal school involvement was associated with test scores and self-report academic performance while paternal school involvement was found to be associated with educational attainment expectation.
Two SEM models were fitted (see attached figures). Paternal school involvement did not predict stress related to interacting with teachers but predicted all academic outcome variables. The second model suggested that maternal school involvement predicted lower levels of perceived stress interacting with teachers and positive attitudes toward school, but not other academic outcomes. Stress related to interacting with teachers was found to mediate the association between maternal school involvement and attitudes toward school.
The distinct role played by fathers and mothers has drawn considerable attention from researchers. Our study reinforced previous findings on the association between parental involvement in education and children’s academic outcomes while extending the discussion to the Chinese cultural context and disentangling the role of parental gender. Our findings suggest that maternal involvement helps adolescents feel more motivated and reduce their school stress, especially in interacting with teachers. However, it was paternal involvement that had a stronger effect on adolescents’ educational outcomes. The findings suggest Chinese mothers may play a bigger role in children’s stress-coping process while paternal involvement plays a unique, important role in children’s academic outcomes. Implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Yemo Duan, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Desiree Qin, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author