How does parental involvement matter for primary school student’s academic achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic?

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

In August, 2020, UNESCO claimed that more than 190 countries had implemented countrywide school closures due to COVID-19 pandemic, which has deprived 1.6 billion students of their learning opportunities at school (UNESCO, 2020). As children are unable to study in the classroom with teachers’ supervision, the importance of parental involvement is amplified in children’s self-regulated learning at home. In the course of COVID-19 lockdown, the amount of time parents spent with their children increased. Chinese parents may engage in their children’s daily activities more carefully when they stay together longer than before, such as scheduling their children’s daily routines, keeping track of their academic progress and helping to check homework (Cui, et al., 2020).
Given that the close relationship between parental involvement and children’s academic achievement seems more evident in primary school years (Boonk et al., 2018; Hill & Tyson, 2009), the present study intended to examine the interactions between parents and children during home stay, including parental involvement, parental psychological control, children’s learning engagement, and their impacts on children’s academic performance during the pandemic. The main goals and hypotheses of the current study are as follows. First, we aimed to examine the mediating role of child engagement in the association between parental involvement and children’s academic achievement. We hypothesized that child engagement would mediate the relationship between parental involvement and children’s academic achievement. Second, we intended to examine the moderating role of parental psychological control among primary students. We calculated children’s academic performance before and after COVID-19 to indicate their academic achievement during the school closure. We expected the moderating effect of parental psychological control on the mediating role of child engagement in the relationship between parental involvement and children’s academic achievement.
Participants were 229 primary students (106 boys; mean age = 10.59 years, SD = 0.91) and their mothers. They were randomly recruited from Yantai city of Shandong province, China. Data of children’s academic achievement was collected twice at school before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively in December 2019 (time 1--T1) and July 2020 (time 3--T3). Child engagement, parental involvement and psychological control were assessed via online survey in April 2020 (time 2--T2). That is, participants completed the online surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic period, during which they were taking online classes at home.
The results showed that after controlling for gender, age and SES, child engagement (T2) served as a full mediator of the relationship between parental involvement (T2) and children’s academic achievement (from T1 to T3). Moreover, parental psychological control (T2) moderated the association between parental involvement (T2) and child engagement (T2) (see Figure 1). At different levels of parental involvement, the contributions of parental psychological control to academic engagement were changed. These findings reflect that parents and children themselves are both crucial for children’s academic achievement during school closure.

Author

• Xiao Yu, Beijing Normal University
  Presenting Author