Parent and Student Perceptions of Parental Involvement: Associations With Middle School Students' Well-Being and Achievement

• In Event: 81.033 - MTCC Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: 81.033-11 - Promoting Caregiver and Child Well-Being Across Contexts

Abstract

Parents are widely considered to have an important contribution to youngsters’ academic success. However, different parties have different perceptions of parental involvement. Only a limited amount of studies explored parents’ and students’ perceptions regarding parental involvement in middle school and how these perceptions are related to school achievement and wellbeing. This study assessed parents’ and students’ perceptions regarding parental involvement using self-report questionnaires with 6.380 7th grade students and 5.003 parents. The results indicated parallels between parent and student perceptions, however parents showed significantly higher levels of involvement in comparison to students. For student achievement and wellbeing, nevertheless, the effects remained small, parental involvement seemed to be an influencing factor, especially students’ perceptions of parental involvement.

Authors

• Valérie Thomas, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Jaël Muls, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Koen Lombaerts, Vrije Universiteit Brussel