Effects of Parent's Engagement in Children's Education on School Attendance and Grade/Performance

This literature review explores the effects of parent's engagement in their children's education on their school attendance and grade/performance. It discusses the importance of parental involvement, different forms of involvement, and the correlation between parental engagement and academic outcomes. The review also highlights the theoretical framework and research questions used in the study.

Literature Review 1
THE EFFECTS OF PARENT’S ENGAGEMENT IN THEIR CHILDREN EDUCATION ON
THEIR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND GRADE/PERFORMANCE
By (Student’s Name)
Professor’s Name
College
Course
Date

Literature Review 2
THE EFFECTS OF PARENT’S ENGAGEMENT IN THEIR CHILDREN EDUCATION ON
THEIR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND GRADE/PERFORMANCE
Introduction
In the ancient era, parents were never deeply engaged in the schooling of their children.
However, the trending globe currently demands increased parental participation in their
children’s studies. Vaden-Kierman et al. (2005) held that involvement of parents remains a vital
force in the development, learning alongside the success of their children not only in life but also
at school. Many years of study in the family involvement area have repeatedly backed the simple
fact that students of involved or engaged parents show a much higher opportunity to develop into
knowledgeable, healthy, caring, and responsible adults (Mo and Singh 2008).
Involvement of parents in children education has various faces and assumes differing
degrees from the simple query posed at dining tables: “How was school today?” to everyday
inspection alongside homework assignment completion sign-off, to frequent trips to museum,
libraries, art and cultural events, to partaking in evaluation of program and other activities of
decision making. Provided this broad range of “definitions” of involvement, it is usually
challenging to compare and contrast information across, programs, fields, and studies.
The rationale for a missing universally accepted definition is that parents’
involvement/engagement remains a complicated idea. Some of the variables that have to be
considered include characteristics and development of a child; family and school beliefs and
expectations; different roles played by parents, teachers, and students; life demands and cultural
perspectives; and policies outlining or mandating schools to forge associations with
families/parents. All the considerations mentioned above contribute to what is called the school-
family partnership.

Literature Review 3
Methods
The qualitative systematic review of literature is used in this paper to collect the data for
analysis. The method focuses on integrating and comparing the findings from the qualitative
studies. The researcher looks for constructs or themes that lie in or across the individual
qualitative studies. This researcher employs selective sampling to search for the sources. The
articles are appraised through qualitative assessment to mediate messages rather than for
inclusion and exclusion. The appraised articles are synthesized through qualitative narrative
synthesis. The synthesized data are then analyzed using the thematic analysis which includes
conceptual models.
Research Questions:
The following two research questions will be used:
 What is the correlation between parent’s engagement in their children education and their
children school attendance and grade/performance?
 What is the effects of parents’ engagement in their children school on their school
attendance and grade/performance?
Theoretical Framework
Academic involvement or engagement remains a multidimensional construct with
varying definitions. The commonly utilized definition is the investment (physical) alongside
effort focused towards mastering, learning or understanding the skills, craft or knowledge which
academic work is designed to endorse. According to Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (2015),
parent involvement in their respective children education is described as parents’ participation in
unvarying, collaborative, and significant communication engaging students’ academic learning
alongside additional activities of the school including ensuring the following. (1) families are

Literature Review 4
playing fundamental roles in helping to learn of their children; (2) inspiring parents to get
actively engaged in kids’ studies in learning institutions; and (3) parent become all-time
associates in their respective children’s studies and stay incorporated as required, in making
decisions as well as on committees (advisory) in kid’s schooling.
Both behavioral and emotional factors indicate engagement. Three levels of behavioral
engagement include basic school attendance and school work completion; class participation
when requested by teachers like responding to questions when asked; and active participation
like asking questions as well as doing additional work. Such variable as the much a learner likes
his school, the extent to which a learner feels bored while at his school, and the degree of
firmness a learner thinks feels he belongs in school is the emotional engagement. Fredrick et al.
(2004) added that engagement encompasses; (i) cognitive, (ii) emotional, and (iii) behavioral
components whereby the first one entails affect, identifying with school, belonging and interest
whereas the second one is directed towards, investing psychologically, self-regulation, alongside
strategic thinking. Fredrick et al. (2004) framework are followed in this current study by
composing three engagement/involvement constructs-emotional, reflecting as well as cognitive
constituents.
Parental Involvement and Relationships
Previous scholars have discovered that parental engagement in their adolescents’
schooling appears to significantly influence both decisions around education and participation in
the students’ learning processes. Parental engagement alongside conversation regarding school
associated issues inspires the academic behavior of their adolescents. Positive effects have been
noted in respect of parental involvement on schools attendance and grades. Nurturing and

Literature Review 5
conveyance of higher educational aspiration for children has the most significant impact on the
school performance of the children amongst all the components of the parental involvements.
Pomerantz et al. (2007) evaluated the impacts of involving parents on motivation and
school engagement among students. The study discovered that behavioral involvement of parents
improves the achievement of the students since it nurtures both engagement and motivation of
children in their respective school. Although various the literature has identified the correlation
between adolescents’ family experiences and engagement degrees, such scholars have primarily
focused on the family demographic features including family socioeconomic status (SES). Such
studies have discovered that students from higher SES families demonstrate a greater level of
school engagement whereby involvement stood measured based on the extent to which learners
adored their respective schools, as well as the amount of time student, spend doing their
homework assignments.
Sirin et al. (2004) held that performance of students was improved by the emotional and
behavioral learners’ engagement and stayed linked to the robust student-parent association.
However, Sirin et al. (2004) overlooked the connection amid student-parent association and
school involvement of students. Nonetheless, some studies (Brook and McGarvey (2004)) have
not reported that engagement and SES are positively correlated. For instance, Connell et al.
(1995) discovered an inverse association between SES of a family and the support of a parent,
and consequently, school engagement in their cross-sectional study utilizing African-American
middle school boys’ sample.
Epstein (2001) stated that a school-learning community always welcomes each family.
Several schools are serving a diverse array of the student including novel refugees and
immigrants. The parents from such groups (refugees and immigrants) like all other mothers and

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fathers, always require their respective kids to be successful in school. Like all other children,
such students, perform better when their parents alongside teachers become full partners.
Educators acknowledge the differences in a welcoming school and involve or engage all families
or parents in various ways throughout the school calendar.
Gaitan (2004) established the significance of parental engagement in the schooling of
their kids and noted that teachers believe that the parents must actively engage with school and
never relinquish their responsibilities for parenting to school. Families’ involvement in kids’
studies remains a robust academic accomplishment predictor even for the students at high
schools. It stays significant to debunk the famous myth that the influence of parents over their
respective children withers as the children approach adolescence. Usually, both school personnel
and parents misconstrue the yearning for independence amongst adolescents as an impediment
developmentally to the families’ engagement. Nevertheless, various studies have shown that high
school learners believe they can increasingly do better at their respective schools if they are
aware that their parents are more interested in their schoolwork and anticipate them to succeed,
thus contesting the dominant perspective that adolescents never want their parents engaged in
their education. Research has further shown better behavioral and academic performance at
school amongst the children whose parents are fully involved.
Bower and Griffin (2011) stated that parental participation plays a crucial role in
children’s performance academically and has been a subject of keen interests to teachers for
many decades. Epstein (2009) sparked the interest in studying the role played by parental
involvement in their children academic performance and inspired Jeynes (2011) study. The
ancient theoretical demand for action and additional research became exemplified by the Epstein
et al. (2009) study. Alongside his co-authors, Epstein came up with a model that stressed six

Literature Review 7
particular types of behaviors as a portion of families that stood assumed to promote the
achievement of children in school. These behaviors included favorable conditions at their homes,
communication between children and parents regarding schoolwork, parent
involvement/engagement in school, activities of learning in their homes, collective decision-
making with schools, and the society partnerships among school personnel alongside parents
(Epstein et al. 2009).
Despite the existence of disagreements and discourse amongst the theorist as to what
made up the essential parental involvement components, educators reached some agreements.
They agreed that such activities encompassed actions undertaken by parents for their respective
kids at school and home — for instance, assisting with children’s homework assignments, time-
scheduling for kids at home for desired schoolwork, communication with their children, teachers,
as well as volunteering at school (Bower and Griffin 2011).
Certain academicians cautioned that whereas conventional comprehension of parental
engagement reaped overall backing, it yielded anticipations that many parents would commit
efforts alongside time to the academic achievement of their children while never making relative
calls on schools to collaborate with parents, precisely the one from lower SES and restrained
English speaking upbringings (Jeynes 2003; and Griffin 2011). Regardless of specific criticism
that the model of Epstein conceptualized parental involvement on school’s terms instead of
families’ terms, it emphasized school personnel’s responsibility for contacts’ initiation with
parents to further the success of children’s education (Epstein et al. 2009).
Besides positioning the theoretical basis for studies in this field, specific researchers have
showcased meek illustrations of the effectiveness of Epstein-model in the promotion of certain
academic attainment aspects amongst the learners in the marginalized community (Barnard

Literature Review 8
2004). For instance, Miedel and Reynolds (1999) unraveled that the amount of children tasks
where their parentages contributed in kindergarten alongside pre-school stood meaningfully
correlated with exceptional reading accomplishment, low-grade retention rates at fourteen years
for 8th grade, alongside lesser years in respect of special education.
Jeynes (2001) stated that recent years had showcased a shift towards empirical
investigations of the intuitive relationship between learners’ accomplishment and parental
participation. Whereas empirical results have significantly commenced articulating the extent
and nature of this correlation, the outcomes have remained less than entirely dependable; and this
issue has already proven to be increasingly multidimensional alongside complex as opposed to
previously anticipated academic enthusiasm. According to Hong and Ho (2005), the first
research generation on the matter inclined towards the utilization of global, indiscriminate
parental involvement measures as principally demarcated by educators, and associated
correlation to the academic performance stood modest.
Empirically, work dealing with this issue stood firs shortened by the study carried out by
Fan and Chen (2001). These researchers examined this area and acknowledged the empirical
studies’ shortage of parental engrossment. They reviewed the existing studies that were primarily
comprised of theoretical aspects stressing parental involvement significance and demanding
school interventions, long before determining a precise comprehension of the empirical nature of
such a correlation. However, Fan and Chen (2001) generated a fundamental basis for empirical
studies in this field and formulated the functioning definition of parental involvement; yielded on
the empirical foundation that was purely consonant with the Epstein and fellow theoretical work.
Conclusion

Literature Review 9
Thus, it is apparent that study outcomes are unpredictable and hence the urgent need for
an increasingly empirical study to fully comprehend the correlation of parents engagement to the
academic involvement and performance accomplishment of their children (Muller 2018).

Literature Review 10
References
Connell, J.P., Halpem-Felsher, B.L., Clifford, E., Crichlow, W. and Usinger, P., 1995. Hanging
in there: Behavioral, psychological, and contextual factors affecting whether African American
adolescents stay in high school. Journal of adolescent research, 10(1), pp.41-63.
Epstein, J., Sanders, M., Simon, B., Salinas, K., Jansorn, N. and Van Voorhis, F., 2009. School,
family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Epstein, J.L., Sanders, M.G., Sheldon, S.B., Simon, B.S., Salinas, K.C., Jansorn, N.R., Van
Voorhis, F.L., Martin, C.S., Thomas, B.G., Greenfeld, M.D. and Hutchins, D.J., 2018. School,
family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Corwin Press.
Fan, X. and Chen, M., 2001. Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A
metaanalysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13(1), 1–22. doi:10.1023 /A:1009048817385
Fredricks, J.A., Blumenfeld, P.C. and Paris, A.H., 2004. School engagement: Potential of the
concept, state of the evidence. Review of educational research, 74(1), pp.59-109.
Gaitan, C.D., 2004. Involving Latino families in schools: Raising student achievement through
home-school partnerships. Corwin Press.
Griffin, D., 2011. Parent involvement with African American families in expanded school mental
health practice. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 4, 16–26. doi:10.1080/17
54730X.2011.9715626.
Hong, S. and Ho, H., 2005. Direct and indirect longitudinal effects of parental involvement on
student achievement: Second order latent growth modeling across ethnic groups. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 97(1), 32–42. doi:10.1037 /0022-0663.97.1.32.
Jeynes, W., 2011. Help families by fostering parental involvement. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(3), 38–
39.

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Jeynes, W., 2011. Parental involvement research: Moving to the next level (Guest editorial).
School Community Journal, 21(1), 9–18. Retrieved from
http://www.schoolcommunitynetwork.org/SCJ.aspx
Miedel, W. and Reynolds, A., 1999. Parent involvement in early intervention for disadvantaged
children: Does it matter? Journal of School Psychology, 37(4), 379–402. doi:10.1016/ S0022-
4405(99)00023-0.
Mo, Y. and Singh, K., 2008. Parents’ relationships and involvement: Effects on students’ school
engagement and performance. RMLE online, 31(10), 1-11.
Muller, C., 2018. Parent involvement and academic achievement: An analysis of family
resources available to the child. In Parents, their children, and schools (pp. 77-114). Routledge.
Patrikakou, E.N. and Anderson, A.R. eds., 2005. School-family partnerships for children's
success. Teachers College Press.
Pomerantz, E.M., Moorman, E.A. and Litwack, S.D., 2007. The how, whom, and why of
parents’ involvement in children’s academic lives: More is not always better. Review of
educational research, 77(3), pp.373-410.
Sánchez, S.N., 2010. Involving Latino Families in Schools: Raising Student Achievement
Through Home–School Partnerships.
Sirin, S.R. and Rogers-Sirin, L., 2004. Exploring school engagement of middle-class African
American adolescents. Youth & society, 35(3), pp.323-340.
Vaden-Kiernan, N., McManus, J. and Chapman, C., 2005. Parent and Family Involvement in
Education: 2002? TAB. NCES 2005-043. National Center for Education Statistics.

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