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Parental Involvement in Primary School Education: its Relationship with Children’s Academic Performance and Psychosocial Competence through Engaging Children with School

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Abstract

The benefits of parental involvement in children’s education have been well established but increasing evidence suggests that overparenting may have adverse effects on children. The question of whether excessive parental involvement hinders children’s academic and psychosocial development warrants further investigations. This study examined the associations of parental educational involvement at home and in school with academic performance and psychological health of 507 Chinese Grade 3 schoolchildren in Hong Kong. Parents reported on their level of involvement in children’s schooling and their children’s psychosocial issues. Children were surveyed to determine their school engagement, and their Chinese language and mathematics attainment was assessed. We also explored the underlying mechanism by testing children’s engagement with school as a mediator of the relationships. Our results showed that home-based parental educational involvement was positively associated with children’s language competence and psychosocial wellbeing, and the associations were linked through engaging children with school. However, the benefits reached a plateau at higher level of parental involvement in children’s learning at home. School-based parental involvement had an indirect effect on children’s prosocial behavior through school engagement. These findings highlight the significance of optimal level of parental involvement in children’s education at home for children’s development.

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Acknowledgements

This manuscript is a revision of RMSW MPhil thesis which was accepted at the University of Hong Kong in November 2015. We are grateful to the primary schools, the children and their parents who participated in this study.

Author Contributions

RSMW: conceived the study concept, designed and executed the study, and wrote the manuscript. FKWH: analyzed and interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript. WHSW: executed the study, supervised data analyses, and wrote the manuscript. KTST: executed the study and wrote the manuscript. CBC: conceived the study concept, designed and executed the study, and revised the manuscript. NR: conceived the study concept and revised the manuscript. KLC: conceived the study concept and revised the manuscript. PI: conceived the study concept, designed and executed the study, and revised and proofread the manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. 743413).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Rosa Sze Man Wong, Frederick Ka Wing Ho, Wilfred Hing Sang Wong, Keith Tsz Suen Tung, Chun Bong Chow & Patrick Ip

  2. Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Nirmala Rao

  3. Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Ko Ling Chan

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  1. Rosa Sze Man Wong
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  2. Frederick Ka Wing Ho
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  3. Wilfred Hing Sang Wong
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  4. Keith Tsz Suen Tung
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  6. Nirmala Rao
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  7. Ko Ling Chan
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  8. Patrick Ip
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Correspondence to Patrick Ip.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board of the University of Hong Kong/Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Wong, R.S.M., Ho, F.K.W., Wong, W.H.S. et al. Parental Involvement in Primary School Education: its Relationship with Children’s Academic Performance and Psychosocial Competence through Engaging Children with School. J Child Fam Stud 27, 1544–1555 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-1011-2

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