Effects of eighth-grade parental involvement on late adolescents' educational expectations.

Abstract

A national sample was used to examine the influences of parents involvement in their children's education on children's postsecondary educational expectations. Parental involvement was assessed when children were in the eighth grade, and their educational expectations were assessed 6 years later. Educational expectations were operationalized as (a) expectation for less than a bachelor's degree, or (b) expectation for a bachelor's or higher degree. Student-reported home-based parental involvement was most strongly predictive of high educational expectations. Parent-reported involvement in school organizations was also predictive of high expectations. Parent-reported home-based involvement and student-reported school-based involvement were only weakly related to expectations. Measures of parental involvement also interacted with socioeconomic status (SES). That is, at higher levels of SES, the effects of parental involvement were stronger in a positive direction.