Parent Involvement, Cultural Capital, and the Achievement Gap Among Elementary School Children

TLDR

The study investigated how five types of parent involvement affect elementary students’ academic achievement across race/ethnicity, poverty, and parental education levels. The authors analyzed data from 415 third‑to‑fifth‑grade students using the Elementary School Success Profile and applied t‑tests, chi‑square tests, and hierarchical regressions to test Bourdieu‑based hypotheses. Results showed that parents’ demographic characteristics influenced the types of involvement, with dominant‑group involvement most strongly linked to achievement, yet both dominant and nondominant groups benefited similarly from some involvement types and differently from others.

Abstract

This study examined the level and impact of five types of parent involvement on elementary school children’s academic achievement by race/ethnicity, poverty, and parent educational attainment. The sample comprised 415 third through fifth graders who completed the Elementary School Success Profile. Hypotheses from Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital were assessed with t tests, chi-square statistics, and hierarchical regressions. Consistent with the theory, parents with different demographic characteristics exhibited different types of involvement, and the types of involvement exhibited by parents from dominant groups had the strongest association with achievement. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, members of dominant and nondominant groups benefited similarly from certain types of involvement and differently from others. Implications for research and practice are discussed.