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Does Parent Involvement Really Help Students? Here’s What the Research Says

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Parental involvement has been a top priority for school leaders for decades, and research shows that it can make a major difference in student outcomes.

But a parents’ rights movement that has captured headlines over the past few years and become a major political force has painted a particular picture of what parents’ involvement in their children’s education looks like.

Policies that have passed in a number of individual school districts, states, and the U.S. House have spelled out parents’ rights to inspect curriculum materials and withdraw their children from lessons they deem objectionable; restricted teaching about race, gender identity, and sexuality; and resulted in the removal of books from school libraries, including many with LGBTQ+ characters and protagonists of color.

The parents’ rights movement has been divisive and attracted the ire of some teachers who feel censored. But it has also opened up the conversation around parent involvement in school, said Vito Borrello, executive director of the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement.

And that’s a good thing, he said.

“The parents’ rights bills in and of themselves, I wouldn’t suggest are entirely focused on best practice family engagement,” said Borrello, whose group works to advance effective family, school, and community engagement policies and practices. “However, what the parents’ rights bills have done is elevated the important role that parents have in their child’s education.”

For decades, research from around the world has shown that parents’ involvement in and engagement with their child’s education—including through parent-teacher conferences, parent-teacher organizations, school events, and at-home discussions about school—can lead to higher student achievement and better social-emotional outcomes.

Here are five takeaways from the research.

1. Studies show more parental involvement leads to improved academic outcomes

When parents are involved in their children’s schooling, students show higher academic achievement, school engagement, and motivation, according to a 2019 American Psychological Association review of 448 independent studies on parent involvement.

A 2005 study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships , for example, showed that school practices encouraging families to support their child’s math learning at home led to higher percentages of students scoring at or above proficiency on standardized math tests.

And research shows that parent involvement with reading activities has a positive impact on reading achievement, language comprehension, and expressive language skills, as well as students’ interest in reading, attitudes toward reading, and level of attention in the classroom, according to a research summary by the National Literacy Trust.

“When parents become involved at school by, for example, attending events such as open houses or volunteering in the classroom, they build social networks that can provide useful information, connections to school personnel (e.g., teachers), or strategies for enhancing children’s achievement,” the APA research review said. “In turn, parents with heightened social capital are better equipped to support their children in succeeding in school as they are able to call on resources (e.g., asking a teacher to spend extra time helping their children) and utilize information they have gathered (e.g., knowing when and how their children should complete their homework).”

2. Parent involvement changes social-emotional outcomes, too

The APA study showed that not only does parental involvement lead to improved academic outcomes, but it also has a positive impact on students’ social and emotional skills and decreases instances of delinquency.

That finding also applies internationally.

A 2014 International Education Studies report on parental involvement among 9th and 10th graders in Jordan showed that parental involvement had a positive impact on students’ emotional engagement in school. That means students with more involved parents are more likely to have fun, enjoy school, have high self-esteem, and perceive school as a satisfying experience.

And when parents visit their children’s school, that contributes to a sense of safety among the students, ultimately improving school engagement, the study said. Although conducted in Jordan, the study provides insight into how parental involvement affects students’ social-emotional development in other countries, including the United States.

Parent involvement also gives teachers the tools to better support their students, Borrello said.

“When teachers understand what their students are going through personally and at home and any challenges they may have, then that improves their teaching,” he said. “They’re able to support their student in ways they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”

3. Not all parental involvement is created equal

Different levels and types of parent involvement led to varying outcomes for students, according to the American Psychological Association study.

For example, school-based involvement, such as participation in parent-teacher conferences, open houses, and other school events, had a positive impact on academics in preschool, middle school, and high school, but the size of the impact was much lower in high school than in preschool. That may be because parents have fewer opportunities to be involved in the high school environment than in younger students’ classrooms where parents might volunteer.

At-home discussions and encouragement surrounding school also have a positive impact on students’ academic achievement at all developmental stages, with that type of parent involvement being most effective for high schoolers, according to the study. Reading with children and taking them to the library have a positive impact as well.

But one common form of parental involvement, helping kids with their homework, was shown to have little impact on students’ academic achievement.

In fact, homework help had a small negative impact on student achievement, but positive impacts on student motivation and engagement in school, according to the APA study.

The research shows the value of encouraging parents to be involved in their student’s learning at home, and not just attending school events, Borrello said.

“In the past, schools either had an event that wasn’t connected to learning or only measured the engagement of a family based on how often they came to the school,” he said. “What families are doing to create an environment of learning and supporting learning at home, is probably even more important than how many times they’re coming to school.”

4. Results of parent involvement don’t discriminate based on race or socioeconomics

Research has shown a consensus that family and parent involvement in schools leads to better outcomes regardless of a family’s ethnic background or socioeconomic status.

Parent involvement has led to higher academic outcomes both for children from low and higher socioeconomic status families.

When comparing the impact of parent involvement on students of different races and ethnicities, the APA found that school-based involvement had a positive impact on academics among Black, Asian, white, and Hispanic children, with a stronger impact on Black and white families than families from other demographics. The finding also extended internationally, with similar effects on children outside of the United States.

5. Schools can encourage parent involvement in person and at home

Parent involvement doesn’t have to end with parent-teacher conferences. There are many ways for schools to encourage parents to be more involved both in school and at home, Borrello said.

The best way to start, he said, is by creating a school culture that is welcoming to families.

“That starts with the principal, and that starts with school leadership that is welcoming to families, from how they’re engaging parents in the classroom to what policies they have in schools to welcome families,” Borrello said.

Parent gathering spaces or rooms in school buildings, scheduled parent engagement meetings and office hours, and at-school events held outside of the school day are all good places to start, Borrello said. From there, schools can work to include parents in more decision-making, give parents resources to support learning at home, and equip teachers with the tools to engage and connect with parents.

“If the school is not welcoming and families don’t feel welcome at the school, then you’re not going to get them to come to school no matter what you do,” Borrello said. “Then it’s really thinking about who you’re creating those relationships with families so that they can be heard.”

Coverage of strategies for advancing the opportunities for students most in need, including those from low-income families and communities, is supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, at www.waltonk12.org . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage. A version of this article appeared in the August 16, 2023 edition of Education Week as Does Parent Involvement Really Help Students? 5 Key Takeaways Based on The Research

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Parental involvement in homework: A review of current research and its implications for teachers, after school program staff, and parent leaders

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Parental involvement in homework: relations with parent and student achievement-related motivational beliefs and achievement

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• 1 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
• PMID: 24905081
• DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12039

Background: Parental involvement in homework is a home-based type of involvement in children's education. Research and theory suggest that it is beneficial for learning and achievement under certain conditions and for particular groups of individuals.

Aims: The study examined whether different types of parents' involvement in homework (autonomy support, control, interference, cognitive engagement) (1) are predicted by their mastery and performance goals for their child and their beliefs of the child's academic efficacy, and (2) predict student achievement goal orientations, efficacy beliefs, and achievement. Grade-level differences were also investigated.

Sample: The sample consisted of 282 elementary school (5th grade) and junior high school students (8th grade) and one of their parents.

Methods: Surveys were used for data collection. Structural equation modelling was applied for data analysis.

Results: (1) Autonomy support during homework was predicted by parent mastery goal, parents' control and interference by their performance goal and perceptions of child efficacy, and cognitive engagement as supplementary to homework by parent perceptions of child efficacy. (2) Parental autonomy support, control, and interference were differentially associated with student mastery and performance goal orientations, whereas parent cognitive engagement was associated with student efficacy beliefs. (3) The structural model was the same for elementary and junior high school students but the latent means for a number of variables were different.

Conclusion: Different types of parental involvement in homework were associated with different outcomes with parent autonomy support to be the most beneficial one.

Keywords: academic efficacy; achievement; achievement goal orientations; parent goals; parent involvement in homework.

© 2014 The British Psychological Society.

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Parents often become involved in their children's education through homework. Whether children do homework at home, complete it in after school programs or work on it during the school day, homework can be a powerful tool for (a) letting parents and other adults know what the child is learning, (b) giving children and parents a reason to talk about what's going on at school, and (c) giving teachers an opportunity to hear from parents about children's learning.

In 2001 we reviewed research on parental involvement in children's homework (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001). The review focused on understanding why parents become involved in their children's homework, what strategies they employ, and how involvement contributes to student learning. The review supported theoretical arguments that parents choose to become involved in homework because they believe they should be involved, believe their involvement will make a positive difference in their children's learning, and perceive that their involvement is invited, expected, and valued by school personnel (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995, 1997). The review also suggested that parents engage in a wide range of activities in this effort, from establishment of basic structures for homework performance to more complex efforts focused on teaching for understanding and helping students develop effective learning strategies (see Table 1 below for summary).

Since then, our work (Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, & Sandler, in press; Walker, Wilkins, Dallaire, Sandler, & Hoover-Dempsey, in press) and that of others (e.g., Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001; Kohl, Lengua, & McMahon, 2002; Simon, 2004) has underscored the importance of teacher invitations in motivating parent involvement. In this paper we draw on findings from the 2001 review and suggest several ways in which schools can invite parents' involvement in homework.

Involvement in student homework can be influenced by several members of the school community: teachers, professionals who work with students and families in before and after school programs, and parent leaders. After school providers are often ideally positioned to act as a bridge of communication between home and school on issues related to student learning and homework (Cosden, Morrison, Albanese, & Macias, 2001). Further, because information about schools is often communicated through informal parent networks (Delgado-Gaitan, 1992; Sheldon, 2002), parent leaders also can support parents' involvement in homework. The suggestions below focus on how teachers can involve parents in homework and how they may tap the potential of after school staff and parent leaders in supporting parents' homework involvement.

The suggestions are presented in two major sections. The first section—which includes the first four categories in Table 1—focuses on parental involvement activities that (a) contribute to student motivation and performance and (b) can be enacted by almost all families, across cultures, educational backgrounds, and family socioeconomic circumstances. The second section—which includes the last four categories in Table 1—describes strategies that may require (a) relatively strong parental understanding of children's development, learning, and homework content or (b) school support of skills and knowledge parents need for effective involvement in homework. Our intention is to offer suggestions that support schools' efforts to invite parents' homework involvement across a variety of school communities.

Strategies for Supporting Student Motivation and Performance in Homework We focus in this section on basic strategies for supporting student motivation and performance in homework. Because teachers often take the lead in communicating learning goals, we focus on strategies teachers can use to encourage parental involvement. We also discuss strategies teachers may use in interacting with parent leaders and after school staff for further support of parental involvement in homework.

Interacting With the School or Teacher About Homework Parents are often eager to support their children's learning but do not always know how to help or why their involvement is important (Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001; Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Burow, 1995). Parents should be encouraged to contact the teacher if they have questions about students' homework. Among parents of younger students, questions may be related to directions and due dates or to the substance of homework (e.g., content of assignment, resources for further information or help). Older students and their teachers often prefer to interact directly on such issues, but parents should be encouraged to ask questions if student-teacher communications do not offer sufficient guidance.

Parents and students often benefit when they have written information (in language that the parent can readily understand) about homework policies and purposes. This is most helpful if parents have opportunities to review the ideas with the teacher, ideally during an orientation offering ample opportunity for questions and responses. This information can be tailored to specific educational objectives and repeated throughout the year (objectives may include such goals as practicing skills, developing independence and responsibility, developing higher level thinking skills, organizing material, or simply getting students to read more, e.g., Corno, 1996; Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001). Such information from teachers can also highlight the skills, attitudes, and behaviors often influenced by parents' homework involvement (e.g., more positive attitudes about school, increased time on homework, greater persistence in learning tasks, e.g., Cooper, Lindsey, Nye, & Greathouse, 1998; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001).

To increase two-way communication about homework, teachers may talk with parents about their mutual goals for children's learning, including specific information about the ways in which student homework supports those goals. Teachers may also encourage parents to make comments about assignments (e.g., areas of difficulty for the student, student and parent responses to interactive homework). Parent leaders can work with teachers and parents to develop open-ended surveys seeking parent feedback on homework, and teachers may alter assignments or offer individual adjustments based on survey results.

Establishing Physical and Psychological Structures for Student Homework There are many ways of creating structures at home that support children's learning. Specific decisions about structuring depend in part on student needs and on parent ideas about specific involvement activities that "fit" the student and family context, for example, what the home is like and what other demands require parents' time (Xu & Corno, 1998). Specific steps in structuring homework also often depend on student developmental level (e.g., a 7-year-old may need external structuring; a 15-year-old is more likely to need more autonomy) and personal characteristics (e.g., students who are more distractible will likely benefit from more structuring; students who like to work independently often benefit from less parental structuring).

Teachers, parent leaders, and after school providers may suggest alternative homework routines (e.g., students decide the order in which the work will be done, while parents track time and remind students of remaining tasks) and offer suggestions for organizing homework space (e.g., clear off the table or desk before starting homework). Because after school staff also supervise homework, it's important that they create a comfortable, quiet environment and maintain consistent rules for homework completion (e.g., who can work together; when it's okay to ask for help).

Teachers may interact with parents, after school staff, and parent leaders about strategies that students can use to avoid becoming distracted during homework. For example, the students that XU and Corno (1998) studied identified several such strategies (e.g., telling themselves not to get up until a specific part is finished, and doing easier parts of the assignment first). Teachers, parents, and after school program staff may also suggest or require that external distractions (TV, CD player, phone) be turned off until homework is done. They may also offer positive reinforcement (e.g., free time, small rewards) to motivate efficient completion of homework. In all, it is very important that adults let students know that they value and expect effort and learning in the homework process.

Providing General Oversight of the Homework Process Teachers can help parents, after school staff, and family members understand what homework monitoring involves and why it is important (e.g., Toney, Kelley, & Lanclos, 2003). For example, helpful monitoring usually includes being accessible, being willing to help the student understand directions, being available to respond to simple questions, maintaining awareness of the child's emotional state and work patterns, and offering positive feedback on engagement in homework.

Parents and other adults often benefit from knowing what kind of monitoring is appropriate for students with different individual needs (Hong & Lee, 2003). For example, students who are easily distracted or who struggle with learning may need and benefit from relatively close monitoring, as is true of students who like to work near a parent or receive frequent feedback. Students who have strong self-regulation skills or find learning relatively straightforward are likely to benefit from “looser” monitoring and increased autonomy.

Teachers can also offer support that is likely to increase the effectiveness of parental monitoring, such as homework sign-off sheets for parents, requests for comments or questions about homework performance, or suggestions for detecting and responding to signs of distraction or frustration. Helpful monitoring may also include efforts to focus student attention by posing questions or comments (e.g., “Good work! How did you think about solving that one?” or “That's really interesting”). Adults may also help students avoid unnecessary time on assignments (e.g., if students are to draw a picture of a math problem, they should be encouraged to focus on how the drawing depicts the problem, not the colors to be used in completing the work).

Responding to Student Homework Performance Students benefit when parents and other adults offer specific positive responses to student homework performance. Parents' ability to offer appropriate responses often benefits from having information about the concepts addressed in homework, evaluative information about the student's homework performance, and information about the learning goals supported by homework tasks. The more specific and knowledgeable parents can be in offering feedback and reinforcement, the stronger their impact on learning and student self-efficacy is likely to be.

Teachers, parent leaders, and after school staff can also give parents and other adults specific examples of how they can support children's homework performance. Teachers may offer suggestions for short questions parents can ask the student about the day's homework and can include ideas about how to offer helpful and autonomy-supportive responses (e.g., wait for student questions before helping). Suggestions may be most helpful when they support parents in thinking through the amount of independence the child needs and offer specific suggestions for appropriate positive responses (e.g., Ng, Kenney-Benson & Pomerantz, 2004).

Adults can influence children's motivation for homework by offering sincere compliments on work and specific suggestions when performance is poor. They can support student self-confidence by telling children they know they're able to do the work based on examples from recent learning situations. Teachers and other adults may also offer helpful responses supportive of student self-motivation for completing homework (e.g., suggestions for maintaining motivation, such as thinking about free time after homework or taking a limited break after completing a section of the assignment).

Epstein and colleagues' approach to interactive homework may also be very helpful in guiding parent responses to student homework (Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001). The Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) program engages the student in sharing homework tasks with a parent. Parents are asked to be interested and responsive but are not asked to teach specific skills (essentially, TIPS makes students responsible for homework even though parents are integrally involved). TIPS activities appear especially helpful in encouraging students to recognize that teachers want their families to know what they are learning, want parents to participate in the process, and want students to own primary responsibility for the learning outcomes. (For more information on TIPS see www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/tips/tipsmain.htm .)

Strategies for Parent Teaching Activities During Homework We focus now on more complex motivational and instructional strategies that parents and others may use in helping students with homework. Some strategies are relatively direct and short-term, while others involve more elaborate or extended approaches that can be supported as needed through school- or community-based education and intervention programs.

Engaging in Homework Processes and Tasks With the Student Teachers can help parents engage in homework processes by providing specific, time-limited suggestions for helping students in ways that support the broader learning goals of homework assignments. For example, teachers of younger children might suggest that parents read with the child or listen to the child read for 10 minutes 2 or 3 times a week. This is likely to be possible within most family schedules; it also offers parents a way of explicitly valuing children's schoolwork and reinforcing their learning. A suggestion that parents review two problems in a larger math assignment with the child is also likely to be feasible within most family schedules; it also offers parents information about what the student is learning as well as an opportunity to express the parent's valuing of the student's work.

Teachers may also support parent and after school staff awareness of direct teaching strategies that may be useful helping students with homework. Schools and teachers can offer important information about when direct teaching is likely to be helpful—for example, when homework involves practice or memorization. Parents may also benefit from knowing that direct teaching strategies are often most appropriate for students who are younger, experience difficulty with work, or request help. Suggestions for the amount of direct teaching that is appropriate for students at different developmental and grade levels can be particularly helpful, as are suggestions for teaching activities that meet individual student needs (e.g., Cancio, West & Young, 2004; Cosden et al., 2001).

Information about appropriate indirect teaching strategies can also be very helpful to adults who are involved in student homework. It can be particularly important when the learning objective of homework is not derivation of correct answers but development of analytical, problem-solving, or communication skills. Parents may need examples of indirect teaching strategies (e.g., asking questions, discussing student responses and their fit with the task) as well as information on understanding when indirect strategies are likely to be most helpful (e.g., a science project, developing a report, writing a poem). Learning about indirect and direct teaching strategies expands adult repertoires of helping skills and enables involvement activities most appropriate for different kinds of learning tasks.

Creating a "Fit" Between Learning Tasks and Student Skills Parents and others who interact regularly with children often bring another major strength to student learning processes—their knowledge of individual student's learning styles, interests, and work preferences. Teachers can play an important role in offering suggestions for making effective use of this knowledge. For example, students who feel overwhelmed by assignments are often responding to their perception of the task as a whole. Information about ways of breaking complex learning tasks into sequential parts can enhance parents' and others' ability to offer targeted, specific, and productive help in such situations.

Teacher suggestions about learning patterns and needs that characterize children at different developmental levels can also help adults key their involvement to appropriate developmental expectations. Teachers can make specific suggestions about how to recognize what a student currently understands and what guidance and teaching activities are likely to help the student achieve the next level of understanding. Such suggestions are often most effective if built around scaffolding principles, for example, offering substantial support in the initial phases of learning, followed by “fading” of support as the student gains skill and confidence in the area (e.g., Pratt, Green, MacVicar & Bountrogianni, 1992).

Several programs based on these principles have been developed. For example, Shumow (1998) reported on a program designed to enhance parents' understanding of students' developmental abilities in mathematics. Several program features were related to gains in parents' understanding of their children's problem-solving abilities and their use of appropriate strategies for supporting student self-regulation and engagement in learning. These features included regular written suggestions for parents as well as regular parent-teacher phone conversations about the student's cognitive development and progress in learning. These conversations included questions and answers, parent and teacher observations about students' learning strategies, and joint anticipation of students' next steps in learning. Shumow suggested that the conversations were particularly helpful because they encouraged parents to notice their children's strategic thinking and enabled them to place their children's learning within the developmental and conceptual framework guiding classroom math instruction.

Interactive homework with parent-teacher interaction can be developed for a variety of curriculum areas. Because creation of these assignments is time-consuming, however, a committee of teachers for each grade (at the district level) might be involved in creating assignments prior to the start of the school year. For maximum effectiveness, such assignments should include attention to the individual needs of both gifted and struggling students.

Engaging in Interactive Processes That Support Student Understanding Parental involvement focused on helping children understand learning tasks often requires considerable knowledge. Parents whose own schooling did not include experience in understanding principles underlying varied learning tasks often benefit from school-based educational programs designed to support relevant knowledge and understanding. Programs may include written materials to help parents understand the basic objectives and components of a learning task as well as specific suggestions for checking on student understanding (e.g., “Can you tell me how you got that answer?” ; “What do you think is the most important idea in this section of your report?”). Programs that help parents engage in this kind of involvement may also offer demonstrations of developmentally appropriate teaching activities, opportunities for practice of varied strategies, and information about assessing students' progress (e.g., Starkey & Klein, 2000).

Engaging in Meta-Strategies to Help the Student Learn Processes Conducive to Achievement This set of strategies is often grounded in information to parents about specific attributes that help students learn more effectively. Research suggests that these include positive student attitudes about learning and homework; positive student perceptions of personal competence and efficacy for learning; student perceptions of personal control over learning outcomes; and self-regulation skills pertinent to goal-setting, organizing and planning, persistence in the face of difficulty, and management of emotional responses to homework (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001). If parents have information about the student skills and attributes that are associated with better learning across grade levels and subject areas, they can focus their involvement efforts in part on support for these outcomes. Teachers, after school providers, and parent leaders can be instrumental in focusing parents' attention on these processes that continue—across grade levels, learning objectives, and subject areas—to support student learning.

Conclusion Student homework creates opportunities for important interactions among schools, families, students, and other adults who help care for children. Well-designed homework helps students learn; it also offers parents opportunities to see what students are learning, talk with children about their learning, and interact with teachers and other school-community members about ways to support student learning.

Because they are at the center of the homework process, teachers play critical roles in helping parents become effectively involved in student homework. In sharing ideas for homework involvement with parents, school-age care professionals, and parent leaders, teachers increase community support for student learning. The strategies suggested in this paper are likely, individually and in concert, to support effective parental involvement in student homework.

For more information visit the Family-School Partnership Lab at www.vanderbilt.edu/Peabody/family-school or email Kathleen V. Hoover-Dempsey at [email protected] .

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Parental involvement in homework of children with learning disabilities during distance learning: Relations with fear of COVID‐19 and resilience

Thanos touloupis.

1 Department of Education, University of Nicosia, Nicosia Cyprus

The present study investigated parental involvement in the homework of children with learning disabilities, during distance learning due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Also, the role of parents' fear of COVID‐19 and resilience in their involvement in homework was examined. The study involved 271 parents (140 mothers and 131 fathers) of children with learning disabilities, who studied in the fifth and sixth grade from4 schools of Thessaloniki (Greece). Parents completed a set of self‐reported questionnaires, which included a scale on parental involvement in homework, a scale on fear of COVID‐19, and a scale on resilience. According to the results, both mothers and fathers expressed a high fear of COVID‐19, a low sense of resilience, and were involved in homework mostly in terms of parental control. Parental involvement in homework was not significantly differentiated by children's gender and grade. Furthermore, the path analysis model showed that parents' fear of COVID‐19 predicted, indirectly and positively, parental control through the mediating role of resilience. The findings show how parents' current emotional state affects their involvement in the homework of children with learning disabilities. Finally, the findings imply the need for parental counseling during the pandemic, to feel more resilient and consequently supportive towards children's learning.

1. INTRODUCTION

The issue of parental involvement in students' homework has attracted scientific interest of many researchers during the last two decades (e.g., Epstein,  1991 ; Fan & Chen,  2001 ; Gonida & Cortina,  2014 ; Jeynes,  2003 ; Patall et al.,  2008 ). Parental involvement is defined as “the parents' or caregivers' investment in the education of their children” (LaRocque et al.,  2011 , p. 116), while more specifically parental involvement in children's homework is considered the parental activities at home that are related to children's learning in school (Hoover‐Dempsey & Sandler,  1997 ). The majority of the researchers have agreed that parents' active role in their children's education is considered beneficial for their children's social, emotional, and academic development (Green et al.,  2007 ), contributing in that way to their children's academic success (Graves & Brown Wright,  2011 ; Mattingly et al.,  2002 ).

However, children's academic outcomes seem to depend on the type of parental involvement in homework (Balli et al.,  1997 ; Fan & Chen,  2001 ; Patall et al.,  2008 ; Pomerantz et al.,  2007 ). In general, in international literature parental involvement is usually reflected in two different ways in which parents choose to engage in their children's homework. On the one hand, there are parents who display help and support for children's academic efforts, giving clear and consistent guidelines about homework (parental homework support). On the other hand, there are parents who exert pressure on children to complete assignments, and set strict rules, restrictions, and punishments during their involvement in their children's homework (parental homework control; Núñez et al.,  2015 ; Silinskas & Kikas,  2019 ). These two types of parental involvement (parental homework support/control) seem to be negatively correlated with each other. This means, for example, that the more parents express parental control the less likely they are to adopt parental support when they involve in their children's homework, and vice versa (Núñez et al.,  2015 ; Silinskas & Kikas,  2019 ). Furthermore, the available findings show that the more supportive the parents they are (e.g., being patient and clear in giving guidelines) during their involvement in school homework (parental homework support) the more likely for children to have higher academic performance. On the contrary, parents' engagement in school homework in a stricter and more controlling way (parental homework control) often makes children more prone to negative academic outcomes (Cooper et al.,  2000 ; Gonida & Cortina,  2014 ; Ng et al.,  2004 ).

It should be highlighted that the most important reason why the previous studies, as well as the present study, focus on parental involvement during elementary years is the fact that, in general, parents tend to involve in their children's homework to a greater extent during elementary years, as children need more guidance and supervision regarding their learning (Barnard,  2004 ). On the contrary, parents use to engage in homework less frequently as their children grow older and act more independently during their homework (Epstein & Lee,  1995 ; Hoover‐Dempsey & Sandler,  1997 ). Also, the importance of focusing on parents of school‐age students lies in the fact that information about the adopted positive (parental support) or negative type (parental control) of parental involvement in homework in the elementary years usually constitutes a predictive factor for children's later academic outcomes in the high school years (Barnard,  2004 ; Rogers et al.,  2009 ).

Additionally, it is worth noting that most of the related studies that have examined the type of parental involvement in children's homework have been conducted on a sample of parents whose children did not face any learning or developmental difficulty (e.g., Antony‐Newman,  2019 ; Cooper et al.,  2000 ; Gonida & Cortina,  2014 ; Kalaycı & Öz,  2018 ; Ng et al.,  2004 ; Tao et al.,  2019 ). Nevertheless, only a few studies have investigated this issue in parents of children with nontypical development, such as children with visual impairments or Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; McDonnall et al.,  2012 ; Rogers et al.,  2009 ). Despite the fact that learning disabilities (LD) 1 are the most common type of special educational needs (World Health Organization,  2015 ), the related studies carried out with parents of children with LD are even more limited. Children with LD can be described as those with specific developmental disorders of school skills, including (a) reading disability, (b) writing disability, and (c) arithmetic disability (World Health Organization,  2015 ). Although findings on parental involvement in the homework of children with LD are scarce, the limited studies show that the situation with parents' help in children's learning at home differs negatively from those of children without LD. For example, children with LD usually require more help from their parents, compared to their peers without LD (Ferrel,  2012 ), while having a child with LD often results in conflicts in parent–child relationships (Amerongenm & Mishna,  2004 ). The situation described before makes parents of children with LD adopt a maladaptive way of involvement in their children's homework. For instance, parents tend to exert more pressure, restrictions, and give more orders in school tasks, so that they feel that their children's learning is under control. Also, sometimes parents of children with LD, due to the objective learning difficulties, are not fully motivated to engage in their children's homework, while they often even give up doing so, because they feel less efficacious in doing this (Grolnick et al.,  1997 ).

The importance of the issue of parental involvement in children's homework undoubtedly is highlighted by the recent distance learning circumstances, imposed by policymakers on student populations from many countries, such as Greece, during the period of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. The fact that since March 2020 almost all learning activities at all educational levels are carried out exclusively online at students' home has probably affected the way parents involve in their children's homework (Sari & Maningtyas,  2020 ). However, this effect has received little attention until now. According to the available studies, on the one hand, parents seem to support and supervise their children's homework during distance learning (Novianti & Garzia,  2020 ; Sari & Maningtyas,  2020 ). On the other hand, parents report problems about how to help their children and provide them with the necessary learning facilities at home. According to parents' responses, this situation often makes them exert control and adopt strict rules when they are involved in their children's homework (Hafidz et al.,  2020 ). Consequently, the findings above seem to be contradictory, as they sometimes reveal a supportive and other times a less supportive parental type during distance learning. Furthermore, these findings don't inform about the specific type of parental involvement in children's homework during the period of distance learning (e.g., parental support/control). Also, the aforementioned findings are based on parents of children with typical learning development, and consequently, we are not allowed to draw safe conclusions for parents of children with LD.

Additionally, it seems that parents' involvement in children's homework seems to be affected by parents' and children's gender. For instance, mothers mention a more extensive involvement (regardless of the type of involvement) in their children's homework, not just because they choose to themselves, but mainly because they are assigned this role due to gender‐based stereotypical behaviors (Georgiou,  2000 ). On the contrary, fathers, claim as excuses for their lower levels of involvement in homework the lack of time, occupational obligations, as well as the fact that engaging in their children's homework belongs to female duties (Nord,  1998 ). Regarding children's gender, fathers are concerned with their boys' homework, while mothers seem to engage in both, boys' and girls' homework. This could be attributed to findings which prove that fathers, compared with mothers, interact more with sons than daughters in the context of play and school‐related activities in general (Tan & Goldberg,  2009 ). Based on the findings above, it is obvious that the related studies are considerably limited without informing about the specific type of involvement adopted by each parent. This, in conjunction with the fact that the available findings are based almost exclusively on parents of children with typical development, don't offer sufficient information on whether mothers and fathers of children with LD involve in a different way in cases of boys and girls school homework.

Additionally, taking into consideration the emotionally vulnerable period of the COVID‐19 pandemic we are going through, someone could not omit to examine the contribution of parents' current emotional state to their involvement in their children's homework. This lies in the fact that recent studies confirm a negative emotional state among adults, which seems to be reflected mainly in people's high fear of COVID‐19 and low sense of resilience. As far as the first emotional factor, it is mentioned that both male and female adults express a high sense of fear of COVID‐19, namely a constant and intense worrying about being infected by a coronavirus (Campagnaro et al.,  2020 ; Gabor et al.,  2020 ). Furthermore, recent findings during the last year (2019–2020) highlight that people's resilience is another emotional factor that has been adversely affected during the period of pandemic. Resilience reflects individuals' ability to adapt positively to a new difficult and adverse condition (Luthar,  2006 ; Masten,  2001 ; Rutter,  2006 ). Based on the available findings, both male and female adults (such as parents) tend to express a low sense of resilience during the period of COVID‐19 pandemic (Rosenberg,  2020 ; Vinkers et al.,  2020 ).

Also, it is worth mentioning that the literature confirms the existence of predictive relationships between the variables under study (parental involvement, fear of COVID‐19, and resilience) per two. For example, some researchers mention that there is a negative predictive relationship between adults' fear of COVID‐19 and their sense of resilience. In other words, adults who are processed by a high fear of COVID‐19, they are more likely to express a low sense of resilience (e.g., Karataş & Tagay,  2020 ; Seçer et al.,  2020 ). Also, other studies conclude that parents' sense of resilience has been reported as a positive predictive factor for their involvement in children's learning at home (e.g., Fagan & Palkovitz,  2007 ). That is, parents who feel more resilient in general tend to adopt more beneficial (supportive) ways when they involve in their children's homework and vice versa (e.g., Fagan & Palkovitz,  2007 ). Taking into consideration the findings above, it is implied that there is a network of relationships among fear of COVID‐19, sense of resilience and parental involvement in children's homework. Nevertheless, according to the author's knowledge almost no study has been identified that addresses this network of relationships, and especially for parents of children with LD. Something that could offer a more holistic and, subsequently more realistic perspective on how emotional mechanisms explain a particular parental behavior.

1.1. Purpose, goals, and hypotheses of the present study

Based on the literature review and the literature gaps mentioned above, the present study aimed to investigate the type of parental involvement in the homework of children with LD during distance learning in the period of COVID‐19 pandemic. At the same time, the study examined the role of parents' fear of COVID‐19 and resilience in their involvement in homework. Specifically, the following research questions emerged: What type of involvement in homework of children with LD is mostly adopted by parents during distance learning? Is the type of involvement in homework affected by parents' and children's gender? What is the network of the relationships among the variables under study (parental involvement, fear of COVID‐19, and resilience)? Based on the related literature, the theoretical connection model of the variables involved is illustrated in Figure  1 .

Hypothetical structural model of the network of the relationships among variables

According to the majority of the related findings, it is expected that during distance learning in the period of COVID‐19 pandemic parents of children with LD adopt a maladaptive type of involvement in children's homework, such as parental control, to a greater extent than a beneficial one, such as parental support (Hypothesis 1; Amerongenm & Mishna,  2004 ; Ferrel,  2012 ; Grolnick et al.,  1997 ). Also, regarding parents' gender (and in accordance with the previous Hypothesis) it is expected that mothers are involved in their children's homework in terms of control to a greater extent, compared to fathers (Hypothesis 2a; Georgiou,  2000 ; Nord,  1998 ). As far as children's gender, it is expected that mothers are involved in terms of control in both boys' and girls' homework, while fathers are involved in terms of control mainly in boy's homework (Hypothesis 2b; Tan & Goldberg,  2009 ). Finally, regarding the network of the relationships among the variables under study the following are expected: Parents' fear of COVID‐19 predicts indirectly (in a negative way) their support and (in a positive way) control type of involvement in homework, through the mediating role of their sense of resilience (Hypothesis 3; Fagan & Palkovitz,  2007 ; Karataş & Tagay,  2020 ; Seçer et al.,  2020 ).

2.1. Sample

The pilot sample of the study consisted of 50 randomly selected parents of different families (30 [60%] mothers, 20 [40%] fathers), whose children had been diagnosed with LD and studied in the fifth and sixth grade from schools located in economically diverse districts of Thessaloniki (Greece). Parents were contacted via email by the Educational and Counseling Centers (K.E.S.Y.) of Thessaloniki, which are officially authorized centers by the Greek Ministry of Education for the diagnosis of LD among a student population of each prefecture (Ministry of Education MINEDU,  2018 ). The parents of the pilot sample were approached during the first period of lockdown in Greece (March–April 2020) due to the COVID‐19 pandemic. The parents were asked to complete a set of online self‐reported questionnaires. The pilot study did not indicate the need to modify the questionnaires. Therefore, the pilot sample ( N  = 50) was integrated into the sample of the main study (221 parents), which was approached online during April–May 2020 (first period of lockdown in Greece) and November 2020 (second period of lockdown in Greece), resulting in a total sample of 271 randomly selected parents of different families (140 [52%] mothers, 131 [48%] fathers). Regarding the children of the 271 families, 151 (56%) were boys and 120 (44%) girls, while as far as their grade 140 children studied in the fifth (52%) and 131 (48%) in the sixth grade of elementary school 2 .

2.2. Instruments

For the present study, a set of self‐reported online questionnaires was used. The initial questions concerned parents' (gender) and children's demographic characteristics (diagnostic category, gender, and grade). After this introductory part, three main parts followed.

2.2.1. Questionnaire on parental involvement in homework

The measurement of parental involvement in students' homework was carried out with the Greek translation of a related questionnaire constructed by Núñez et al. ( 2015 ), to reflect the basic two dimensions of parental involvement in homework. The questionnaire has been used in other studies with elementary school students, with good psychometric properties (Núñez et al.,  2015 ; Silinskas & Kikas,  2019 ). For the purpose of the present study expressive modifications were made so that the questionnaire to address parents (not children) of elementary school children. The questionnaire consists of eight items, which are grouped into two distinct factors reflecting the following two negatively correlated types of parental involvement in children's homework: (a) parental support homework (e.g., “I help my child with homework if he/she asks for assistance”), and (b) parental control homework (e.g., “I scold and punish my child if he/she doesn't do all the homework”). Parents are asked to respond to these statements on a 5‐point scale ranging from (1) =  completely false to (5) =  completely true .

To test the validity of the questionnaire, a principal component analysis was carried out using the main component method and Varimax‐type rotation (KMO = 0.898, Bartlett χ 2  = 1871.340, p  < .001). Two distinct factors emerged with an eigenvalue more than 1.0 and significant interpretive value (Table  1 ) in line with the original factor structure: Factor 1 = parental control homework, explaining 33.23% of the total variance, and Factor 2 = parental support homework, explaining 21.15% of the total variance. The internal consistency indexes for each factor separately are: Factor 1 ( α  = 0.828), and Factor 2 ( α  = 0.772). The affinities (according to Pearson's correlation coefficient r ) of the score of each question by each Factor with the sum of the scores of the remaining questions of the same factor (corrected item − total correlation) are considered satisfactory 3 : Factor 1 (from r  = 0.59 to r  = 81), and Factor 2 (from r  = 0.55 to r  = 88).

Principal component analysis of the questionnaire on parental involvement in students' homework

Note 1 : F1 : Factor “Parental control homework,” F2 : Factor “Parental support homework.”

Note 2 : All of the above‐standardized loadings of the two factors are statistically significant ( p  < .05).

2.2.2. Fear of COVID‐19 Scale

Parents' fear of COVID‐19 was measured with the Greek translation of the Fear of COVID‐19 Scale (FCV‐19S; Ahorsu et al.,  2020 ). The scale was created to assess individuals' sense of fear of COVID‐19. The scale includes seven statements and constitutes one distinct factor measuring participants' emotional state towards COVID‐19 (e.g., “I am most afraid of coronavirus‐19,” “It makes me uncomfortable to think about coronavirus‐19.”). Participants are asked to respond to the statements based on a 5‐point Likert scale, ranging from (1) =  strongly disagree to (5) =  strongly agree . The index of fear of COVID‐19 derives from the average of the total score of the statements. The higher the score of the participants the higher their fear of COVID‐19.

To test the validity of the scale, a principal component analysis was carried out using the main component method and Varimax‐type rotation (KMO = 0.898, Bartlett χ 2  = 1829.191, p  < .001). One factor emerged with an eigenvalue more than 1.0 and significant interpretive value (Table  2 ) in line with the original factor structure: Factor 1 = Fear of COVID‐19, explaining 58.51% of the total variance. The internal consistency index for the factor is α  = 0.898. The affinities (according to Pearson's correlation coefficient r ) of the score of each question of the factor with the sum of the scores of the remaining questions of the factor (corrected item − total correlation) are considered satisfactory: Factor 1 (from r  = 0.45 to r  = 0.74).

Principal component analysis of the Fear of COVID‐19 Scale

Note 1 : F1 : Factor “Fear of COVID‐19.”

Note 2 : All of the above‐standardized loadings of the factor are statistically significant (p < .05).

Abbreviation: COVID‐19, coronavirus disease 2019.

2.2.3. Resilience Scale

The measurement of parents' resilience was carried out with the short version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale ‐ CD‐RISC; Connor & Davidson,  2003 ) of Campbell‐Sills and Stein ( 2007 ). The original long version of the CD‐RISC (25 items) investigates people's positive adaptation to stressful and/or difficult situations. According to Campbell‐Sills and Stein ( 2007 ), the factor structure of the original CD‐RISC is unstable across demographically equivalent samples, while the short version of the scale has excellent psychometric properties in student population. This finding demonstrates that resilience can be reliably assessed with a subset of the CD‐RISC items. Thus, in the short version of the CD‐RISC, resilience is measured through 10 representative statements/proposals (they reflect individuals' ability to tolerate experiences such as change, personal problems, illness, pressure, failure, and painful feelings), which form a single‐distinct factor “resilience” (Campbell‐Sills & Stein,  2007 ). These statements/proposals are answered on a 5‐point Likert scale (from 0 =  not at all true to 4 =  almost always true ). Examples of the statements/proposals are the following: “I am able to adapt to change,” “I tend to bounce back after illness or hardship,” and “I can handle unpleasant feelings.” Individual items are summed to produce an overall score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of resilience.

To test the validity of the scale, a principal component analysis was carried out using the main component method and Varimax‐type rotation (KMO = 0.819, Bartlett χ 2  = 1819.399, p  < .001). One distinct factor emerged with eigenvalue more than 1.0 and significant interpretive value (Table  3 ) in line with the original factor structure: Factor 1 = resilience, explaining 65.23% of the total variance. The internal consistency index for Factor 1 is α  = 0.829. The affinities (according to Pearson's correlation coefficient r ) of the score of each question by Factor 1 with the sum of the scores of the remaining questions of the factor (corrected item − total correlation) are considered satisfactory: Factor 1 (from r  = 0.59 to r  = 81).

Principal component analysis of the Resilience Scale

Note 1 : F1 : Factor “Resilience.”

Note 2 : All of the above‐standardized loadings of the factor are statistically significant ( p  < .05).

2.3. Design

After the approval for the survey by the Greek Ministry of Education, an email was sent to 80 randomly selected parents of different families, whose children had been diagnosed with LD and studied in the fifth and sixth grade from schools located in economically diverse districts of Thessaloniki (Greece). The email was sent by the Educational and Counseling Centers (K.E.S.Y.) of Thessaloniki, where their children had been diagnosed with LD. The email included an attached consent form with details about the study and the identity of the researcher (the author of the article), who is an employee of K.E.S.Y. of Thessaloniki, as well as the link of the survey questionnaires that were designed using the online Google Drive platform. Finally, in the end of the consent form parents were asked to mention the diagnostic category of their children's LD. Out of the 80 parents, 50 responded positively to the researcher's email, coming from economically diverse districts of Thessaloniki (western, eastern, and central). The answers of the participating parents were automatically entered in a logistic sheet of the platform. The above process, which led to the selection of the pilot sample, led to no modifications of the online questionnaires. Consequently, the same process was carried out for the selection of the larger sample of the main study ( N  = 221 parents), forming in that way the final sample of the study ( N  = 271 parents). It should be highlighted that most of the participating parents didn't clarify the specific LD their children had been diagnosed with. This did not allow the researcher to investigate (with appropriate statistical analyses) the effect of students' diagnostic category of LD on the variables studied. The duration for the completion of the questionnaires was estimated at around 10–15 min. Undoubtedly, the participation of the parents was voluntary, while all the criteria of anonymity and confidentiality of the data were met.

3.1. Methods of analyses

For the present study, to depict parental involvement in the homework of children with LD (Hypothesis 1), as well as parents' fear of COVID‐19 and resilience descriptive statistics were applied. To test Hypotheses 2a and 2b two multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) were used, setting the two types of parental involvement as dependent variables in both analyses. In the first analysis parents' gender and in the second analysis students' gender were considered as independent variables. To investigate the dyadic relationships between the variables under study (parental involvement, fear of COVID‐19, and resilience), a series of Pearson correlation analyses were carried out (Pearson r ). Finally, the confirmation of Hypothesis 3 was checked by applying path analysis to the data (using the Mplus programme with the Maximum Likelihood method) to depict the network of the relationships among the variables involved, which leads to the types of parental involvement in the homework of children with LD.

3.2. Descriptive statistics

According to the parents' responses, it seems that they use a control ( Mean  = 4.15, SD  = 0.70) to a greater extent, compared with support ( Mean  = 2.58, SD  = 0.54) when they involve in their children's homework, which confirms Hypotheses 1. Also, the results showed that parents expressed a high sense of fear of COVID‐19 ( Mean  = 4.09, SD  = 0.77) but a relatively low sense of resilience ( Mean  = 2.05, SD  = 0.85).

3.3. MANOVAs results

According to the results, parents' gender did not seem to significantly differentiate their type of involvement in their children's homework ( p  > .05), rejecting in that way Hypotheses 2a. Hypotheses 2b was also rejected, as parental involvement in homework was not statistically affected by children's gender ( p  > .05).

3.4. Correlations among variables

In Table  4 , it seems that parental support is negatively correlated with parental control in children's homework ( r  = −0.399, p  < .01). Also, there is a negative correlation between parents' fear of COVID‐19 and their sense of resilience ( r  = −0.518, p  < .01). Furthermore, parental control is positively correlated with parents' fear of COVID‐19 ( r  = 0.151, p  < .05) and negatively correlated with their sense of resilience ( r  = −0.301, p  < .01). On the contrary, parental support is negatively correlated with parents' fear of COVID‐19 ( r  = −0.157, p  < .05) and positively correlated with their sense of resilience ( r  = 0.398, p  < .01).

Correlations among variables

Note 1 : * p  < .01, ** p  < .01.

Note 2 : No statistically significant correlations ( p  > .05) were omitted.

3.5. Path analyses among variables

To map the network of the relationships among the variables involved (parental involvement, fear of COVID‐19, and resilience), which leads to the type of parental involvement in the homework of children with LD, a series of preliminary analyses of linear stepwise regressions were performed to check the predictive relationships between the variables per two. Meeting the assumptions of normality and without any missing cases, the path model that emerged from the parents' responses had good fit indexes (Figure  2 ): χ 2 (27, Ν  = 271) = 35.033, p  > .05 (CFI = 0.991, TLI = 0.991, RMSEA = 0.064, SRMR = 0.083)

Schematic representation of the path model for parental involvement. Note 1 : The values on the arrows are standardized coefficients of the model. Note 2 : ** p  < .01, (ns) = non‐significant. COVID‐19, coronavirus disease 2019

According to Figure  2 , parents' fear of COVID‐19 constitutes a direct and negative predictor of their sense of resilience. That is, parents who express a high sense of fear of COVID‐19 (as proved in the present study) tend to be characterized by a low sense of resilience. Parents' sense of resilience in turn seems to be a negative predictor of their involvement in children's homework in terms of control (parental control) but not in terms of support (parental support). In other words, parents who are characterized by a low sense of resilience (as it proved in the present study) tend to adopt a maladaptive type of parental involvement, such as parental control, in the homework of their children with LD. By examining the statistically significant mediating role of parents' sense of resilience in the relationship between their fear of COVID‐19, on the one hand, and their parental control, on the other hand, the following was found: parents' fear of COVID‐19 indirectly and positively predicts their control in homework through their sense of resilience ( Z 4  = −2.39, p  < .05). This finding confirms Hypotheses 3 only partially, as parents' resilience was not proved to be a mediating variable between their fear of COVID‐19 and their support in their children's homework.

4. DISCUSSION

The present study aimed to investigate the types of parental involvement in the homework of children with LD during distance learning in the period of COVID‐19. At the same time, the role of parents' fear of COVID‐19 and resilience in their involvement in their children's homework was examined.

According to the results, parents of children with LD seemed to adopt to a great extent a less beneficial way when they engage in their children's learning at home. Specifically, they seemed to be controlling by exerting pressure on their children, interfering, and using orders during their involvement in homework (parental control). On the contrary, the beneficial type of parental involvement, such as providing consistent learning and guidance to their children when they really need it (parental support), seemed to be adopted to a lesser extent by parents of children with LD. The findings confirm Hypothesis 1, according to which it was expected that parental control is mostly expressed in case of involvement in the homework of children with LD, as well as studies, which mention that parents' engagement with the homework of children with LD usually reflects controlling, commanding, interfering or abstaining (Amerongenm & Mishna,  2004 ; Ferrel,  2012 ; Grolnick et al.,  1997 ). Students' objective difficulties in specific learning domains constitute for many parents an unfamiliar field (Amerongenm & Mishna,  2004 ). This often makes parents feel that they don't have control of their children's learning situation, as they are unable to help them effectively with homework (Amerongenm & Mishna,  2004 ). Obviously, parents trying to compensate for this situation adopt a more controlling or interfering pattern of engagement in children's learning at home. Furthermore, this parents' attitude towards children's homework could be associated with the current period of distance learning during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Digital illiteracy of many parents in combination with technical and financial issues raised at home due to the online learning, such as the need for good quality of internet connection, separate room for school, teleconferences, possible purchase of more than one computer/laptop (Hafidz et al.,  2020 ) could possibly trigger a more conflicting family environment, leading parents to make use of less patient and beneficial ways of helping their children with their school homework.

Furthermore, the results showed that both mothers and fathers expressed a high fear of COVID‐19 and a relatively low sense of resilience. These findings confirm related studies conducted on adults during the last year of the pandemic (e.g., Campagnaro et al.,  2020 ; Gabor et al.,  2020 ; Rosenberg,  2020 ; Vinkers et al.,  2020 ). It is likely that the significant and sudden changes and the intense socio‐emotional consequences on people's life during lockdown due to the COVID‐19 pandemic (e.g., Rogers et al.,  2021 ) made parents, regardless of their gender, experience stress, insecurity, and a low ability to adapt positively to the current difficult and adverse situation. Additionally, the present study revealed that parents' gender didn't significantly affect their type of involvement in their children's homework. This finding disconfirms Hypothesis 2a, according to which mothers were expected to be more involved in their children's school issues, regardless of the type of involvement, compared to fathers. Also, this finding is not in line with related studies, which highlight mothers' generally higher involvement in children's homework (e.g., in control or supportive way), compared with their husbands (Georgiou,  2000 ; Nord,  1998 ). Taking into consideration the fact that the studies mentioned before have been carried out with parents of children without LD, someone could argue the following: the existence of objective learning difficulties among children is likely to make both mothers and fathers more alert regarding their children's learning at home, leading parents to almost equal involvement in homework issues. However, the fact that LD often constitutes an unclear field for parents, as described earlier, possibly explains why the involvement of both mothers and fathers seems to be maladaptive (controlling and interfering). Also, the fact that both mothers and fathers seemed to get involved in children's homework could be attributed to the period of COVID‐19 pandemic. The confinement measures imposed by the Greek government to all citizens during the pandemic (Papiris et al.,  2020 ) increased the time spent at home for both parents (Daniels,  2020 ), possibly making mothers and fathers more available to engage and supervise their children's homework. Nevertheless, this extra time that parents spent on their children's homework doesn't seem to be supportive in most cases. Another finding of the present study was that children's gender didn't significantly affect the types of parental involvement. This finding disconfirms Hypothesis 2b, according to which it was expected that mothers are involved in both boys' and girls' homework while fathers are involved mainly in boy's homework. Accordingly, this finding is in contrast with related studies conducted on parents of children without LD, which reveal the pattern of parental involvement described before based on children's gender (e.g., Tan & Goldberg,  2009 ). These parents' gender‐based stereotypical behaviors (Georgiou,  2000 ) don't seem to apply in the case of parents of children with LD. As mentioned before, it is likely that raising a child with LD in combination with both parents' more time spent at home during the period of lockdown (Daniels,  2020 ) make mothers and fathers more available for supervising their child's homework during distance learning (even in a maladaptive way). Therefore, based on the findings above, the following is concluded: The fact that during distance learning both parents seemed to be interested in the homework of their children with LD, regardless of their children's gender, could be considered positive. However, it seems that parents choose to involve in a less beneficial way (parental control), which is more alarming taking into consideration that children with LD usually need a more supportive and personalized way of parental guidance in their homework (Keeffe,  2017 ; Polychroni et al.,  2006 ).

Finally, the results of the path analysis model revealed that parents' fear of COVID‐19 predicts indirectly and positively their control in their involvement in children's homework, through the negative mediating role of parents' resilience. This means that Hypothesis 3 was confirmed only partially. At the same time, Hypothesis 3 was partially disconfirmed, as parents' resilience didn't mediate between their fear of COVID‐19 and their support in their children's homework. The path analysis results reflect findings of previous studies, which conclude that adults' fear of COVID‐19 can lead to a low sense of resilience (e.g., Karataş & Tagay,  2020 ; Seçer et al.,  2020 ), which in turn can result in adopting a less beneficial way of involvement in children's learning at home (e.g., Fagan & Palkovitz,  2007 ). Actually, the indirect (and not the direct) effect of parents' fear of COVID‐19 on their controlling involvement in their children's homework could be considered encouraging, as it implies that strengthening parents' low sense of resilience during the current period could suspend the above effect. In other words, parents who experience stressful feelings during the unstable and unsecure period of COVID‐19 pandemic does not necessarily mean that they adopt more maladaptive ways of involvement in their children's learning at home, as long as they are possessed by a high sense of resilience. Undoubtedly, this is of high practical importance for prevention/intervention actions by mental health professionals during the period of lockdown considering parents' reported vulnerable emotional state (see Contribution of the study section). Finally, the fact that parents' current emotional state (high fear of COVID‐19, low resilience) didn't significantly predict their parental support towards their children's homework could be attributed to the fact that this type of parental involvement was adopted to a much lower extent in general by the participating parents.

In summary, the present study concludes that during the current period of distance learning due to the COVID‐19 pandemic parents of children with LD tend to adopt a less beneficial type of involvement (control) in homework. Furthermore, parents' high fear of COVID‐19 and low sense of resilience, displaying the current period, seem to constitute crucial predictive factors for their control type of involvement in children's learning at home. Therefore, the present study could argue that the maladaptive way of parental involvement in the homework of children with LD (e.g., control) that has been reported before the period of the COVID‐19 pandemic (Amerongenm & Mishna,  2004 ; Grolnick et al.,  1997 ) could possibly be burdened due to the evoked parents' vulnerable emotional state the current period.

4.1. Limitations, future research, and contribution of the present study

The findings of the present study should be interpreted with caution as they are subject to specific limitations. For example, the restriction to parents of a particular city limits the possibility of generalizing the results. Also, the study followed a quantitative method, which did not allow for an in‐depth qualitative investigation of the parents' relevant feelings and practices. Finally, the lack of information about the specific diagnostic category of children's LD, did not allow the examination of the effect of these diagnostic categories (e.g., dyslexia) on parental involvement. These limitations could trigger future relevant studies conducted on a sample of parents from other cities as well. A larger sample of parents would allow the investigation of the statistical effect mentioned before. Furthermore, a related study conducted on both parents and children with LD could offer a more realistic view of the issue studied, as according to some researchers (Grolnick & Slowiaczek,  1994 ; Hoover‐Dempsey et al.,  2005 ; Núñez et al.,  2015 ) children's perceived parental involvement in homework is more real than the actual nature or extent of parents' engagement in homework. In addition, a complementary qualitative investigation of the issue under study, through individual semi‐structured interviews or focus groups with parents, could better capture their emotional state and their experiences with their involvement in their children's homework during distance learning, possibly highlighting other parameters of the issue studied.

Nevertheless, the present study contributes to international and mainly Greek literature on the topic. It constitutes the first attempt to depict the network of the relationships between emotional (fear of COVID‐19, resilience) and behavioral factors (parental involvement) that explain the way parents of children with LD involve in learning at home during the period of distance learning. Undoubtedly, these findings constitute an important source of information and awareness for the professionals of mental health. The findings imply the need for living or even online educational and psychological support for parents during the period of pandemic. This initiative could be addressed by school counselors of each prefecture or school psychologists, who are officially responsible for organizing prevention/intervention actions (even online) for the members of the school community (e.g., parents) regarding current school issues in General and Special Education (Jacob et al.,  2016 ; Perera‐Diltz & Mason,  2008 ), such as parental involvement in homework during the lockdown. Also, these actions could be supported by competent Counseling Centers under the auspices of each country's Ministry of Education, such as the Educational and Counseling Centers in Greece, where psychologists and special education teachers are in constant (even distance) cooperation with the school community, to guide and help classroom teachers and parents of children with LD to effectively adjust to adverse circumstances (Ministry of Education MINEDU,  2018 ), such as the period of the pandemic. This psychological and educational support should focus on beneficial types of parental involvement in their children's homework, promoting autonomy support and cognitive engagement, during distance learning. Furthermore, psychological help to parents, through short‐term (online) sessions, is important to address strategies about managing parents' stressful feelings about the COVID‐19 pandemic, as well as enhancing their sense of resilience during the current period. The latter strategies may act protectively against the development of dysfunctional types of parental involvement in homework, forming in that way a family environment that could be considered supportive for children's academic performance.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The author declares that there is no conflict of interests.

& Touloupis, T. (2021). Parental involvement in homework of children with learning disabilities during distance learning: Relations with fear of COVID‐19 and resilience . Psychol Schs , 58 , 2345–2360. 10.1002/pits.22596 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Thanos Touloupis is an adjunct faculty (Lecturer position) at the Distance Learning Master's Degree in “Special Education”, University of Nicosia.

1 From this point on and for the rest of the present article learning disabilities will be mentioned as LD.

2 In the Greek educational system, elementary school lasts 6 years followed by high school, split into junior high and senior high school (Ministry of Education MINEDU,  2018 ).

3 In a sample of 300 and 600 people, loadings of more than 0.29 and 0.21, accordingly, are accepted (Field,  2005 ).

4 Ζ  = standardized normal distribution value.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Antecedents and outcomes of parental homework involvement: how do family-school partnerships affect parental homework involvement and student outcomes.

• Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, FernUniversität in Hagen, Hagen, Germany

Recent studies have demonstrated that parental homework involvement may not always foster students’ desired school outcomes. Such studies have also concluded that the quality of parental homework involvement matters, rather than the quantity. Most importantly, previous studies have shown that strong family-school partnerships (FSPs) may help to improve parental involvement. However, there is little research on how FSP is related to homework involvement. The aim of the present study is to examine the link between an effective family-school communication (EFSC) – as one aspect of FSP – and the quality of parental homework involvement in the German context. For this purpose, we developed a new measure of EFSC. Taking a self-determination theory perspective on parental need support, the quality of parental homework involvement was differentiated into two dimensions of parental supportive behavior: autonomy support and competence support. We analyzed the data of 309 parents (82% mothers) of school students (52% girls) who participated in an online survey. The structural equation model revealed a positive relation between EFSC and the quality of parental homework involvement, which in turn was positively associated with school performance and well-being. Moreover, we found that the quality of parental homework involvement mediated the relations of EFSC with achievement and well-being. The results of our study highlight the role of EFSC as a key performance factor that helps to improve the quality of parental homework involvement, thereby promoting student achievement and well-being.

Introduction

Across the globe, students are set homework assignments on a regular basis since homework is generally believed to improve achievement ( Paschal et al., 1984 ; Cooper, 1989 ). In their meta-analysis of school effectiveness studies, Scheerens and Bosker (1997) found a mean effect size across 13 studies of Zr = 0.06 (Fisher’s Z ) for homework, indicating that this variable might indeed enhance school effectiveness. However, recent studies have provided evidence that homework assignments are not per se performance-enhancing. For instance, the effectiveness of homework seems to depend on the quality of the tasks assigned. Homework assignments that are perceived to be well selected and cognitively challenging are positively associated with students’ achievement ( Dettmers et al., 2010 ).

A further potential predictor of the effectiveness of homework assignments is parental homework involvement. Parental involvement in homework completion is commonly expected by schools, teachers, and parents ( Patall et al., 2008 ), all of whom believe that parental homework involvement is vital for students’ school performance ( Epstein, 1986 ; Trautwein et al., 2009 ). Thus, numerous guidelines for parents exist, aiming to improve parents’ abilities to successfully support homework completion (e.g., U.S. Department of Education, 2005 ). In the US, more than 80% of parents believe that homework is important for learning. Even though 51% of parents reported that students should do their homework on their own, on average, 73% of parents reported helping their child with homework completion. However, at the same time, 29% of parents perceived a negative impact of homework on family life ( Markow et al., 2007 ). Given this high percentage of parents who become involved in their children’s homework completion and a substantial number of parents who complained about family stress due to homework, the question arises concerning whether and under which conditions parental homework involvement is beneficial. Parental homework involvement is one facet of parental involvement in schooling, which is believed to be one of the key promoters of students’ school-related outcomes such as achievement, motivation, and well-being (e.g., Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Epstein, 2005 ; Hill and Tyson, 2009 ; Ma et al., 2016 ). The importance attached to parental behavior in their children’s education becomes apparent in the development of significant educational policies [e.g., U.S. Department of Education, 2002 ] and projects fostering educational partnerships [e.g., teachers involve parents in schoolwork (TIPS, Van Voorhis, 2003 ), and teachers involving parents (TIP, Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2002 )], which stresses the role that parents play in their children’s education. Indeed, meta-analyses have provided evidence that regardless of their socioeconomic background and race, students’ school achievement can be improved if their parents become involved in their education (e.g., Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Hill and Tyson, 2009 ; Ma et al., 2016 ). However, parental involvement represents a multifaceted behavior that can take place in school (school-based involvement: e.g., community services at school) or at home (home-based involvement; Grolnick and Slowiaczek, 1994 , Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler, 1997 ). Previous studies analyzing the effectiveness of parental homework involvement have demonstrated mixed results about the link between this type of involvement and students’ school performance, with some studies having found a positive link (e.g., Van Voorhis, 2003 ; Xu, 2004 ; Silinskas and Kikas, 2011 ) while others have found a negative link (e.g., Xu et al., 2010 ; Dumont et al., 2012 ). These studies have suggested that one should consider how homework involvement is assessed. Most importantly, it is the quality (and not the amount) of homework involvement that is crucial for student outcomes (e.g., Knollmann and Wild, 2007a , b ; Dumont et al., 2014 ; Gonida and Cortina, 2014 ; Moroni et al., 2015 ).

The present study was built upon these previous studies, aiming to shed light on factors that might improve the quality of parental homework involvement and thereby student outcomes (achievement and students’ well-being). In recent years, the concept of FSP has become well known, as it is believed to foster parental abilities to help their children with learning. Studies have proven that a positive contact between schools and parents is related with higher parental school involvement ( Ames et al., 1993 ; Kohl et al., 2000 ; Patrikakou and Weissberg, 2000 ). The aim of the present study was threefold. Our first research question concerned the relationship between the quality of parental homework involvement and four student outcomes: achievement in mathematics and reading as well as well-being at home and school. Second, we analyzed the association between effective family-school communication (EFSC) on the one hand and parental homework involvement and the four student outcomes on the other hand. Third, we investigated the interplay between our variables, namely whether parental homework involvement mediates the association between EFSC and the four student outcomes.

Predictors and Outcomes of Parental Homework Involvement

Past research has suggested that parental homework involvement is a multidimensional construct including two distinct types of help: quantitative help (e.g., doing homework with the child, providing answers) and qualitative help (e.g., avoiding distractions, providing rules for homework completion, providing support for finding answers) (e.g., Gonida and Cortina, 2014 ). Although the general term of parental involvement is accepted to be one of the key promoters of learning, parental homework involvement is not always positively related with desired school outcomes such as achievement. For example, Xu et al. (2010) found the frequency of parental homework help to be negatively related with student reading achievement and raised the question of how parents should help with homework. The authors concluded that parents should provide a suitable learning environment for homework completion to foster self-regulated learning and children’s autonomy. Moroni et al. (2015) operationalized parental involvement as a multidimensional construct in terms of quantity and quality and examined how the quantity and different qualities of homework involvement were associated with student achievement. Controlling for prior achievement and parental socioeconomic background, they found the frequency of help to be negatively associated with the development of student achievement. However, in terms of homework quality, the authors found opposing effects depending on how homework quality was operationalized. While supportive homework help had positive effects on students’ achievement, intrusive homework help was negatively related with later achievement. Dumont et al. (2014) analyzed longitudinal data of 2,830 student-parent dyads (grades 5 and 7) who reported about the quality of parental homework involvement, their socioeconomic background, and desired student outcomes (e.g., reading achievement, reading effort). Adopting the perspective of self-determination theory (SDT, Deci and Ryan, 1987 , 2000 ), parental homework involvement was conceptualized by three dimensions: parental control, parental responsiveness, and parental provision of structure. The analyses revealed a reciprocal relationship between parental homework involvement and student outcomes. Low achievement in grade 5 predicted higher later parental homework control in grade 7, while high parental control in grade 5 was related with lower achievement in grade 7. A positive reciprocal relationship was found for parental involvement in terms of structure and responsiveness on the one hand and desired student outcomes – such as high achievement – on the other hand. Types of parental involvement did not depend on parental socioeconomic background.

Supportive parental homework involvement – such as the parental provision of autonomy support or structure – is not only positively associated with students’ academic performance, but it is also believed to be beneficial for students’ well-being (e.g., Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2002 ; Pekrun et al., 2002 ). It is assumed that supportive parental behavior fulfills students’ basic needs proposed by SDT, namely the need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence ( Grolnick, 2009 ). Basic needs satisfaction may result in an internalization of uninteresting and boring activities such as doing homework into personally important activities, thereby fostering performance and well-being ( Deci and Ryan, 2000 ). To date, few studies have provided evidence of this linkage. Knollmann and Wild (2007b) conducted a survey with 181 German students concerning their parents’ provision of autonomy support, emotional support, and support for competence during parental instruction at home. The authors found autonomy and emotional support to be positively associated with joy. By contrast, lower levels of autonomy and emotional support predicted higher rates of students’ anger. Moreover, according to Kenney-Benson and Pomerantz (2005) , greater autonomy-supportive homework help of mothers was found to be associated with less depressive symptoms compared to controlling mothers.

To sum up, the quality of parental homework help seems to be related with differences in students’ well-being and academic achievement. In line with the assumptions of SDT, numerous studies suggest that autonomy- and competence-supportive parental homework involvement may increase students’ experiences of autonomous and competent learning experiences, which in turn fosters desired (learning) outcomes. Hence, the question arises about factors that may influence the quality of parental homework involvement. Gonida and Cortina (2014) investigated predictors and consequences of parental homework involvement. The authors asked Greek parents to rate different types of parental homework involvement (autonomy-supportive homework involvement, controlling homework involvement, and interference). Moreover, parents and their children provided information on achievement goals, academic efficacy, and school grades. Structural equation models revealed that autonomy-supportive homework involvement was predicted by parent mastery goals while parent performance goals predicted controlling homework involvement. Moreover, the authors provided evidence that parental beliefs for children’s self-efficacy were negatively associated with parent control and interference, but positively related with parent encouragement for cognitive engagement as supplementary to homework. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that low parent beliefs in their children’s abilities to complete homework successfully may result in an inappropriate way of homework involvement in terms of control and interference.

However, to our knowledge, little is known about further factors that might promote the quality of parental homework involvement. Given the important role of parents in their children’s education, the present study addressed this research deficit and aims to shed light on potential predictors of parental homework involvement. Students and their parents spend a lot of time with homework, although parents report barriers to their homework involvement in the sense that – for instance – they sometimes feel unable to provide appropriate help and they tend to require recommendations from teachers about how to help with homework ( Kay et al., 1994 ). In the present study, we assume EFSC to be a potential predictor of the quality of parental homework involvement. A welcoming school climate and recommendations for homework involvement might act as an invitation to involve as they indicate that parental involvement is desired and important ( Becker and Epstein, 1982 ; Epstein, 1986 ; Epstein and Van Voorhis, 2001 ). In the next section, we present a theoretical model of parental involvement in schooling and corresponding empirical studies.

Defining Parental Involvement in Schooling

Parental involvement in schooling is seen as a key strategy to improve students’ success in school. Indeed, a strong body of evidence suggests that parental involvement in schooling is positively associated with various desired school-related outcomes such as school performance and positive affect (e.g., Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Hill and Tyson, 2009 ; Ma et al., 2016 ). According to Epstein (1995) , supportive and event-independent communication between parents, school principals, and teachers may result in a deepened mutual understanding about school as well as improved support of students by their parents and teachers. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1995 , 1997 , 2005) developed a theoretical model of parental involvement process that describes the antecedents and consequences of parental involvement in schooling. The model proposes five sequential levels to explain factors that might influence parents’ choice to become involved, their resulting forms of involvement and their consequences. The first level identifies three reasons for parents to become involved in their children’s schooling: parents’ perceived role construction (e.g., whether they feel obliged to help), their perceived invitations to involvement from the school, the teacher, and their child, as well as their sense of efficacy for helping their children. The second level suggests two forms of parental involvement, namely home- and school-based involvement, both of which include encouragement, modeling, reinforcement, and instruction. At the third level , children’s perceptions of the four types of parental involvement (encouragement, modeling, reinforcement, and instruction) are described. The fourth level describes mediating variables, namely child attributes and use of developmentally appropriate parental involvement. Finally, the fifth level focuses on school achievement (for a more detailed description, see Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005 ; Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler, 2005 ). The focus of the present study was on the first level of the model, which deals with the question of why parents become involved in their children’s schooling. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model identifies three sources of invitations for parents to become involved in schooling: invitations from the school, the child, and the child’s teachers. Invitations from the school might include a welcoming school climate and the perception that parental involvement is crucial and desired in supporting children’s learning and achievement. Teachers can foster parental involvement through direct requests for involvement in children’s education; for instance, by encouraging parents to talk about school activities with their child. Finally, children’s attributes (e.g., prior achievement in school) might act as an invitation to become involved. Numerous previous studies have provided evidence regarding the relationship between level 1 variables (reasons for becoming involved) and the amount of involvement in school and at home (e.g., Green et al., 2007 ). For example, Green and colleagues used the data of 853 parents of elementary and middle school students to examine associations between antecedent factors (level 1) and different forms of parental involvement (level 2) proposed in the theoretical model by Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler. Regression analyses revealed that parental self-efficacy, child invitations, and parents’ time and energy were positively associated with the amount of home- and school-based involvement. Moreover, teacher invitations predicted the quantity of parents’ school-based involvement. Yotyodying and Wild (2014) examined whether parental perceptions of invitations for involvement from the school and teachers in a German and Thai sample as one among other predictors variables would predict two distinct forms of home-based parental involvement: authoritative (greater autonomy support and responsiveness) and authoritarian (greater control and structure). In the German sample, the significant results showed that parental perceptions of invitations from the school and teachers were negatively associated with both authoritative and authoritarian ways of involvement. This means that parents who prefer either authoritative or authoritarian ways of involvement tend to neglect becoming involved if they feel less invited by the school and teachers.

However, it should be critically noted that Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model as well as most related empirical studies have focused particularly on the quantity (how often parents become involved) of parental involvement, while the quality (the ways in which parents become involved) of parental involvement has been neglected in many studies.

The present study aims to expand the existing body of knowledge by taking the quality (instead of the quantity) of parental involvement into account. In order to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms of parental involvement, we concentrated on one subdimension of parental involvement in schooling: parental homework involvement. Adopting a self-determination perspective on parental need support, the quality of parental homework involvement was differentiated into two dimensions of parental supportive behavior: autonomy support and competence support. The following research questions arise from the above explanations: is high-quality parental homework involvement positively associated with students’ achievement and well-being? Moreover, how can high-quality parental involvement be fostered?

Family-School Partnerships in Germany

Given the importance of improving parental involvement, scholars have attempted to identify variables that increase beneficial parental involvement. In recent years, the concept of family-school partnerships (FSPs) has become well known as an instrument that might foster parental choice to become involved in their children’s education and parental abilities to help their children with learning. Indeed, studies have proven that successful FSPs are positively associated with students’ performance (see Henderson and Mapp, 2002 ; Sheldon, 2003 ). A positive contact between teachers and parents increases the probability that parents become involved in their children’s education ( Ames et al., 1993 ; Kohl et al., 2000 ; Hoover-Dempsey and Walker, 2002 ). Moreover, information from teachers about classroom learning and instruction shape parental strategies to become involved ( Ames et al., 1993 ). In order to strengthen successful FSP, in 1997, the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) published the National Standards for Family-School Partnership for the US context. These standards build upon Epstein’s typology of parental involvement (see Epstein, 2001 ) and provide a practical guideline to implement FSP. The PTA proposed six standards: (1) welcoming all families into the school community, (2) communicating effectively, (3) supporting student success, (4) speaking up for every child, (5) sharing power, and (6) collaborating with community (for more information, see Parent-Teacher Association, 2009 ). Compared to the US, to our knowledge, in Germany, much less is known about the concept and the benefits of well-functioning FSP ( Wild and Yotyodying, 2012 ). To date, contacts between schools and parents are rare and not very effective and mostly take place at parent evening events ( Wild and Hofer, 2002 ; Sacher, 2008 ). Moreover, conversations between teachers and parents mainly concern learning problems and students’ grades ( Wild and Lorenz, 2010 ; Wild and Yodyodying, 2012 ). For this reason, the Vodafone Foundation in collaboration with a scientific expert committee (see Sacher et al., 2013 ) recently proposed a compass for family-school partnerships for the German context comprising four different standards. The development of the four indicators is based on the six PTA standards described above, although the standards were adapted to the German context and the sixth standard “collaborating with community” was excluded for Germany. Standard A “Welcoming and Meeting Culture” describes a welcoming and friendly school climate that can be characterized by mutual respect and the inclusion of all stakeholders. Standard B “Various and Respectful Communication” is characterized by a regular and routine information exchange between the school, teachers, and parents, the use of various ways of information, and a regular information exchange between all stakeholders. Standard C “Educational Cooperation” focuses on parental participation in school life, the encouragement of parents to support their children with learning, the information about external school-related offers, and it emphasizes the role of parents as interceders of their child. Finally, Standard D “Parent Participation” describes the provision of information about parents’ participatory rights, the possibility for parents to participate in school decisions, and the inclusion of social, political, and external networks in school life. To our knowledge, little is known about whether the proposed standards would be met in German schools and whether they would help to ensure parental involvement, especially parental help with homework. For this reason, we developed and validated a parental questionnaire to assess parental perceptions on different aspects of FSP based on the proposals of Vodafone’s scientific committee.

The aim of the present study was to identify factors that might promote the quality of parental homework involvement. In consideration of Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model, which identifies three reasons for parents to become involved (their role construction, their perceived invitations, and their sense of competence to help) and previous studies (e.g., Becker and Epstein, 1982 ; Epstein, 1986 ; Epstein and Van Voorhis, 2001 ), we proposed that EFSC would foster the quality of parental homework involvement. In order to operationally characterize EFSC, we relied on three indicators of Standard B “Various and Respectful Communication” and developed three scales (15 items) assessing EFSC. B1 “Information Exchange” describes a regular and routine information exchange between the school, teachers, and parents. Standard B2 “Various Forms of Communication” focuses on the use of the variety of ways of communication between the school and parents (e.g., email, homepage, etc.). B3 “School Transitions” refers to a regular knowledge transfer and information exchange between schools, teachers, and parents during school transitions.

The Present Study

The present study addresses three research deficits. First , parental school involvement is a multidimensional construct comprising both parental involvement at school and parental involvement at home. Research findings on parental school-based involvement are not transferable to home-based involvement, given that the context of the two forms of involvement differs. The present study concentrates on home-based involvement, more precisely on homework involvement as one facet of it. Research on parental homework involvement has provided evidence for the need to distinguish between the quality and quantity of parental involvement, whereby it is the quality (rather than the quantity) of involvement that matters for desired student outcomes (e.g., Dumont et al., 2014 ; Moroni et al., 2015 ). Adopting a self-determination perspective on parental need support, the quality of parental homework involvement was differentiated into two dimensions of parental supportive behavior: autonomy support and competence support. Our first research question concerned the relationship between parental homework involvement and four different student outcomes: well-being at school, well-being at home, mathematics achievement, and language achievement. Second , the concept of FSP is well known and has been much studied in the US context. There is clear consensus that parental involvement in schooling is beneficial and that a successful implementation of FSP fosters parental involvement, thereby promoting student achievement ( Ames et al., 1993 ; Kohl et al., 2000 ; Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Henderson and Mapp, 2002 ; Hoover-Dempsey and Walker, 2002 ; Sheldon, 2003 ; Epstein, 2005 ; Hill and Tyson, 2009 ; Ma et al., 2016 ). However, theoretical models and much FSP research have concentrated on the effects of FSP on the quantity (the amount) of involvement, while the relationship between FSP and the quality of parental school involvement and student outcomes remains unclear. Moreover, to our knowledge, in Germany, much less is known about effects of the implementation of successful FSP. The four standards of FSP proposed by the Vodafone Foundation and a scientific expert committee ( Sacher et al., 2013 ) are the first theoretical compass for FSP in the German context. To date, the concept has not been empirically analyzed in Germany and it is unclear whether a successful implementation of FSP is related to parental school- and home-based involvement. Our second research question thus concerned the relationship between EFSC (as one facet of FSP) and parental homework involvement and the different student outcomes. Finally, our third research question focuses on the mediating role of parental homework involvement for the relationship between EFSC and the four student outcomes. In order to investigate these relationships, we assumed that socioeconomic status and student gender may act as barriers to parental homework involvement (e.g., Hornby and Lafaele, 2011 ). Thus, there is a need to control for both variables.

Materials and Methods

Data source and sample.

Between winter 2015 and spring 2018, we conducted an online survey with parents of primary and secondary school students. The sample included 309 parents (82% mothers; M age = 42 years) of school students. Of the participants’ children ( M age = 12 years, SD = 3.58), 55% were girls and 44% attended elementary schools. Parents were asked to rate the amount of EFSC and their homework support. Moreover, parents rated children’s well-being and school achievement. The percentage of missing data was low for the variables analyzed here (on average 0.91%).

Instruments

Effective family-school communication.

EFSC was assessed with three indicators of Standard B “Various and Respectful Communication” and comprises: (1) “Regular and event-independent information exchange” [five items, e.g., “If I am (or my child is) concerned about something, I can discuss this with the teachers, the school principal, or other parents.”], (2) “various forms of communication” [six items, e.g., “The school communicates with parents in different ways (e.g., email, telephone, and website).”], and (3) “school transitions” [five items, e.g., “The school management and teachers actively inform parents and children about the possibilities when making their school decisions.”]. All items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = “strongly disagree” to 4 = “strongly agree.” Cronbach’s alpha for EFSC was 0.91. The psychometric properties of the subscales are shown in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Means, standard deviations, and internal consistencies for all study variables.

Parental Homework Involvement

Adopting a self-determination perspective on parental need support, the quality of parental homework involvement was differentiated into two dimensions of parental supportive behavior ( Katz et al., 2011 ): (1) autonomy-supportive homework involvement was assessed with five items (e.g., “While working on homework, I am willing to hear my child provide answers that are different from mine.”); and (2) competence-supportive homework involvement comprised three items (e.g., “I am glad if my child provides an answer in homework that is different from what is expected but is interesting.”). Items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = “strongly disagree” to 4 = “strongly agree.” Cronbach’s alpha for parental homework support was 0.83.

In the present study, we differentiated between student well-being at home and in school. Using two different 10-point ladders ( Cantril, 1965 ) ranging from 1 (they are doing really poorly in school/at home ) to 10 ( they are doing really well in school/at home ), parents were asked to rate how their children feel about their lives in school (well-being at school) and at home (well-being at home).

School Achievement

School achievement was assessed with two indicators. Parents were asked to rate their children’s mathematics achievement in mathematics with three items on a 4-point Likert scale: (a) my child is (1) not good ...(4) very good in arithmetic, (b) my child makes (1) many mistakes ...(4) very few mistakes in arithmetic, (c) arithmetic is (1) difficult ...(4) easy for my child . Cronbach’s alpha of this scale was 0.95. Language achievement comprised six items about the reading and writing abilities of their children. Parents were asked to judge the items on a 4-point Likert scale, (e.g., a) my child makes (1) so many mistakes ...(4) very few mistakes when reading, (b) writing is (1) difficult ...(4) easy for my child . Cronbach’s alpha of this scale was 0.92.

Socioeconomic Status

Parental socioeconomic status (SES) was assessed using the CASMIN classification (Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations; König et al., 1988 ), a comparative educational scale. Parents provided information on their school education (e.g., A-level) and their professional education (e.g., university degree). In order to build a CASMIN index, both variables of each parent were combined and then distinguished into three different educational levels (elementary, intermediate, and higher level). According to this classification, 2% of the parents reported having a SES at the elementary level, 15% at the intermediate level, and 83% at the higher level. We created a dummy variable for the SES, coded as 1 if participants reported a CASMIN at the higher level, and 0 if participants reported a lower CASMIN.

Statistical Analyses

In order to test our hypotheses empirically, structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were performed. SEM allows testing the relationships postulated in the present study. All analyses were performed using MPlus 7.4 ( Muthén and Muthén, 2012–2014 ). EFSC was operationalized as a latent construct, measured by three manifest indicators (regular and event-independent information exchange, various forms of communication, and school transitions). Parental homework involvement was measured by two indicators: autonomy- and competence-supportive homework involvement. In order to control for parental SES and student gender, we estimated the links between both variables and the mediator (parental homework involvement), as well as the outcomes (achievement and well-being). Standardized parameter estimates of models with good fit were reported. Model fit was evaluated by considering the χ 2 test, the comparative fit index (CFI), the Tucker Lewis Index (TLI), the standardized root mean square residual SRMR, and the root mean square error of approximation RMSEA. According to Schreiber et al. (2006) , a nonsignificant χ 2 test, and a value of 0.95 or higher for the GFI and CFI indicates an acceptable model fit. The average percentage of missing data ranged from 0 to 3.2%. Since the proportion of missing values was low and could be assumed to be missing at random (MAR), it was dealt with the full information maximum likelihood estimation (FIML) implemented in MPlus. In FIML, all information available is considered to estimate the parameters. FIML produces unbiased parameter estimates and standard errors and is superior to traditional deletion methods (e. g., listwise and pairwise deletion) ( Schafer and Graham, 2002 ).

Descriptive Statistics and Zero-Order Correlations

Table 1 presents means, standard deviations, and Cronbach’s alpha for the study variables. Parents’ average ratings of EFSC were moderately above the scale midpoint, indicating a rather frequent contact between schools and parents and a “well-functioning information flow.” Parents report a regular and routine information exchange between the school, teachers, and parents. Moreover, as perceived by parents, most schools used various forms to communicate with parents, e.g., email, homepage, etc. Finally, parents perceived a regular knowledge transfer and information exchange between schools, teachers, and parents during school transitions. Parental ratings of homework support were significantly above the scale midpoint. Hence, from a self-determination perspective on parental need support, parents reported a rather high quality of parental homework involvement. They reported being autonomy- and competence-supportive during homework completion. Achievement was rated on a 4-point Likert scale. As shown in Table 1 , on average, parents rated their children’s achievement in mathematics and reading high. While well-being was also rated high. On a 10-point ladder with high values indicating high well-being, parents perceived their children to feel rather well in school and very well at home.

In order to gain insights into the association between the research variables, Table 2 presents the Pearson’s correlation coefficients between all analyzed variables. The significant correlations ranged from r  = 0.14 ( p  < 0.05) to r  = 0.53 ( p  < 0.01). As expected, EFSC was positively associated with supportive parental homework involvement ( r  = 0.39, p  < 0.01), indicating that a well-functioning contact and information flow between schools, teachers, and parents is related with autonomy- and competence-supportive parental homework behavior. Moreover, high values in EFSC were related with well-being at school ( r  = 0.35, p  < 0.01) and home ( r  = 0.14, p  < 0.05). Finally, EFSC was positively associated with achievement in mathematics ( r  = 0.20, p  < 0.01) and language ( r  = 0.20, p  < 0.01). The same holds for autonomy- and competence-supportive parental homework behavior. The variable was positively related with well-being at school ( r  = 0.16, p  < 0.01) and home ( r  = 0.42, p  < 0.01) and with school achievement (mathematics: r  = 0.24, p  < 0.01; language: r  = 0.47, p  < 0.01). In sum, the intercorrelations revealed that our research variables are related to each other in the expected way. In order to draw further conclusions about their relationship and answer our research questions, we estimated regression analyses and a structural equation model to predict parental homework involvement, school achievement, and well-being, as well as to test the mediating role of parental homework involvement for the potential association between EFSC and our outcome variables.

Table 2 . Intercorrelations among study variables.

The Relationship Between Parental Homework Involvement and Student Outcomes

In the first step, we performed a regression analyses to predict students’ well-being at school and home and their achievement in mathematics and language. The results are shown in Table 3 , model 1. Model fit was rated based on the χ 2 test, the CFI, the TLI, the SRMR, and the RMSEA. The model revealed good model fit to the data, χ 2 (522, N  = 309) = 5.03, CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.00; SRMR = 0.01, RMSEA = 0.01. As can be seen in Table 3 , controlling for socioeconomic status and gender (female), parental homework involvement predicted well-being at school ( β  = 0.15, p  < 0.05), well-being at home ( β  = 0.42, p  < 0.01), mathematics achievement ( β  = 0.24, p  < 0.01), and language achievement ( β  = 0.46, p  < 0.01). Hence, according to their parents, students whose parents are autonomy- and competence-supportive during homework completion feel more well at school and home and achieve better results in mathematics and language compared to other students. The variance explained was between 3% (for well-being at school) and 23% (for language achievement).

Table 3 . Associations among effective family-school communication, parental homework involvement, well-being at school, well-being at home, mathematics achievement, and language achievement after controlling for child gender and parental SES.

The Relationship Between Effective Family-School Communication and Parental Homework Behavior and Student Outcomes

The next section presents the findings of regression analyses to empirically test the assumed relationships between EFSC and the other variables of this study. Table 3 , model 2, shows the results for the prediction of parental homework involvement, well-being at school and home, as well as achievement in mathematics and language. The model revealed good model fit to the data, χ 2 (22, N  = 309) = 32.21, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.97; SRMR = 0.02, RMSEA = 0.04. As can be seen in Table 3 , after controlling for socioeconomic status (CASMIN) and gender (female), regression analysis indicated that EFSC predicts parental homework support ( β  = 0.40, p  < 0.01). Thus, parents whose children visit schools with a well-functioning EFSC reported being more autonomy- and competence-supportive during homework completion. The variance explained was 16% for this model.

The next two columns show the results for the prediction of students’ well-being. After controlling for socioeconomic status and gender, the results revealed a positive relationship between parental homework support and well-being at school ( β  = 0.34, p  < 0.01), as well as well-being at home ( β  = 0.16, p  < 0.01). Hence, the results indicate that children whose parents perceive themselves as being autonomy- and competence-supportive during their children’s homework completion feel more well at school and home compared to other children. The variance explained was 14% for well-being at school and 4% for well-being at home. The last two columns in Table 3 present the results for the prediction of mathematics and language achievement. Mathematics achievement was predicted by EFSC ( β  = 0.22, p  < 0.01) and female gender ( β  = −0.12, p  < 0.05). Language achievement was predicted by EFSC ( β  = 0.19, p  < 0.05) and female gender ( β  = 0.12, p  < 0.05). The results thus indicate that a well-functioning communication between schools, teachers, and parents may improve students’ achievement in mathematics and the language domain. The percentage of variance explained was 6% for mathematics achievement and 6% for language achievement. In sum, the study provided first evidence for the German context that EFSC may improve the quality of parental homework support in terms of autonomy and competence support. Moreover, EFSC proved to be beneficial for students’ well-being at home and may foster mathematics and language achievement.

Mediating Role of Parental Homework Help

In order to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms of the relationships found in the previous section, our third research question concerned the mediating role of parental homework involvement in the relationship between EFSC and well-being as well as school achievement. Figure 1 shows the results of a structural equation model. For the sake of easier readability, only significant pathways are shown. Overall, the model shows excellent model fit to the data: χ 2 (22, N  = 309) = 32.21, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.97; SRMR = 0.02, RMSEA = 0.04.

Figure 1 . Structural model for the associations between effective family-school communication, quality of parental homework involvement, and students’ desired outcomes after controlling for parental SES and student gender. Note: N  = 309, * p  < 0.05, ** p  < 0.01, *** p  < 0.001. For reasons of simplification, only significant path coefficients are shown.

After controlling for socioeconomic status and female gender, EFSC was found to be positively associated with parental homework involvement ( β  = 0.40, p  < 0.001). Compared with the regression coefficients found in regression analyses (see Table 3 , model 2), the relationship between EFSC and well-being at school remained at a substantial level ( β  = 0.35, p  < 0.001). However, the coefficient for the relationship between EFSC and mathematics achievement slightly decreased from β  = 0.19 to β  = 0.15 ( p  < 0.05). Moreover, the inclusion of parental homework involvement in our analyses led to reduced coefficients for the relationship between EFSC and well-being at home ( β  = −0.01) and language achievement ( β  = 0.00). These relationships were no longer statistically significant.

In addition to the direct effects, indirect effects of the predictor EFSC on well-being and achievement as mediated by parental homework support were examined. The inclusion of the mediator variables partly led to different regression coefficients for EFSC, indicating the mediating role of parental homework involvement. The indirect effect of EFSC on well-being at home was statistically significant ( β  = 0.17, p  < 0.01), indicating a full mediation of the relationship. The indirect relationship between EFSC and mathematics achievement was statistically significant ( β  = 0.07, p  < 0.01), indicating a partial mediation. Furthermore, the indirect effect of EFSC on language achievement was statistically significant ( β  = 0.19, p  < 0.001), indicating a full mediation. Because the link between parental homework involvement and well-being at school was not found, the indirect effect was not examined.

Together, the results demonstrated that the quality of parental homework support fully mediated the relations of EFSC with well-being at home and language achievement, while it partially mediated the relations of EFSC with mathematics achievement. Hence, EFSC had significant positive indirect effects on well-being at home and student’s achievement.

The primary aim of the present study was to analyze predictors and consequences of high-quality parental homework involvement. More precisely, we tested whether EFSC would predict the quality of parental homework involvement and in turn students’ well-being and school achievement. The participants of the study were 309 parents of primary and secondary school students in Germany who participated in an online survey. Three research questions were addressed. Our first research question addressed the role of parental homework involvement. With respect to the SDT, parental homework involvement was operationalized as autonomy- and competence-supportive. Based on regression analyses, we tested the relationship between parental homework involvement and four different student outcomes: well-being at school, well-being at home, mathematics achievement, and language achievement. Our second research question focused on the associations among EFSC, the quality parental homework involvement, students’ well-being, and school achievement in two domains. Our third research question concerned the mediating role of parental homework involvement for the relationship between EFSC and the four student outcomes.

In line with our assumptions made for the first research question, we found high-quality parental homework involvement to be positively associated with students’ well-being at school and at home, as well as with students’ achievement in mathematics and language. This result supports the results of earlier studies concluding that the effectiveness of parental homework involvement depends on its quality (e.g., Knollmann and Wild, 2007a , b ; Dumont et al., 2014 ; Gonida and Cortina, 2014 ; Moroni et al., 2015 ).

Past research has suggested that (the quantity of) parental involvement in schooling is beneficial for different student outcomes (e.g., Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Hill and Tyson, 2009 ; Ma et al., 2016 ). Building upon Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement process ( Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler, 1995 , 1997 , 2005 ) and recent studies (e.g., Green et al., 2007 ), we assumed an EFSC to be positively associated with parental homework involvement and different student outcomes. Using a recently developed instrument to assess parental perceptions of EFSC, our second research question focused on the relationship between EFSC and parental homework involvement and the four student outcomes. Our results of regression analyses provided evidence for the predictive power of EFSC for the quality of parental homework involvement and all four different student outcomes. As previously mentioned, Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model underlines specific invitations from school (teachers’ attempt to invite parents to become involved) as one of crucial predictors of the quantity of parental involvement. Our results added to this model in the sense that EFSC – which might function as a reason to become involved – predicts the quality of parental involvement in schooling. Our study extends previous research on the model as it considers the need to distinguish between the quantity and quality of involvement. To our knowledge, our study is the first to provide evidence of the predictive power of EFSC for high-quality parental homework involvement. Contrary to our results, Yotyodying and Wild (2014) found teacher invitations to be related with the amount of parental home-based involvement but not with differences in the quality of home-based involvement. The authors concluded that teachers presumably increase parents’ awareness of the importance to become involved in schooling, but that they possibly do not provide information about how parents might help their children in school-related topics. In their study, the authors asked parents to rate the extent to which they perceive that their school involvement is expected and requested. In the present study, parents were asked to rate an EFSC in a way that a regular and event-independent information exchange exists, that the schools and teachers use various forms of communication and that information about school transitions is provided. An EFSC might not only act as an invitation to help but it also possibly provides parents with information concerning how to help their children in school-related topics. In addition, our results indicated that EFSC positively contributed to all four student outcomes. These results were also in line with previous studies finding that successful FSPs help to improve students’ performance (e.g., Henderson and Mapp, 2002 ; Sheldon, 2003 ).

In order to address our third research question, we examined the mediating role of the quality of parental homework involvement. Controlling for socioeconomic status and students’ gender, SEM analyses showed that the associations between EFSC and three of the four student outcome variables (well-being at home, mathematics achievement, and language achievement) were (partially) mediated by the quality of parental homework involvement. The results of the present study thus highlight the role of EFSC as a key performance factor that helps to improve the quality of parental homework involvement, thereby promoting student outcomes. In addition, our findings on the crucial mediating role of parental homework involvement in the associations between EFSC and well-being at home and school achievement were in line with the assumptions of self-determination theory (SDT: Deci and Ryan, 1987 , 2000 ). Accordingly, the parental provision of autonomy and competence support tend to satisfy the basic needs of their children (autonomy and competence), and in turn it might thus result in improved well-being. Indeed, earlier studies ( Chirkov and Ryan, 2001 ; Niemiec et al., 2006 ; Yotyodying, 2012 ) have provided evidence for the relationship between parental autonomy support and well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, positive affect, school satisfaction, positive academic emotions). Our results suggest that an EFSC results in a higher quality of parental homework involvement (in terms of autonomy and competence support), which in turn leads to increased well-being at home compared to other children. Concerning achievement, our results were in line with previous studies providing evidence of a positive relationship between parental involvement in schooling and students’ achievement (e.g., Fan and Chen, 2001 ; Hill and Tyson, 2009 ; Ma et al., 2016 ), although they extend these studies by showing the mediating role of parental homework involvement for this relationship. Hence, EFSC results in high-quality parental homework involvement and is in turn related to achievement.

Practical and Scientific Implications of the Study

Recent studies have shown that strong family-school partnerships (FSPs) may help to improve parental involvement. From a scientific view, the findings of the present study supplement this research in two aspects: first, to our best knowledge, to date only little is known about the relationship between FSP and parental homework involvement. We were able to confirm that EFSC (as an indicator of FSP) may help to improve the quality of parental involvement at home, which in turn supports well-being and school achievement of students. Second, compared to the US, in Germany, much less is known about the benefits of FSP ( Wild and Yotyodying, 2012 ). We have been able to show that German parents evaluate the communication between families and schools positively. However, according to Hoover-Dempsey and Walker (2002) , various barriers might hinder well-functioning FSP such as parents having a low level of education, inflexible working hours, or low language skills. For schools, structural elements such as personnel resources influence FSP. Hence, our results of the present study hold strong importance for different groups. Administrators may use our results to implement teacher and parent training programs aiming to promote the awareness of teachers and parents about the consequences of parental involvement. Such programs should accentuate the need to become involved in an autonomy- and competence-supportive manner, as this study and recent studies ( Knollmann and Wild, 2007a , b ; Dumont et al., 2014 ; Gonida and Cortina, 2014 ; Moroni et al., 2015 ) have provided evidence of the need to particularly promote the quality rather than quantity of involvement. Hence, teachers should not only learn how to encourage parents to become highly involved; moreover, they should also learn how to assist parents to be more autonomy- and competence-supportive during homework completion. Moreover, parent training programs might help parents to be informed about different parenting styles and their effects on students’ learning and achievement.

Limitations of the Present Study

First, the generalization of our results is limited due to different attributes of the sample. All analyses were based on parental self-reports. Future studies should assess the study variables by taking other perspectives into account (e.g., school principals, teachers, and students). In these studies, teachers and school principals should be investigated as an additional source of information on EFSC. Their perspectives might differ from parents’ perspectives as teachers and school principals may consider other aspects of EFSC as particularly important than parents. Moreover, in order to improve EFSC in the school, there is a need to identify possible barriers from the school (e.g., teachers’ characteristics) or family (e.g., available time to effectively communicate, etc.) that may undermine teachers’ and parents’ abilities to communicate effectively with each other. Finally, students should rate their well-being in school and at home in future studies. In addition, the generalization of our results is limited due to the high socioeconomic status and the high proportion of mothers in our sample. In our study, the socioeconomic status was not related with parental homework involvement. However, previous studies suggest that high-SES parents tend to be more involved in schooling than other parents. Compared with low-SES parents, their higher education might be associated with feelings of being competent to help leading in higher amounts of involvement ( Lee and Bowen, 2006 ). In the present study, the participants reported on average a comparatively high socioeconomic status. Future studies should take this limitation of the analyzed sample into account and investigate a more representative sample of parents. In future studies, also children with different achievement levels should be considered, as parents of low achieving children or children with special needs might employ other parenting strategies in face of difficulties in school. For these parents and their children, strong FSP might be particularly important. In Germany, cooperation between schools and parents often takes place in the form of short meetings during parent-teacher conferences in school ( Sacher, 2008 ). Commonly, teachers and parents discuss learning problems and children’s grades ( Wild and Lorenz, 2010 ; Yotyodying, 2012 ). Strong FSP and effective communication might result in a deeper understanding of children’s needs for learning and how parents might support their children’s learning at home. Second, no conclusions on the causality could be drawn due to a cross-sectional research design. Hence, a longitudinal research design should be employed in future studies. Third, the study has exclusively focused on functional ways of parenting (autonomy- and competence-supportive homework involvement), while other parenting styles were not considered here. For instance, according to the SDT perspective on parenting, other forms of parenting such as responsiveness (providing emotional support) and structure (providing clear guidelines and expectations) are related with desired students’ outcomes (for an overview, see Grolnick, 2009 ) and should thus be analyzed in future studies. Finally, future studies should investigate both qualitative and quantitative ways of parental homework involvement to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms and differences between the two dimensions of involvement.

Ethics Statement

An ethics approval for this research was not required as per the ethical guidelines of the Faculty of Psychology at FernUniversität in Hagen and regulations of the German Psychological Society due to the noncontroversial nature of the content and the administration of the study. All subjects were parents (adults aged above 21 years). Before their participation, all subjects were informed about the research purposes. Also, they were informed that participation in this research is anonymously and voluntarily. Furthermore, they were informed about the applicable data protection guidelines and the possibility to quit participation whenever they wanted without any disadvantages. Informed consent of the participants was implied through survey completion.

Author Contributions

SD contributed to the design of the study and the data collection, carried out the analyses and data interpretation, drafted and finalized the manuscript. SY and KJ contributed to the design of the study, parts of the analyses, and data interpretation and provided input for revisions of the manuscript draft.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: homework, parental involvement, family-school communication, achievement, well-being

Citation: Dettmers S, Yotyodying S and Jonkmann K (2019) Antecedents and Outcomes of Parental Homework Involvement: How Do Family-School Partnerships Affect Parental Homework Involvement and Student Outcomes? Front. Psychol . 10:1048. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01048

Received: 31 January 2019; Accepted: 23 April 2019; Published: 09 May 2019.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2019 Dettmers, Yotyodying and Jonkmann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Swantje Dettmers, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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4 Ways Black Parents Can Get Involved This School Year

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A  new school year can be difficult: no matter how many “first days” families may have experienced —  or summer work packets teachers have handed out — walking into a  new school year is something neither students nor families can fully prepare for. 

The 2024 school year will pass crucial milestones, including the end of federal COVID-19 relief funds in September , which helped schools hire extra teachers, and a November presidential election in which Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, has proposed eliminating the Department of Education. The move could sow chaos and turn public education upside down. Given the stakes, parental involvement and preparation for the school year are as critical as ever

While students participate in their own education through student government, school assemblies, and peer conversations, parents can have a say, too. Here are four ways experts say parents can participate in the upcoming school year. 

1. Local Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs)

One of the most common ways for parents to engage with their child’s education  is through the local Parent Teacher Association. The school-based organization is made up of parents, teachers, administrators, and other community leaders assisting with the decision making happening within school walls. 

PTAs help parents participate in the school year through fundraising for events or school supplies, keeping them informed on school or district developments, helping families advocate for their children, and working with school administration. 

Joining a PTA is a time commitment, though: members are expected to attend meetings and participate in group activities geared towards school or curriculum improvement. That can be a challenge for low-income or families whose native language isn’t English. As a result, transportation issues, language barriers and childcare are issues that should be considered before joining a PTA. 

2. State Education Coalitions 

Coalitions are a diverse, collaborative group aimed at addressing specific issues, or political policies in education. Typical activities include educational programs, network meetings, engagement with lawmakers, and providing support for their target groups like Black or low-income students. 

With the creation of these coalitions, they join together to improve educational opportunities, discuss issues deeply rooted in their school culture — like the lack of Black teacher representation and food disparities. From working on ways around curriculum restrictions or book bans to helping students access much-needed resources, coalitions are another outlet for families to have a voice in their child’s education.  

3. At-Home Engagement 

Research shows that additional learning outside of school walls, like keeping books in the home, and participating in extracurricular activities, help keep students caught up. The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement suggests parents can do this by reading with their children, helping them with homework, and discussing school events. 

4. Vote in Upcoming Elections 

A significant way to stay involved in your child’s education is by voting for political candidates whose platforms align with your beliefs about what K-12 education should look like. 

RELATED:  The Steep Price of School Underfunding

During the last three years, local and state officeholders have introduced controversial policies — like book bans , restrictions on the teaching of African American studies, and even a requirement to post the 10 Commandments in every classroom.  But pushing back on those policies is a job for parents themselves — especially those who have school-aged children that are directly targeted by restrictive policies. Knowledge of candidates and their positions on education is power at the ballot box.

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19 Facts About Tim Walz, Harris’s Pick for Vice President

Mr. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, worked as a high school social studies teacher and football coach, served in the Army National Guard and chooses Diet Mountain Dew over alcohol.

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By Simon J. Levien and Maggie Astor

• Published Aug. 6, 2024 Updated Aug. 9, 2024

Until recently, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was a virtual unknown outside of the Midwest, even among Democrats. But his stock rose fast in the days after President Biden withdrew from the race, clearing a path for Ms. Harris to replace him and pick Mr. Walz as her No. 2.

Here’s a closer look at the Democrats’ new choice for vice president.

1. He is a (very recent) social media darling . Mr. Walz has enjoyed a groundswell of support online from users commenting on his Midwestern “dad vibes” and appealing ordinariness.

2. He started the whole “weird” thing. It was Mr. Walz who labeled former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, “weird” on cable television just a couple of weeks ago. The description soon became a Democratic talking point.

3. He named a highway after Prince and signed the bill in purple ink. “I think we can lay to rest that this is the coolest bill signing we’ll ever do,” he said as he put his name on legislation declaring a stretch of Highway 5 the “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway” after the musician who had lived in Minnesota.

4. He reminds you of your high school history teacher for a reason. Mr. Walz taught high school social studies and geography — first in Alliance, Neb., and then in Mankato, Minn. — before entering politics.

5. He taught in China in 1989 and speaks some Mandarin. He went to China for a year after graduating from college and taught English there through a program affiliated with Harvard University.

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