Parental involvement in primary school education and children's academic and psychosocial development in Hong Kong

Abstract

Researchers recognize the importance of parental practices at home and in school for children’s education. However, its effects on children’s psychosocial wellbeing remain unclear. Moreover, a majority of the extant literature focuses on western school-aged children. Cultural influences on parenting beliefs and strategies may give rise to different effects of parental involvement on academic performance and wellbeing among students in the Chinese culture. There is also a scant body of literature into the potential mediator role of student learning motivation in the pathway from parental involvement to child academic and psychosocial development. This thesis therefore examined the effect of parental involvement in education on the academic and psychosocial development of Hong Kong school children in Primary 3 (P.3). Using cross-sectional research design, 303 primary school children were recruited in this study aiming to examine the relationship between parental educational involvement and child academic and psychosocial development as well as to explore the potential mediators in the pathways. Children were asked to complete standard test papers on Chinese language and mathematics, in addition to answering the scale items pertaining to their engagement with school and perceived parental educational expectation. Parents, on the other hand, were asked to report their frequency of involvement in children’s learning at home and in school as well as to rate children’s psychosocial wellbeing using standardized instrument. Multivariate regression and mediation analyses were used to test the hypothesized relationships among measured variables. Results indicated that increased parental educational involvement at home and in school benefited children’s academic and psychosocial development. The benefits were increased with the amount of parental involvement in school and leveled off at high levels of involvement at home. In addition, children’s school engagement was found to mediate the pathways from parental involvement at home and in school to child academic and psychosocial development. Nevertheless, children’s perception of parental expectation had no relationship with other measured variables. Findings of this study suggest that parental educational involvement facilitates academic and psychosocial development. Parents play an important role in children’s education. Provision of developmentally appropriate stimulation is critical for children’s well-being and learning achievement. Longitudinal studies are needed to delineate the cause-and-effect relationship between parental involvement and children’s well-being and development. Other implications and limitations of this study are also discussed.