Parental involvement, teacher support and school engagement among local Chinese and ethnic minorities primary school students in Hong Kong

Abstract

The current research project aimed to investigate how school engagement is related to the perceived level of parental involvement and teacher support in local Chinese and ethnic minorities primary school students in Hong Kong. Significant differences were found in the ratings of the two groups of respondents, with ethnic minorities students reporting higher perceived parental involvement, teacher support and school engagement. Both perceived parental involvement and teacher support were positively correlated to school engagement in Chinese and ethnic minorities students. These two contextual factors were also found to be a significant predictor of student engagement in school. A significant inconsistent mediation effect was resulted when perceived parental involvement was tested as a mediator on the effect of ethnicity on students’ engagement in school. Ethnicity did not significantly predict teacher support so mediation analyses were not conducted to evaluate if it would be a potential mediator.