Parent Involvement and 10th and 11th Grade Student Academic Achievement: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The study of parental involvement, its effects on student academic achievement, along with the associated data has grown in the last several years. In general, an overall positive relationship between parent involvement and a child’s academic achievement has been observed (e.g. Epstein, 2001; Jeynes, 2003). More recently, research has identified a close relationship between specific parenting styles and techniques with student academic achievement. The bulk of the research has been focused on the early, formative years of childhood, a time when children are less likely to assert their autonomy (Seginer, 1983). Past researchers have also determined parental involvement to be an even better predictor of student academic achievement than standardized test results (Steinberg, Elmen, and Mounts, 1989; Grolnick and Slowiaczek, 1994; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001).