Should parents be involved in their children’s schooling?

Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been debate about whether parents should be involved in their children’s schooling. Although some have argued that parent involvement benefits children, others have argued that it does not and even has costs. Drawing on the large body of research relevant to this controversy, we make the case that, in general, parent involvement in children’s schooling facilitates children’s motivation, engagement, and learning, particularly when such involvement is autonomy supportive and affectively positive. However, parent involvement can have costs for children when it is controlling and affectively negative, which may be most common in the homework context because of the pressure associated with it. We offer a set of recommendations for educators to consider in taking the pressure out of the parent involvement equation, thereby facilitating parents’ optimal support of children’s motivation, engagement, and learning.