Parents' involvement in their children's education

Abstract

Engaging families in the education of their children is increasingly viewed as important, with research finding that children achieve more when schools and families work together. This paper investigates the relationship between parental involvement and children's learning competence, with an analysis of Wave 2 data from Growing Up in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), for children in Years 1 and 2 at school. Topics include parental expectations for their child's education, their satisfaction with schools and teachers, the amount of contact parents have with their child's school and teachers, and whether parental involvement can predict a child's learning competence. The analysis found that the teachers' judgement of parental involvement, rather than the parent's self-report, had the highest association with child competence levels, though this may not be a causal relationship. More generally, the results indicate relatively high levels of parent engagement across the cohort, and positive views of school support.