The Need to Distinguish Between Quantity and Quality in Research on Parental Involvement: The Example of Parental Help With Homework

ABSTRACT

Parental involvement research has greatly expanded over the past decade, but findings are mixed, reflecting in part the conceptual and methodological limitations of many studies. On the basis of longitudinal questionnaire data from 1,685 sixth-grade students, the authors studied parental help with homework because it is the most common and most controversial type of parental involvement. Distinguishing between the quantity and quality of parental homework involvement, the research shows that completely different conclusions about the effectiveness of parental homework involvement will be reached if its quantity is assessed instead of its quality: How often parents helped with homework was negatively associated with the development of achievement, whereas homework help that was perceived as supportive had positive predictive effects, and homework help perceived as intrusive had negative effects. Moreover, the results show that effect sizes would be overestimated if students' prior achievement and family background were not controlled.

Keywords:

• academic achievement
• family background
• homework
• parental involvement

FUNDING

This research was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to Alois Niggli (Nr. 13DPD3-114174) and a grant from the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts Baden-Württemberg to Ulrich Trautwein.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sandra Moroni

Sandra Moroni is a Lecturer at the University of Teacher Education Bern, Switzerland. Her research interests include parental involvement, homework, and mentoring in teacher education.

Hanna Dumont

Hanna Dumont is a postdoctoral research scientist at the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF), Berlin, Germany. Her research interests include the effects of schools' social and ethnic composition, tracking and ability grouping, parental involvement, and individualized instruction.

Ulrich Trautwein

Ulrich Trautwein is Professor of Education Sciences at the Hector Research Institute of Education Sci-ences and Psychology and Director of the LEAD Graduate School. His main research interests include educational transitions, the effects of different learning environments on self-concept, interest, and personality development, and the role of self-related cognitions in students' homework behavior.

Alois Niggli

Alois Niggli is Professor of Didactics at the University of Teacher Education Fribourg, Switzerland. His research interests include mentoring in teacher education, homework, inner differentiation, and reading enhancement in schools and at home.

Franz Baeriswyl

Franz Baeriswyl is Emeritus Honorary Professor of Didactics and Educational Psychology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His main research topics are transitions in the school system and social inequality, the composition of school grades, and the transition from the vocational education to the professional life.