Parenting Self-Efficacy and Parental Involvement: Mediators or Moderators Between Socioeconomic Status and Children’s Academic Competence in Japan and Korea?

Abstract

We examined the causes of a growing achievement gap associated with socioeconomic status (SES) in Korea and Japan, testing whether parenting self-efficacy (PSE) and parental involvement (PI) mediated or moderated the association of SES to children’s school-related competence (SRC). Three hundred and seventy-two Korean and 309 Japanese mothers of first- and second-grade children completed a parenting survey. Japanese mothers’ education and PSE were directly associated with SRC. PSE moderated the association of education to SRC, with higher PSE of college-educated mothers positively associated with SRC. In the Korean sample, household income was associated with SRC directly as well as indirectly through PSE.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to thank Professor Uichol Kim for his gracious support of the Korean component of the research. Maedeh Golshirazi provided valuable assistance with data preparation and analysis. We are grateful to the Japanese and Korean school principals who helped us recruit participants and who facilitated the data collection in many ways. We also thank the participating parents and teachers who took time to share their thoughts and experiences with our team.

FUNDING

This project was funded in part by a faculty research grant to Susan D. Holloway from the University of California, Berkeley.