Direct and Indirect Links Between the Couple Relationship and Child School Outcomes

ABSTRACT

This study measured aspects of the couple relationship to examine direct and indirect relations with parental involvement in education and children's school outcomes. The sample (n = 100) consisted of families that have at least one child between the ages of 8 and 11 in urban central Taiwan. Findings indicated that couple relationship quality is related to parent involvement and parent involvement is related to child school outcomes. Aspects of the couple relationship were also related to children's negative attitudes toward school. Path analyses showed a direct path from dyadic consensus to school success and an indirect path from coparenting strategy use to child school success through parental involvement in education. Bootstrap analyses confirmed the reliability of the models.

KEYWORDS:

• Child outcomes
• coparenting
• marital relationships
• parenting
• parent involvement

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the assistance of data collectors and the collaboration with families who participated.

Funding

This research was sponsored in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under Grant MOST105-2410-H-259-055.