Effect of the parental involvement style perceived by elementary school students at home on Language and Mathematics performance in chilean schools

Abstract

The present study intends to measure the effect of the parental involvement style perceived by fourth-grade students on their Language and Mathematics performance. It uses data taken from a sample of 55,401 students evaluated by the National Education Quality Measurement System [Sistema Nacional de Medición de la Calidad de la Educación, SIMCE]. The results show that the nourishing parental involvement style, and not only household income and the parents’ years of schooling, are associated with and significantly predict higher scores on the Language and Mathematics tests. This finding is relevant inasmuch as it provides operational information regarding parental involvement styles, which opens up more possibilities for psychoeducational intervention by the school.

Keywords:

• Students’ perceptions
• parental involvement style
• school achievement
• Language
• Mathematics

Funding

This work was supported by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies [grant number CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009].