Parental involvement and low-SES children’s academic achievement in early elementary school: new evidence from Chile

ABSTRACT

Is parental involvement a relevant factor in explaining academic performance in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts? This article examines the effect of parental involvement on the Language and Mathematics performance of third grade students attending low-SES schools in Santiago de Chile. Multilevel linear regression models are used (individuals and school) along with variables related to academic performance. Results show that parents’ educational expectations and perceived self-efficacy have a positive and significant effect on academic performance in Language and Mathematics. Parental involvement practices at home only affect performance in Language, although this finding is not conclusive. Estimates revealed that involvement practices at school are not statistically significant. The implications of these results are discussed considering their context: a country with the highest levels of family income inequality and one of the most segregated school choice models in the world.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental involvement
• parental expectations
• perceived self-efficacy
• elementary education
• educational achievement

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Mrs. Ana María Yévenes, Director of the Centre for Studies and Research in Family (CEIF), part for University Finis Terrae for the support in the development of this study.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful for the support of the Fondecyt/Conicyt Program under Project Nº 11150098, under the sponsorship of the Universidad Alberto Hurtado (2015-2016), the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009), and CONICYT PFCHA/DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE/2017 – 72180515, in the production of this article.

Notes on contributors

Verónica Gubbins

Verónica Gubbins Psychologist (Universidad de Chile); PhD in Educational Sciences (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile); Master of Arts in Psychosociology (Catholic University of Louvain). Line of research: educational inequality, parental involvement, family and school partnership, academic achievement.

Gabriel Otero

Gabriel Otero PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam, affiliated with the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). Sociologist (Universidad Diego Portales); MA in Systemic Analysis Applied to Society (Universidad de Chile). His research interests include class analysis, socio-spatial inequalities, social cohesion, and educational outcomes.