Understanding school–family contact and academic and behavioral performance among adolescent students in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Home–school relationships and communication play an important role in promoting children’s and adolescents’ development and learning. This study investigated the relations between school-initiated and family-initiated contact regarding school events and concerns regarding adolescents’ academic, behavioral, and health issues and adolescents’ academic performance and behavioral problems in a Taiwanese context, using a secondary data analysis design. The study included a sample of 13,290 junior high school students in Taiwan, as well as their caregivers and teachers. Unlike the pervasive belief regarding the benefit of parental involvement, this study found that higher levels of overall family-initiated school contact were associated with lower academic performance. The results also suggest that the links between home–school contact and adolescents’ academic performance and behavioral problems may be a function of the nature of contact initiated by either the family or the school. Implications for school psychology practice and research are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• school–family contact
• parental involvement
• academic performance
• behavioral problems
• cultural context

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cliff Yung-Chi Chen

Cliff (Yung-Chi) Chen, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at the Educational and Community Programs at Queens College of the City University of New York. Specific areas in which he has conducted research include effects of parental chronic illness on children’s psychosocial adjustment and educational functioning, parental involvement and parenting decision making, and multiple minority stresses and psychological adjustment.