The process of parental involvement and its relationship to students' academic achievement: A comparison between East and Southeast Asian American students

The positive role of parental involvement and the academic success of Asian American students have been well documented in the educational research literature. However, the process of parental involvement is still unclear. While some involvement factors may directly effect achievement, other involvement factors may indirectly effect achievement. Thus, the interaction of parental involvement dimensions and other contextual factors is not well understood. Furthermore, few studies have examined ethnic group differences within the Asian American population. The current study examined the process of parental involvement and its effects on academic achievement for East and Southeast Asian American students. To uncover directional processes working within this relationship, structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test a multi-group mediational model using data from a nationally representative sample of East and Southeast Asian American high school students from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Results indicated the positive influence of parental involvement on achievement for both subgroups. There were significant ethnic group differences for the relationship between communication and student academic effort, indicating that the effect of communication on academic effort was stronger for the East Asian American group than for the Southeast Asian American group. Additionally, parental expectation had a significant effect on academic achievement via student academic effort for the Southeast Asian American group. Implications from this study provide information for maximizing parental involvement strategies for educators and families.