Parenting as a mediator of the association between dyadic relationship and child school outcomes

The purpose of this study was to measure fathers' and mothers' dyadic relationship quality to examine direct and indirect relations with mother and father involvement in education and their child's school outcomes. The direct model tested the influence of dyadic relationship quality on child school outcomes. The indirect model examined the mediating role of parent educational involvement between dyadic relationship quality and child school outcomes. The differences between mothers and fathers were also tested.;The data was drawn from the cross-national investigation carried out by Dr. Lisa A. Newland of the University of South Dakota and Dr. Hui-Hua Chen of TransWorld University in Taiwan. The population for this study consisted of families that have at least one child who is between the ages of 8 and 11 in urban central Taiwan. Convenience sampling was conducted through after school programs and participants included 100 families.;Correlation and regression techniques were used to test for associations among study predictors (mother and father marital, coparenting, and involvement variables) and child school outcomes (school problems composite, negative attitudes toward teachers, negative attitudes toward school, intellectual/school status, and academic achievement). Mediation effects were tested with stepwise regression. Differences between mother and father models were tested using Fisher's Z-transformation scores.;The findings showed that 1) coparenting consistency is the strongest predictor of child school outcomes; 2) dyadic relationship quality influence parent involvement; 3) mother's dyadic relationship quality has a stronger inverse association with child negative school outcome than father's; 4) the association between father's relationship quality and involvement is stronger than mother's; 6) father's education involvement have a stronger association with child school outcome than mother's.;The researcher concluded that dyadic relationship quality influences parent involvement, and parent involvement influences child school outcomes. This mediation model is more apparent in fathers than in mothers.