| Parent involvement (PI) in education is associated with positive outcomes for students, and improving parent involvement is often advocated as a means for schools to increase student achievement. Little is known about how parents decide to be involved in their child's education; however, a few models have recently been proposed that hypothesize what variables are most influential in parents' involvement decisions. This study examined four variables (parents' role construction, sense of efficacy, resources, and specific invitations for involvement) and their relationship to three types of PI (i.e., parent involvement at school-events, parent involvement at school-ongoing activities, and parent involvement at home). Two hypotheses were tested. First, parents' role construction and sense of efficacy were hypothesized to be differentially related to their involvement behaviors. Second, parents' resources and specific teacher invitations were hypothesized to operate as mediators between parents' beliefs (i.e., role construction and sense of efficacy) and their involvement behaviors. English- and Spanish-speaking parents of elementary students from a large, urban district were surveyed and results were analyzed using path analysis. Results indicated that parents' role beliefs and specific invitations from teachers had significant direct effect on parents' involvement behaviors, with specific invitations having the largest effect. Parents' sense of efficacy and resources had limited effects, and limited support for the mediational hypothesis was found. The importance of measuring PI as a multidimensional construct was also supported. Results lend partial support to the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model, and have important implications for teacher and school practices, policy development and future research. |
