Psychology

Should parents be involved in their children’s schooling?

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been debate about whether parents should be involved in their children’s schooling. Although some have argued that parent involvement benefits children, others have argued that it does not and even has costs. Drawing on the large body of research relevant to this controversy, we make the case that, in general, parent involvement in children’s schooling facilitates children’s motivation, engagement, and learning, particularly when such involvement is autonomy supportive and affectively positive. However, parent involvement can have costs for children when it is controlling and affectively negative, which may be most common in the homework context because of the pressure associated with it. We offer a set of recommendations for educators to consider in taking the pressure out of the parent involvement equation, thereby facilitating parents’ optimal support of children’s motivation, engagement, and learning.

Publication Title

Theory into Practice

Publication Date

2022

Volume

61

Issue

3

First Page

325

Last Page

335

ISSN

0040-5841

DOI

10.1080/00405841.2022.2096382

Keywords

parents, education, schools, parent-teacher communication

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