A recent meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin identified the importance of parental involvement in children’s adjustment. Parents should note that while their involvements were beneficial to students in many ways, their assisting in homework might have negative impacts on student’s achievements.
This metanalysis was based on 448 independent studies that met the inclusion criteria, which included data from more than 480,000 families. The study analyzed the effects of parent’s school and home involvement’s on children’s adjustments. The findings showed that:
- In all, parents’ involvement was positively related to children’s outcomes. Parents’ involvement was beneficial not only to students’ achievement but also to students’ engagement, motivation, and social and emotional adjustments.
- Parents’ school involvement, which included participation in schools and governance, was beneficial.
- Except for homework involvement ,parents’ home involvement was beneficial to children’s adjustments in all aspects. These beneficial home involvement included discussion, encouragement, and provision of cognitively stimulating activities or environments.
- Parents’ homework assistance was negatively associated with children’s achievement but still positively related to motivation and engagement. The negative association may due to that parents would provide more help when children received poor grades or that parents’ involvement in homework interfered with children’s skill development.
The authors concluded that it was essential to know parent’s involvement was useful not only academically, but also socially and emotionally.