Returns for Parental Efforts during the Early Elementary Years: Does the Effect of Parent Involvement Differ across Social Groups?

Yoonkyung Oh, University of Wisconsin at Madison

The findings from previous research indicate that students from advantaged backgrounds tend to gain more from their parents’ involvement than those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Why and how does this happen? It has often been explained by institutional bias or mismatch between institutional standards and individual actions. However, certain forms of parent practices may increase student achievement by actually stimulating children’s intellectual development. If this is the case, two hypotheses might be stated: first, the pattern of differential returns would vary between involvement types; second, it would differ over children’s schooling stages. Focusing on early elementary school students, this study examines whether the effects of various types of involvement differ across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups.