Daniel H. Caro

Parent-child communication and academic performance

Associations at the within- and between-country level

Shortlink: https://www.waxmann.com/artikelART102688

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Abstract

Theoretically, one would expect parental involvement to be more effective for school success when parents are more educated. But empirical evidence, mostly based on U.S. datasets, provides inconsistent findings. This paper examines the association of parent-child communication, a form of parental involvement, and academic achievement by levels of parental education in 33 educational systems that participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 and 39 in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000. The results indicate a positive interaction of parent-child communication and parental education in 5 primary school systems (PIRLS) and 14 secondary school systems (PISA), including the U.S. The interaction strength varies across educational systems, but no clear pattern emerged for national income indicators. Only weak evidence of a stronger interaction for lower income and higher income inequality was found, which could suggest that students reap greater rewards of parent-child communication when faced with an adverse national economic environment.

Keywords
Parent-child communication; Parental involvement; PIRLS; PISA

APA citation
Caro D. (2011). Parent-child communication and academic performance: Associations at the within- and between-country level. Journal for Educational Research Online (JERO), 3(2), 15-37. https://www.waxmann.com/artikelART102688