Parental Involvement in Math Homework: Links to Children’s Performance and Motivation

Abstract

The present study examined the longitudinal associations between children's perceptions of parental involvement in math homework (control and support) and their math performance and motivation (taskpersistent homework behavior and math self-concept). Children (n = 512) reported their perceptions concerning parental involvement in sixthgrade math homework. In grades 3 and 6, children completed math tests, evaluated own math self-concept, and their mothers (n = 420) evaluated task persistence during homework. The results showed that low selfconcept in math predicted increased parental control, which in turn related to low math performance, task persistence, and math selfconcept. Second, perceived parental support was related to increased task persistence during homework. Finally, parental control was especially detrimental for boys' task persistence and math self-concept. ARTICLE HISTORY

Parental Involvement in Mexican Elementary Students’ Homework: Its Relation with Academic Self-Efficacy, Self-Regulated Learning, and Academic Achievement

“…The effects of both these parental involvement types in homework are inconclusive in the literature. For instance, while some studies found a positive relation of parental autonomy support and academic performance (Doctoroff & Arnold, 2017;Dumont et al, 2012;Moroni et al, 2015;Núñez et al, 2015), others report contradictory results (e.g., Karbach et al, 2013;Silinskas & Kikas, 2019;Valle et al, 2016). Some scholars (Dinkelmann & Buff, 2016;Fan & Williams, 2010;Gonida & Cortina, 2014;Hoover-Dempsey et al, 2001;Karbach et al, 2013;Luo et al, 2016; argue these contradictions are because parental involvement in homework has a stronger association with children's psychological resources than with academic achievement.…”

“…Studies adopting a bi-directional model of socialization (Belsky, 1984;Pastorelli et al, 2016) to analyze the reciprocal effects of parent-children relations in homework are relatively scarce. However, some scholars (Dumont et al, 2014;Luo et al, 2016;Núñez et al, 2017;Silinskas & Kikas, 2019;Valle et al, 2015) have reported that children's academic performance can be a behavioral driver leading parents to different types of involvement in homework. For example, previous studies show that children's low academic achievement is associated with more parental control in homework, whereas high achievement has lower parental control (Dumont et al, 2014;Núñez et al, 2017).…”

“…Parent involvement may also be different for boys and girls (Daniel et al, 2016;Dumont et al, 2012;Freund et al, 2018;Muntoni & Retelsdorf, 2019;Yurk, 2015). Research concerning the moderating effect of gender in parental involvement in homework has been inconsistent (Dumont et al, 2012;Luo et al, 2016;Silinskas & Kikas, 2019;Tárraga et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2018). Furthermore, studies have shown mixed findings concerning gender differences regarding the relationship between parental involvement in homework and student achievement (Rogers et al, 2009;Silinskas & Kikas, 2019).…”

“…Research concerning the moderating effect of gender in parental involvement in homework has been inconsistent (Dumont et al, 2012;Luo et al, 2016;Silinskas & Kikas, 2019;Tárraga et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2018). Furthermore, studies have shown mixed findings concerning gender differences regarding the relationship between parental involvement in homework and student achievement (Rogers et al, 2009;Silinskas & Kikas, 2019). Aditionally, no studies known by the authors have documented the effect among these variables in Latin American countries.…”

“…Specifically, most prior research put special emphasis on analyzing the effects of parental involvement in children's homework in terms of quantity and frequency. Therefore, as suggested by several scholars (Fernández-Alonso et al, 2016;Gonida & Cortina, 2014;Silinskas & Kikas, 2019), further research is needed to also explore the effects of the different types of parental involvement in homework.…”