Relationships between perceived parental involvement in homework, student homework behaviors, and academic achievement: differences among elementary, junior high, and high school students

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

“…In line with our expectations and earlier studies, we found that higher perceived parental control was related to lower math performance (Dumont et al, 2012;Hill & Tyson, 2009;Núñez et al, 2015) and motivation (i.e., task persistence and math self-concept) (Levpuscek & Zupancic, 2009;Rogers, Theule, Ryan, Adams, & Keating, 2009) in sixth grade. These negative effects may be related to children's perceptions of interference, intrusiveness, and negativity during parental controlling homework assistance (Pomerantz & Eaton, 2001;Silinskas et al, 2015).…”

“…Although supporting children's autonomy is emphasized in middle school, its value has not been concordantly demonstrated by empirical studies. While some researchers (e.g., Núñez et al, 2015;Patall et al, 2008) have found its enhancing effect, others (e.g., Dumont et al, 2012) have not found significant links between perceived parental support and math performance, task persistence, and academic self-concept. Similarly, Karbach et al (2013) found no relation between children's perceptions of support (i.e., autonomy and responsiveness) and math achievement, after children's cognitive ability and parental education were taken into account.…”

“…availability in solving problems with homework when requested [Dumont et al, 2012[Dumont et al, , 2014Núñez et al, 2015;Pomerantz et al, 2007]). Autonomy support is related to an authoritative parenting style, high emotional support, and low psychological control, while control is related to authoritarian parenting style, low emotional support, and high psychological and behavioral control.…”

“…Recent theoretical approaches and empirical studies have emphasized that it is not quantity but quality (i.e., how parents help) that matters (for a review, see Pomerantz et al, 2007). Empirical studies have shown a direct link between the perceived parental involvement in homework and children's achievement: Perceived parental homework control negatively relates to children's academic performance (Dumont et al, 2012;Karbach, Gottschling, Spengler, Hegewald, & Spinath, 2013;Levpuscek & Zupancic, 2009;Núñez et al, 2015), whereas perceived parental homework support (e.g., avoiding direct involvement when children do not need help but assisting when children do need help) positively relates to academic performance (e.g., Cooper et al, 2000;Dumont et al, 2012;Núñez et al, 2015;Pomerantz et al, 2007).…”

“…Based on sociocultural and social cognitive frameworks that emphasize that people's actions are influenced by their interpretations of the situations (e.g., Bandura, 1993;Luria, 1976), we examined children's perceptions of parental involvement in homework. Drawing on self-determination theory (e.g., Ryan & Deci, 2000), we differentiated between two types of parental involvement: controlling and autonomous supportive assistance with homework (Dumont et al, 2012(Dumont et al, , 2014Núñez et al, 2015;Pomerantz et al, 2007). We chose math homework because children often struggle with math tasks; thus, math-related motivation may play an important role in math achievement (Dumont et al, 2012(Dumont et al, , 2014Kikas & Mägi, 2017;Trautwein & Lüdtke, 2009).…”