Home Influence on School Learning: Direct and Indirect Effects of Parental Involvement on High School Grades

Current concern with improving student academic progress within American education underscores the need to understand those manipulable influences that can affect academic learning. Parental involvement is considered an important influence on academic progress. Time spent on homework and in leisure TV viewing has an important effect on academic learning. Such time is potentially manipulable through parental effort. Using the massive High School and Beyond data set, the present study examines the direct effects of perceived parental involvement on grades. It also examines the indirect effect of such involvement on grades through TV time and time spent on homework. Parental involvement has an important direct, positive effect on grades. Additionally, parental involvement also leads to increased time spent on homework, which in turn has a positive effect on grades. The effect of parental involvement on grades through TV time appears negligible. In the current push for means to improve student academic progress, the potential effect of parental involvement in students’ academic and social lives should be considered.