Complementary Effects of School Climate and Home-Based Parent Involvement in Middle School

Background: Efforts to involve parents in education have received much attention in the past several decades, and social workers are often central to these efforts. Parent involvement (PI) research seldom addresses the unique needs of adolescents, and tends to emphasize forms of involvement that occur at school, such as volunteering and attending meetings. Additionally, PI research often omits the complementary effects of school variables.

This study explores the effects of home and school factors on student school engagement. The study addresses limitations of existing research by focusing on a sample of middle school students, and by evaluating the effects of home-based PI. In addition, the study explores the impact of PI while controlling for school climate.

Methods: Data comes from a larger project that surveyed all students in 11 middle schools. The project used a passive consent procedure. The response rate was 84%. Data was collected in classrooms, using the School Success Profile (SSP). Students were surveyed in the fall semester of two consecutive years. The sample for this study includes the 2,741 students who had data from both surveys. Forty-two percent of students were African American, while about 10% were Hispanic. Sixty percent received free or reduced-price lunch.

Students reported their parents’ educational involvement, as well as their beliefs and attitudes about school. SSP items were used to construct a school climate scale and 4 new PI subscales: academic socialization, educational and behavior expectations, and behavior monitoring. Adequacy of the measurement model was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Factor scores were saved for use in subsequent analyses. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to account for clustering by school. A two-level HLM was estimated to determine the effects of at-home PI and school climate in year 1 on student school engagement in year 2. The model also controlled for race/ethnicity, gender, SES, and academic achievement, as well as school racial and socioeconomic composition.

Results: CFA revealed that the measurement model fit the data well. Only one PI variable, educational expectations had a significant positive effect on school engagement (b = .776, p < .001). Parents’ positive behavior expectations (b = -.616, p < .001) and behavior monitoring (b = -.358, p < .001) were negatively associated with engagement. School climate was also significantly associated with engagement (b = .997, p < .01).

Implications/Conclusions: This study provides an example of the usefulness of measuring student reports of their socioemotional context. The measures fit the data well, and student reports of parent behavior and school climate significantly predicted their school engagement.

Additionally, the findings demonstrate that among the types of at-home PI, parents’ positive educational expectations may have the most important effects on early adolescents’ school engagement. Positive school climate was also a significant predictor of engagement. School social workers can be instrumental in measuring and improving school climate. Furthermore, social workers can help shape PI interventions that emphasize parents’ high expectations for academic achievement, in addition to involvement at school.