The Contribution of Parental Involvement and School Climate to School Resilience: A Multi-Cultural Perspective

Background: School resilience – defined as the school's capacity to adapt and effectively manage crises and external stressors – is critical for enhancing students' academic, social, and emotional outcomes, and it may also contribute to community resilience. Meaningful parental involvement enhances school resilience and critically contribute to improved children’s learning, healthy development, and success in school. There is a relationship between positive perceptions of school climate by parents and teachers and increased parental involvement in schools; however, the nature and extent of parental involvement vary markedly across ethnic and cultural groups.

This study used Israeli teachers’ and parents’ reports on parental involvement, school climate and school resilience from a multicultural perspective. Israel is a natural setting to explore multicultural variations because public schools are intentionally organized by language and culture, resulting in separate institutions for Arabic and Hebrew-speaking populations.

Method: Data were collected using an online survey for teachers and parents in Israel – Arabic (N teachers=75; N parents= 170) and Hebrew speaking (N teachers=90; N parents= 182). The surveys measured parental involvement, school climate, school resilience and individualism-collectivism orientation.

Correlations were used to examine association between the study variables, and linear regressions were used to predict school resilience based on the study variables, separately for teachers’ and parents’ reports.

Results: Results of the teachers’ survey indicated significant positive correlations between parental involvement and school climate and school resilience (r=.265, r=.725, respectively). School climate and resilience were significantly positively associated with both individualism (r=.329, r=.283, respectively) and collectivism (r=.407, r=.438, respectively), underscoring the relevance of both cultural orientations in shaping supportive school environment and the school’s capacity to adapt and effectively manage crises.

Results of the linear regression analysis showed that a positive school climate (β=.69), more parental involvement (β=.20), individualism (β=.15) and collectivism (β=.17) significantly predict greater resilience. The entire set of independent variables accounted for 57.3% of the variance in school resilience, F (7,158) =32.661, p < .001. with an adjusted R² of 0.573.

Parents’ reports revealed significant positive correlations between parental involvement and school climate and school resilience (r=.216, r=.778, respectively). Positive school climate associated with individualism (r=.319) and collectivism (r=.442), underscoring the role of a supportive school environment in accommodating both individualistic and collectivistic cultural orientations. Resilience positively correlated with individualism and collectivism (r=.379, r=.385, respectively).

Results of the linear regression analysis showed that a more positive school climate (β =.72), and individualism (β=.108) significantly predict school resilience. The entire set of independent variables accounted for 62.4% of the variance in school resilience, F (7,342) =83.659, p<.001. with an adjusted R² of 0.624.

Conclusions and Implications: The current study highlights the critical contribution of the schools’ community ethnocultural affiliation on parental involvement, school climate and their contribution to resilience suggesting that school social workers should prioritize culturally responsive engagement strategies, advocate for inclusive school environments, and collaborate with families to build resilience grounded in cultural strengths.