Academic success improves with parental involvement

A new study by researchers at the English universities of Leicester and Leeds has concluded that parents’ efforts towards their child’s educational achievement is crucial, playing a more significant role than that of the school or child.

The study published in the Review of Economics and Statistics shows that the family’s socio-economic background not only affected the child’s educational achievements, but also the school’s effort.  

“By the same token, the parents’ background also increases the school’s effort, which increases the school achievement. Why schools work harder where parents are from a more privileged background we do not know. It might be because middle class parents are more vocal in demanding that the school works hard,” said researcher Professor De Fraja, Head of Economics at the University of Leicester.

Researchers measured parents’ interest in their children’s education by whether they read to their children, or attended meetings with teachers, for example, as well as the teacher’s perception of this interest. A link was also discovered between the number of children in a family and parental effort: the more siblings, the less effort from parents.

Researchers emphasize that the results suggest that a child whose parents put more effort into his or her education will do better at school, and therefore encouraged policies that aim at improving parental involvement in the education of children.