Parental Involvement

This study was conducted in Ghana to investigate, (1) factors that
predict parental involvement, (2) the relationship between parental
home and school involvement and the educational achievement of
adolescents, (3) the relationship between parental
authoritativeness and the educational achievement of adolescent
students, (4) parental involvement serving as a mediator between
their authoritativeness and the educational achievement of the
students, and (5) whether parental involvement decreases as
children reach adolescence. 239 students from diverse
socio-economic backgrounds between the ages of 15 and 20 as well as
their teachers took part in the study. As expected, the results
indicated a positive and significant correlation between mothers
and fathers’ home involvement and the academic achievement of the
students. Mothers’ school involvement, but not the fathers’ was
also positively and significantly correlated with the educational
achievement of the students. However, with respect to stepparents,
grandparents, and other guardians, their home and school
involvement activities were found to be non-significant to the
academic achievement of the students. Mothers’ occupational status
emerged as the best predictor of mothers’ home involvement followed
by nature of school, mothers’ marital status, and program of study;
whereas nature of school was the best predictor of mothers’ school
involvement, followed by mothers’ occupational status, and program
of study. Nature of school was the only factor that predicted
fathers’ home involvement. Furthermore, mothers and fathers’
authoritativeness were positively correlated with the students’
educational achievement whereas the authoritativeness of
stepparents, grandparents, and other guardians were not
significantly correlated with the school achievement of the
students. Finally, parental involvement played a mediation role
between their authoritativeness and the educational achievement of
the students. The findings highlight the importance of parental
involvement in adolescents’ school success.