Fifty years of parental involvement and achievement research: A second-order meta-analysis

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to synthesize the results of past meta-analyses including studies published over the past 50 years examining the relation between parental involvement and student academic achievement for school-age children (grades K-12) in naturally occurring and intervention studies. Based on a total of 23 meta-analyses examining the relation between parental involvement and achievement encompassing 1,177 primary studies, we conclude that there is a positive association between parental involvement and achievement. The random effects’ mean effect size was 0.18 for observational studies and 0.16 for intervention studies. We note that both naturally occurring and intervention PI studies found null effects for homework involvement. As for type of involvement, our results were consistent with Wilder (2014), pointing to the strongest effect for parent expectations and aspirations and mixed results for homework help.