Associations among Parent-School Involvement, School Behavior, Achievement, and Aspirations: A Longitudinal StudyHill, N. E., Castellino, D. R., Lansford, J. E., Nowlin, P., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S. (in review). Child Development.
A longitudinal model of the influence of parent-school involvement and school behavior problems during middle school on achievement and aspirations in high school was examined for 463 adolescents from the 7th through 11th grades. Generalizability of the model across parental education levels and ethnicity was examined, as well. Overall, parent-school involvement in 7th grade was negatively related to 8th grade school behavior problems and positively related to 11th grade aspriations. School behavior problems were negatively related to 9th grade achievement. The fit of the model differed across parental education levels. Among the higher parental education group, parent-school involvement was related to behavioral problems but not to aspirations or achievement. For the lower parental education group, parent-school involvement was related to aspirations, but not to achievement or behavior. Moreover, the strong relation between achievement and aspriations present among the high parental education group was not present among the lower education group. While pathways were mostly similar across ethnicity, the relations between family SES and 9th grade achievement and between 8th grade school behavioral problems and 9th grade achievement were stronger for African Americans than for European Americans.