Parental Involvement With Early Adolescents: Variations Related to the Gender in Rural and Urban Areas

Abstract

The current study addressed the variations of parental involvement according to the home location and the gender of adolescents, considering the mother’s education. Through a cross-sectional design, variations in parental involvement were analyzed with 1,079 mothers and their adolescents between 11 and 14 years old (mean age = 12.88, SD = 0.98) in Colombia, registering the home location, gender of adolescents, educational level of mothers, and the perceived parental involvement at home and at school. The data were analyzed through a multivariate general linear model and multiple linear regression. In the results, there were no significant differences in direct effects of home location and gender of adolescents in involvement, but they were found in the interaction, where less parental involvement of mothers is dedicated to girls in urban areas compared with girls in rural areas and boys in urban areas. It was possible to establish that the interaction between variables seems to be related to the educational level of the mothers. The findings supported a situated approach to parental involvement in the case of mothers, where factors associated with parents and adolescents are relevant in specific settings.