A comprehensive model of preschool through high school parent involvement with emphasis on the psychological facets

Abstract

This article will review many forms of home-based parent involvement (e.g., shared reading; books at home; helping with homework; visiting museums; monitoring grades), parent beliefs (e.g., about the importance of school readiness skills; growth mindset for their children), parent expectations, parent-school relationships, and parent autonomy and relatedness support, which all promote achievement. The extent to which the psychological side of parent involvement promotes intrinsic motivation, engagement, and psychological wellbeing for children and adolescents around the world will also be examined. The forms of parent involvement that promote student expectations, student autonomous motivation, and academic engagement should receive more emphasis. In order to help parent involvement researchers, psychologists and educators, a pre-K through 12th grade parent involvement model is proposed. The psychological side of the parent involvement model can be readily memorized with the following acronym: Beliefs, Expectations, Autonomy Support, and Relationships (BEAR). Explanations are provided of how to apply BEAR in the schools and in future intervention research.