International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

January 2012, Vol. 2, No. 1

ISSN: 2222-6990

ROLES OF PARENT ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

OF PUPILS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Adewumi Moradeke Grace

Computer Science Department, College of education, Ikere Ekiti, Nigeria

Olojo oludare Jethro

Computer Science Department, College of education, Ikere Ekiti, Nigeria

Falemu Funke Aina

Biology Department, College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Parent has vital roles to play in the life of a child. The involvement of a parent on a child
determines the future of such child. Parenting involvement is a catch-all term for many
different activities including at ‘home,’ good parenting, helping with home work, talking to
teachers, attending school functions, through to taking part in school governance. When
schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in
schools but throughout life. To say the fact, the most accurate prediction of a student’s
achievement in school is not income or social status, but the extent to which that student’s
parent is able to create a home environment that encourage learning and to express high
expectations for their children’s achievement and future careers. Hence this paper addressed
some of the essential responsibility of parents, impact of parent involvement, differences in the
level of involvement. Conclusion from this study indicated that parental involvement in
children’s education has a powerful impact on their attainment.

Keywords: Involvement, predictors, achievement, responsibility.

INTRODUCTION

The role of a parent to a child at any given time cannot be over emphasized. The home is very
germane and crucial to a child’s well being and development in later life. Family is the primary
cell of society where the child's upbringing must begin since his birth, still in cradle. According
to V. Hugo, the person's principles established since childhood are like letters engraved in the
bark of a young tree, which grow, enlarge with it making its integral part. Therefore, right
beginning makes the most important part of upbringing/education. Nobody ever said that
children were easy to raise. They don't come with guidelines or instructions, and they certainly

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ISSN: 2222-6990

don't come with a pause button (I've looked!). What they do come with is a crucial set of
physical and emotional needs that must be met. Failure of the parents to meet these specific
needs can have wide-ranging and long-lasting negative effects. Chris Theisen, ( 2009). This is
because parent in the home are children first teacher. As a child move from infant to toddler
and then to a preschooler, he learns how to speak, listen, write and read which latter develop
the child to achieve academically.
The influence of parents on children school achievement is well documented in numerous
studies. Gadsden (2003) says greater parental involvement at early stage in children’s learning,
positively affects the child’s school performance including higher academic achievement.
Harderves (1998) review that family whose children are doing well in school exhibit the
following characters:
 Establish a daily family routine by providing time and a quite place to study with the
children and assigning responsibility for house hold chores.
 Monitor out-of-school activities, for example setting limits on television watching,
reduce time of playing, monitor the groups of friends the pupils walk with.
 Encourage children’s development and progress in school; that is maintaining a worm
and supportive home, showing interest in children’s progress at school, helping him or
her with home work, discussing the value of a good education and future career with
children.
Izzo et al (1999) studied 1205 US children from kindergarten through to grade 3 in a 3 year
longitudinal research programme. Teachers rated four forms of involvement; frequency of
parent-teacher contact; quality of parent teacher interaction; participation in educational
activities in the home; and participation in school activities. These factors, as well as family
background variables were examined to find any relationship they might have with school
achievement as indexed by school grades. Consistent with other studies, Izzo et al showed that
all forms of parental involvement declined with child’s age and that involvement in the home
‘predicted the widest range of performance variance. In another longitudinal study, Dubois et
al (1994) showed that family support and the quality of parent child relationships significantly
predicted school adjustment in a sample of 159 young US adolescents (aged 10 –12) followed in
a two year longitudinal study. At-home parental involvement clearly and consistently has
significant effects on pupil achievement and adjustment which far outweigh other forms of
involvement.
When schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed
not just in school, but throughout life. In fact the most accurate predictor of a student’s
achievement in school is not income or social status, but the extent to which that student’s
family is able to create a home environment that encourages learning and to express high
expectations for their children’s future careers and become involve in their children’s education
at schools and in the home.

Differences between parents in levels of involvement

Levels of involvement are positively related to social class and to maternal levels of education.
Parental involvement decreases as the child gets older. Single parent status and problems with

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ISSN: 2222-6990

maternal psycho-social health (especially depression) have a negative impact on involvement.

Material poverty also has a powerful negative impact. It is shown that there are large
differences between parents in the degree to which they see a role for themselves in their
child’s education and in the degree to which they feel confident in being able to help.
It is demonstrated that many parents feel put off from involvement by the way some
teachers treat them. Finally, the children themselves are shown to have a significant influence
on the degree to which their parents get involved. Parents felt very involved the more so in
primary than in secondary schools. Mothers felt more involved than fathers.

Essential parents’ responsibilities are to:

Provide an environment that is safe: Keep your child free from physical, sexual, and emotional
abuse, Keep unsafe objects locked up or out of reach of your child, correct any potential
dangers around the house, Take Safety Precautions, lock doors at night, etc.
Provide your child with basic needs: There some basic needs like Water, Plenty of nutritious
foods, Shelter, A warm bed with sheets, blankets, and a pillow, Medical care as
needed/Medicine when ill, Clothing that is appropriate for the weather conditions etc.; that
parent must meet for the up keep of their children.
Provide your child with self-esteem needs: Accept your child's uniqueness and respect his or
her individuality, Encourage (don't push) your child to participate in a club, activity, or sport,
Notice and acknowledge your child's achievements and pro-social behavior, Encourage proper
hygiene (to look good is to feel good, or so they say!). Set expectations for your child that are
realistic and age-appropriate, Use your child's misbehavior as a time to teach, not to criticize or
ridicule.
Teach your child morals and values: Let your child knows the values of the following qualities:
Honesty, Respect, Responsibility, Compassion, Patience, Forgiveness, Generosity etc.
Develop mutual respect with your child: Use respectful language, respect his or her feelings,
respect his or her opinions, respect his or her privacy, respect his or her individuality.
Involve yourself in your child's education: Communicate regularly with your child's teacher(s),
Make sure that your child is completing his or her homework each night, Assist your child with
his or her homework, but don't do the homework. Talk to your child each day about school
(what is being studied, any interesting events, etc.). Recognize and acknowledge your child's
academic achievements.
Get to know your child: Spend quality time with your child, be approachable to your
child. Ask questions from your child time to time and Communicate with him/her always as we
know that communication bridge caps.

IMPACT OF PAREANTAL INVOLVEMENT

Singh et al identified four components of parental involvement namely; parental aspirations for
children’s education, parent-child communication about school; home-structure and parental
participation in school related activities. It should be emphasised that ‘parental aspiration’
refers to the parents’ hopes and expectations for the child’s continuing education, ‘parent-child

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communication’ refers specifically to school related matters, ‘home structure’ refers to the
degree of discipline exerted by the parents to insist on homework completion and to limit
potentially distracting activities (e.g. watching T.V.) whilst ‘parental participation in school’
more self evidently refers to parent support for and participation in school and class functions.
Singh et al showed that parental involvement in school activities had no effect on achievement
whilst home structure had a slight negative association. Parental involvement in the form of
parent child discussions had a moderate impact. Parental aspiration had a powerful influence
on achievement both directly and indirectly through discussion. To give some idea of the scale
of this influence it can be compared to the influence of prior achievement. Prior achievement is
usually the best predictor of pupils’ present achievement. It is a good measure of all the
previous effects of family background and the child’s abilities. Singh et al showed that parental
aspiration was the factor that had the biggest impact on pupil achievement once social class
factors had been taken into account.
The surprise finding is the slight negative effect of ‘home structure’ on achievement. It
has generally been considered that a degree of organisation and discipline related to the use of
out-of-school time would support school achievement. The negative result here runs counter to
that sentiment. It merits cautious interpretation. It could be that the best discipline is self
discipline. Attempts to impose discipline on adolescents might be indicative of problem
behaviour, i.e. the parents are reacting to a problem rather than causing it. Another result to
emphasise from this study, replicating that of Sui-Chu and Willms is that parental involvement
which takes the form of in-school parental activity has little effect on individual’s attainment.
Catsambis (2001) analysed data from the NELS: 88 study and its second, follow-up
(NELS: 92). This gave access to extensive data collected by questionnaire from parents,
students, teachers, principals and administrators on achievement and parental involvement.
Catsambis used Epstein’s conception of involvement and searched the data base to find
evidence with which to asses the 6 types of involvement, relating them to measures of student
achievement. Once again, background variables such as family socio-economic status and
previous attainment, were factored out before examining the impact of parental involvement
on student achievement, in this case in the age rage 14 – 18 years. The first main result of this
study was that none of the 6 modes of involvement was associated with academic progression
in this age range. This replicates Sacker et al’s (2002) findings from the UK NCDS for
adolescents. However, parental involvement was positively associated with what in England
would be termed ‘staying on rates’ and with increased likelihood of making challenging course
options. High levels of parental expectation, consistent encouragement and actions to enhance
learning opportunities in the home were all positively associated with students’ high aspirations
and college enrolments – this regardless of students SES or ethnic background.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

It was concluded that when parents come to school regularly to know the well beings of their
children, it reinforces the view in the child’s mind that school and home are connected and that
school is an integral part of the whole family’s life.
Academic achievement improves when parent plays the following role in their children’s
learning at early stage.

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 Act as teachers: Parents should create a home environment that promotes learning,
reinforces what is being taught at school and develops the life skills. Children need
to become responsible adults.
 As supporters: Parents should contribute their knowledge and skills to the
school, enriching the curriculum, and providing extra services and support to
students.
 As advocates: Parents should help children negotiate the system and receive fair
treatment and work to make the system more responsive to all families.
 As decision maker: Parents serve as an advisory councils, curriculum committees and
management teams, participating in joint problem solving at every level.
It can be said that the impact of parental involvement arises from parental values and
educational aspirations and that these are exhibited continuously through parental enthusiasm
and positive parenting style. These in turn are perceived by the student and, at best,
internalized by them. This has its impact on the student’s self perception as a learner and on
their motivation, self esteem and educational aspirations. By this route parental involvement
frames how students perceive education and school work and bolsters their motivation to
succeed. For younger children, this motivational and values mechanism is supplemented by
parental promotion of skills acquisition (e.g. in respect of early literacy). Parental behaviours
which manifest parental involvement change across the age range. With younger children,
direct help with school relevant skills is appropriate and foundational. With older students,
activities which promote independence and autonomy more generally become more relevant.

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