The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievement and Adjustment: A Literature Review
Professor Charles Desforges with Alberto Abouchaar, DfES Research Report 433, 2003

Factors that affect parental involvement
In this review, parental involvement is taken to include the quality of parenting in the home as well as the extent of parental contact with the school. Parental involvement is greatly influenced by family social class, the mother's level of education, mental wellbeing and single parent status, poverty and, to a lesser extent, by family ethnicity. It is also influenced by the child's level of achievement: the higher the level of attainment, the more parents get involved. The extent of parental involvement diminishes as the child gets older, but at all ages, the child plays an important mediating role.

Key findings
The most important finding from this review is that 'at-home good parenting' has a significant positive effect on children's achievement, even after all other factors affecting attainment have been taken into account. Good parenting in the home includes the provision of a secure and stable environment, intellectual stimulation, parent-child discussion, constructive social and educational values and high aspirations relating to personal fulfilment and good citizenship. Other factors, such as contact with the school, do not have as much impact. Differences between parents are associated with parental perceptions of their role, and their levels of confidence in fulfilling it; also some parents are put off by feeling put down by schools and teachers.

Research provides a clear model of how parental involvement works. In essence, good parenting means shaping the child's self-concept as a learner and through setting high aspirations.

Research on interventions - from parent training programmes to a range of community education and family programmes - is evaluated. The point is made that though the research base is weak and it is difficult to describe the scale of the impact on pupils' achievement, that is not to say that the activity does not work. The review concludes that current interventions have yet to deliver convincingly the achievement bonus that might be expected. It suggests carefully researched, multi-dimensional approaches of parental involvement that lead to benefits in pupil achievement.

Link:

• To read the research brief or the full report, visit www.dfes.gov.uk/research