1. Introduction

Scientists were interested for a long time in the topic of parental involvement and the academic performance of their children, with most past and recent research showing that there is in fact an immense association between the two. In previous studies, researchers have mainly defined parental involvement in terms of both school-based and home-based, in which they examined the link between the context and the academic performance or motivation of the students. It was found that there are many positive correlations between parental family involvement and school involvement with the two variables mentioned above [1-4]. However, the extent of parental involvement was not specified by many previous studies, which has led this paper to conduct comprehensive research targeting the extent of parental involvement. The paper categorizes parental involvement into high and low parental involvement in order to explore the relationship between these types of parental involvement academic behaviors of students, specifically in terms of academic performance and motivation. This review will focus on analyzing the relations between levels of parental involvement and students’ academic motivation and performance in home and academic based settings. The objective of this research is to discover interactions in parental engagement and student success, which can lead to improved educational outcomes. The results of this study can be used to encourage parents with active engagement with their children in the home and in academic settings and identify ways for educators and schools to support underperforming students through strategies of parental involvement.

2. Academic motivation

In this review high level of parental involvement is described as the positive engagement by parents in the students' lives in both the school and home environments. Active participation of the parent in school-based settings can include a establishing a good relationship with the student’s teacher [5] as well as volunteering and engaging in various school events regularly. Active participation of the parent in the home-based setting can include regularly communicating with the student about their day at school, supervising the student’s homework, as well as setting certain expectations for the students. Low parental involvement in this review is defined as low parental involvement as the lack of parental engagement within the student’s lives in the home and school settings. Examples include limited engagement in school events, lack of communication with the school, as well as the lack of homework supervision.

2.1. High involvement

A substantial amount of research has demonstrated that high parental involvement are positively associated with academic motivation. For example, one particular research study explored the connection between parental involvement, specifically activities undertaken by the parental community at home or school, and positive parental attitudes regarding the education of the children and measured the extent to which it had affected motivation of the students to learn [6]. This research was conducted through a questionnaire survey of a randomly sampled population of 136 students in the fourth grade of elementary school, that parents who demonstrated higher levels of involvement had increased the student’s academic motivation.

Another study which measured the relationship between intrinsic motivation, that is, choosing to engage in behaviors related to reading, writing, and mathematics since the individual perceives these behaviors significant, and parental involvement, communication, volunteering, and attending school sessions and events, was conducted on 3rd and 4th graders in an elementary school in FăJăraú [5], and this paper also revealed an intense positive correlation between high parental involvement and academic motivation.

Moreover, another study found that parental practices at home, parent-child relationships, the expectations of parents regarding their children’s academic performance, and values parents communicate toward the child is associated with the motivation for learning for the students in the household [7]. The study used the FMC-Q, which contained 28 elements, to assess the extent that the motivation of students to learn was affected by parental practices, and found that higher involvement of parents in terms of parental practices specifically increased their children’s interest in studying new subjects and reading.

Another study also demonstrated this positive association. The study inquired into the property of parent-oriented motives in school as well as how it effects student’s academic engagement. Parent-orientated motivation in the study measured the extent to which students were motivated to learn because of their parents, question such as “I try to do well because I want my parent’s approval” were asked [8]. Using questionnaires answered by seventh and eighth graders attending schools in both the US and China, the study found that parent-orientated motivation, which underlies a high level of academic involvement, predicted the student’s academic engagement and resulted in an increase in self-regulated learning by the student.

Additionally, one study examined how family involvement, school involvement and academic socialization, which measured the extent in which parents communicated with their child about school academic goals and values, of the parents effected their child’s behavioral and emotional motivation towards learning [2]. Using samples of students in the 10th and 11th grade, the study observed that family involvement was mainly positively associated with behavioral engagement, school involvement was mainly positively associated with emotional engagement, whereas academic socialization was positively associated with both. This indicates that higher levels of parental involvement would result in higher academic motivation for students.

Lastly, a study also examined this relationship through aspects of family involvement, school involvement, and academic socialization using samples of junior school students in China. The results concluded that family involvement and academic socialization were positively related to school behavior such as school attendance and trouble avoidance, reflecting a heightened motivation for learning amongst the students. Suggesting that high parental involvement, specifically, home based involvement is positively correlated to higher motivation for learning for the students [9].

2.2. Low involvement

Research has shown that significant correlation between low parental involvement and low academic motivation. For example, one study who focused on undergrad students in the United States used a self-report scale to measure the influence of parental involvement, which the study defined generally as how parents communicate with their child about their lives, emphasizing a home-based setting involvement and the academic motivation scale to measure the difference in motivation of students with high and low parental involvements [10]. The study concluded that students with lower parental support scored significantly lower than students with high parental support on both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, showing that lower parental support is positively correlated with lower academic motivation. Additionally, a study which analyzed parents in Nigeria used a survey method to measure parents’ level of involvement [11]. Using standards such as communication with child’s school, assistance with child’s homework as well as involvement among school activities, the researchers measured its differing effects on children. Parental involvement was identified as having a positive relationship with student’s attitudes about learning academic motivation and self-esteem, highlighting that the increase of parental involvement increases students’ academic motivation and likewise the decreasing of parental involvement decreases students’ academic motivation.

3. Academic achievement

3.1. High involvement

Majority of the reviewed studies revealed that there is a positive association between high parental involvement and academic achievement. A Study that have highlighted the connection between parental involvement and academic achievement have examined the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement primarily in terms of the extent to which parents communicated with the children about school. Using a 10-item self-reported scale to ask their children about their teachers or schoolwork, the analysis showed that parental involvement was related positively to the academic achievement of adolescent, where a higher level of involvement resulted in an increase of academic achievement for students in Chinese, mathematics and English.

Another study measured the relationship between parental involvement, which included checking their children's programming, discussing topics related to the classroom, curriculum, and friends with their children at home, or attending out-of-school educational activities, and academic performance, and through using a forty-two-item scale, it was concluded that higher parental involvement is directly correlated with higher marks for literature and mathematics, indicating that a significant positive correlation exists between parental involvement and academic performance [12].

Moreover, a paper explored the relationship between the academic performance among 10th and 11th grade students and parental involvement, such as home-based and academic socialization, measuring the level of communication between parents and child about academic goals and values as well as the support children receive at home [2]. Using the average grade point (GPA) average from school report cards, the study found that both family involvement and academic socialization were positively associated with academic achievement, demonstrating that high parental involvement is positively correlated with the increase of GPA of students. In addition, a study measuring the six main types of parental involvement framework proposed by Epstein found a similar positive correlation between parental involvement and student academic achievement (as measured by percentage of test scores), whereby students with high levels of parental involvement in academic activities had high academic achievement [13]. Lastly, another study examined this relationship by measuring how perceived parental homework involvement, the extent to which students believed their parents helped them with their homework was related to the students’ academic achievement [14]. Using samples of Spanish students aged 10-16 years old the study concluded that the perceived parental involvement in homework was significantly and directly related to students’ academic achievement, where higher parental involvement leads to higher academic achievement.

3.2. Low involvement

Although not many sources which targeted specifically on low parental involvement were identified, the limited number of sources are able to show a positive correlation between low levels parental involvement and low academic achievement. For instance, a study which examined the relationship between parental involvement, measured by Epstein’s framework of six major types of parental involvement, and student’s academic achievement, measured by percentages scored on exams found that students whose parents were least involved in academic activities of their children had lesser levels of academic achievement compared to those students who had parents that were more involved in their academic activities [13]. Moreover, another study which examined this topic used a qualitative approach of interviews and observations to analyze the link between parental involvement, which includes behaviors such as engaging in parent teacher conferences, communicating with teachers on a regularly basis and helping with the student’s homework, and it’s relationship with academic achievement [15]. The study found a positive correlation between the two, highlighting that the absence of parental involvement is correlated with lower academic achievement. In addition to this, another study which focused on parents in Nigeria used the survey method to collect data on parental involvement behaviors such as homework supervision, communication and school event involvement and it’s effect on students [11]. The study concluded that there is a positive association between involvement and academic achievement implying that lower involvement is leads to lower academic achievement.

4. Discussion

4.1. Relationship between academic motivation and achievement

Although in majority of the studies this paper analyzed, academic motivation and academic achievement were explicitly defined and analyzed separately however, a correlation between the two has also been identified, that there is a casual relationship between the two seemingly distinct variables [15]. The study found that academic motivation and academic achievement are closely tied in the way in which academic motivation has a directly effect on academic achievement. Using samples of Spanish students aged 10-16 years old, the study measured perceptions of parental involvement in homework and students' homework behaviors. Results found that perceptions of parental involvement in homework (including controlling and supportive behaviors) were significantly and positively correlated with students’ homework behaviors, such as completing homework on time and doing more homework in general, reflecting positive academic motivation among the students. Through the homework behaviors, the study was then able to further determine the number of homework completed was positively correlated with the academic performance of the students, indicating another positive correlation between the number of homework or motivation, and their academic performance, which effectively demonstrates how high academic motivation is a direct cause of high academic achievement, linking the two variables reviewed in the study.

4.2. Recommendations on increasing parental involvement

Results of this study has shown that parental involvement has a significant and positive relationship with both students’ academic motivation and achievement, therefore, to increase a student’s academic motivation and achievement an increase in parental involvement is necessary. Below, four basic ways to increase parental involvement are listed.

4.2.1. Establish clear communication

Communication is a very important part of parental involvement, with some studies stressing the positive correlation between communication and child’s academic achievement and motivation [5, 12]. Some ways parents can begin to establish a clearer communication with teachers is by asking how teachers prefer to communicate, whether through emails, phone calls, or messaging apps as well as regularly attending parent teacher conferences to communicate with teachers about how their child is doing. Some ways parents can establish a clearer communication with their child is by asking their child about how their school day went, or what they learned in their classes.

4.2.2. Foster a positive learning environment

To foster a positive learning environment at home parents should frequently ask their child about their school day, teachers, and learnings [16]. To foster a positive learning environment at home parents should frequently ask their child about their school day, teachers, and learnings. In addition, parents should also emphasize the importance of learning and set academic goals for their child. Some studies also found a positive correlation between academic socialization, which includes setting academic goals and communication about the importance of learning, and academic motivation and achievement [2, 9].

4.2.3. Participate in school events

Participating in school events is another way parents can become more involved in their child’s lives to increase their child’s academic motivation and achievement. Studies found that an increase in participation in school events boosted students’ academic motivation and achievement [5, 6]. Therefore, parents should focus on attending school-wide events such as parent-teacher conferences, back-to-school nights, and others to connect better with their child's education

4.2.4. Engage in homework and learning activities

Lastly, parental engagement in homework and learning activities can also increase a student’s academic motivation and achievement. Studies show that supervising student’s homework or engaging in students learning can positively impact the student academically [5, 11, 13, 14]. Some ways parents can increase involvement in this area could be to be more involved in students’ collaborative homework assignments or interactive projects that require parental participation as well as active supervision of student’s homework.

5. Conclusion

This review analyzed the relationship between levels of parental involvement and students’ academic motivation and achievement, including the relationship between the two and recommendations on how to increase involvement proposed from the results of the study. This review found a positive correlation between parental involvement and students’ academic motivation and performance. It was found that changes in the level of parental involvement positively affected students' learning motivation. Higher levels of parental involvement corresponded to higher levels of student motivation, and conversely. Similarly, there is a positive correlation between the level of parental involvement and students' academic outcomes, as evidenced by the fact that a higher level of parental involvement corresponds to a higher level of students' academic outcomes, and conversely. This study included students and families from a diverse age range, location, gender and ethnicity.

Some limitations that apply to this review are that the demographics of the participants such as age, gender, race and ethnicity were not analyzed, causing the review to be limited in its generalizability. Additionally, this review does not specify types of parental involvement or academic motivation which can cause there to be a lack in specificity. In order to improve upon these limitations a more thorough investigation should be conducted which includes an analysis about the differences between the results of studies with participants of different demographics as well as an investigation on types of parental involvement and academic motivation.