Parental Assets, Expectations, and Involvement

Min Zhan, of the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign examined the relationships between parental assets with their expectations and involvement of children's education, and children's educational performance measured two years later.

According to the author, "through the analysis of the mother-child data set of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), results indicate that after controlling for family income and other parent characteristics, parental assets were positively related to children's math and reading scores. Parental assets were also positively associated with their expectations and involvement of school activities. Furthermore, parent expectations partially mediated the relationship between assets and children's educational performance."

These findings imply that in order to improve children's education, how to enhance parental assets warrants further consideration in crafting public policy.

Zhan, M. (2006, August). "Assets, parental expectations and involvement, and children's educational performance." Children & Youth Services Review; 28 (8), 961-97.

Contributed by Michael Kalinowski

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