Predicting Parental Home and School Involvement in High School African American Adolescents

Predictors of parental home and school involvement for high school adolescents were examined within two groups of urban African American parents from various socioeconomic levels. Home involvement was defined as parent-adolescent communication about school and learning, while school involvement was defined in terms of parent attendance and participation in school events. Parental demographic variables, educational aspirations for their adolescents, and perceptions of teacher support were examined to determine how they predicted home and school involvement. In the first group, comprised of generally lower socioeconomic parents, educational aspirations predicted home involvement while educational aspirations, parent education, and perceived teacher support predicted school involvement. For the second group, composed of generally higher socioeconomic parents, educational aspirations and perceived teacher support predicted home involvement. Surprisingly, none of the context variables significantly predicted school involvement in African American parents from higher socioeconomic levels. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.