Family Structure and School-Based Parental Involvement: A Family Resource Perspective

Little research has systematically studied the influence of family structure on school-based parental involvement. Using data from parents of children enrolled in grades 1–12 in the United States and interviewed in the 2007 National Household Education Study, we (a) delimited 10 family structure types, (b) estimated the differential levels of parental involvement across these family structures, and (c) statistically adjusted these levels for differences in family resources. We found that biological married parents had the highest levels of variety and frequency of involvement in school-based activities. While the extent of these differences were significantly reduced after accounting for family resources, residual differences remained between biological married parents and all other family structure types across at least one of the parental involvement measures, except for biological cohabiting parents. Analyses found that differences in social and cultural capital best accounted for the heightened levels of involvement among biological married parents.