Exploring Home-School Partnership and Chinese Parental Satisfaction of Preschool Services: The Moderating Effect of Childrearing Beliefs

This study investigated the association between parents’ perceptions of home-school partnership and parental satisfaction with preschool services using data collected from 532 preschoolers’ parents in Guangdong Province, China. We explored the moderating role of parents’ childrearing beliefs as an important factor exerting influence on parental satisfaction with preschools. The hierarchical linear regression results revealed that home-school partnership positively predicted parental satisfaction with preschool services in four subscales: Views about administration, Quality of learning environments, Teacher qualifications, and Child-appropriate learning. In particular, parents’ progressive childrearing beliefs exerted a positive moderating role on the relationship between high-level home-school partnership and parental satisfaction with administration and environment quality of preschools. Moreover, childrearing beliefs also exerted a positive moderating role on the relationship between low-level home-school partnership and parental satisfaction; parents with authoritarian childrearing beliefs tended to be more satisfied with preschool teacher qualifications. Findings are discussed in light of previous literature and the Chinese sociocultural context, followed by recommendations for improving preschool services.