Page 25 - The Inquiry into the Development and Implementation of a Multimedia Resource to Help Improve Parental Involvement in Their Child’s Reading Literacy During the Primary School Years.

McNeal (1999) also inferred that parental involvement in their child’s education can

enhance student academic outcomes through three mechanisms:
1. The first mechanism, socialising, refers to how a parent can enhance their

child’s learning at home by monitoring and assisting with their homework,
such as reading aloud with them on a nightly basis.

2. The second mechanism suggests creating social control through school-

based involvement such as developing a relationship with the child’s
teachers and other parents, opening up the lines of communication so that

they are more aware of and involved in the day-to-day schooling.
3. The third mechanism is being more open to communicating with the school,

for instance being aware that a speaker is attending the school to give a talk

to parents on a particular topic.

McNeal’s two mechanisms, socialisation and social control, affect the attitude,
motivation and behaviour of the pupil, while communication with the school has a

direct effect on both cognitive and behavioural student outcomes (McNeal 1999).

2.4.1 Factors Affecting Parental Involvement in School

While there are many benefits to parental involvement in a child’s educational

development, it does not always result in a positive outcome. This can be due to a
number of complex and diverse influences that vary from family factors such as

class, ethnicity and gender to parent-teacher factors such as differing goals and
agendas. Hornby and Lafaele (2011) delineates four major types of barriers

including individual, parent and family factors, child factors, parent–teacher factors
and societal factors. Under each primary factor, the model identifies several subset

factors that hinder collaboration between school and parent (Figure 2.2). Other

obstacles parents encounter when attempting to become more involved include, work
commitments during important events that require the parent to be physically present

in the school (Olmstead, 2013), a busy home life with parents being too tired to help
their child with homework (Catsambis 2001; Green et al. 2007).

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