Abstract:

Parental involvement in school is a construct that encompasses different behaviours and attitudes, having a multidimensional nature, involving all parenting practices developed by the family, from learning good study habits and communication with the school, to initiatives aimed at School success of the child. Its multidimensional character justifies the in-depth study of the predictors of parental involvement in school, as well as the study of its implications. How the family relates to teachers and the school in general is influenced by multiple factors, including socio-cultural, economic, ethnic, family structures, parental age, gender and education, as well as student performance. Thus, the present study aims to characterize parental involvement, also analysing the relationship between established parental involvement and its sociodemographic characteristics. In this study 1300 students from the 3rd year of the primary school participated. The data was collected through a sociodemographic questionnaire built within the scope of a larger research and the Parental Engagement Questionnaire (PEQ). PEQ is a self-report questionnaire that assesses parental engagement in the school context through four factors: parental engagement in school and volunteer activities, family engagement in home-based learning activities, school-family communication, and parental engagement in school activities, such as participation in parent-teacher meetings. The results seem to show that the participating students perceive their parental school engagement in the school context as relevant and high. The results also show the influence of the various forms of parental engagement, since parents who present higher values in one of the parental engagement subscales tend to present the same results in the others as well. There was also found an influence of sociodemographic variables in parental school engagement perceived by students. With these results it will be possible to reflect on the trends, challenges and implications of this concept, presenting the implications for practice and for research.

Keywords:

School parental engagement, Primary school, Education, School success.