A Transactional Model of Parental Involvement and Children's Achievement from Early Childhood through Adolescence

SYNOPSIS Objective. In a longitudinal study, researchers examined the transactional relations between two types of parental home involvement, academic instruction and academic socialization, and children's reading achievement from early childhood through adolescence. Academic instruction involves one-on-one interactions between parent and child that target the development of specific academic skills, and academic socialization involves parents' promotion of academic values, beliefs, and expectations. Design. The sample was based on an ongoing long-term longitudinal study, and included 122 children (approximately equal in gender) and their families. This study included data collected from ages 3 to 17 years, employing a variety of direct and indirect assessments Results. Findings showed that the two types of parental home involvement are distinct, related, and highly stable from early childhood through adolescence, and both types of parental home involvement show transactional relations with children's reading achievement over time. Conclusion. This study contributes to the literature by elucidating the stability of parental academic instruction and socialization, as well as their transactional relations with children's achievement within a single integrated model from early childhood through adolescence.